Businesses are bringing AI into the workplace to increase productivity, but managers are also taking on new responsibilities: reviewing AI-assisted work, updating performance criteria and overseeing a growing mix of tools.
A Nielsen survey of 1,700 directors and senior managers across seven countries, commissioned by Monday.com, found that more than half now find it harder to assess employees' work. Nearly half said they spend more time reviewing and guiding their teams' output than before. The challenge is that polished work may combine employees' contributions with AI-generated material.
Despite the added oversight, 94% of surveyed managers said they were excited about using AI to improve work. At the same time, 78% said they had changed how they evaluate employees, placing more emphasis on skills such as writing effective prompts, choosing tasks for AI and testing new workflows.
More tools, more oversight
AI is also changing how performance decisions are made. Some 46% of managers said they use AI to inform decisions, while 39% use it to draft performance reviews. Studies from the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research and the journal PNAS Nexus have raised questions about how AI models may reproduce biases in evaluations, underscoring the importance of clear standards and human review.
Beyond assessing work, managers are deciding which tasks to delegate to AI agents, checking their output and stepping in when needed. The survey found that 58% expect to oversee more AI agents than human employees within a year. Meanwhile, 57% said their organizations now use more tools, and only 29% described their AI infrastructure as fully optimized and centralized.
The findings point to a gap between the pace of AI adoption and the processes companies use to manage it. As organizations refine their tools, responsibilities and review standards, effective governance may become an essential part of turning AI's productivity promise into lasting workplace value.
