A new Adobe study printed on January 27, 2026, lays out in uncomfortable element the dimensions of the productiveness downside going through advertising groups throughout the US. Surveying 1,106 full-time workers with a 95% confidence stage and a ±3% margin of error, the analysis paints an image of execs caught between rising output expectations and workflows that constantly fail them – a dynamic the advertising business has watched worsen with every passing 12 months.

The headline determine is stark. In accordance with the Adobe research, 84% of entrepreneurs admit to working previous their scheduled shifts, and 78% estimate they achieve this practically 5 instances a month. That interprets, by Adobe’s personal calculations, to roughly 55 further days of labor per 12 months for the typical marketer. Tech employees lead even that alarming determine, placing in a mean of 72 further days yearly.

However the quantity of time beyond regulation alone doesn’t seize the complete image. What makes these numbers notably important is the place the time goes. In accordance with the research, full-time US workers estimate they waste roughly 91 enterprise days – or greater than 18 weeks – yearly on low-impact duties akin to administrative work, knowledge entry, assembly scheduling, and inner reporting. For advertising particularly, that determine lands at 91 days per 12 months, sitting between healthcare employees at 101 days and know-how employees at 85. On-site employees, the research notes, spend 16% extra time every year on these duties than their distant counterparts, and are 53% extra prone to cite coworker interruptions as their largest barrier to productive work.

The discovering connects on to Adobe’s broader analysis trajectory on advertising workloads. A May 2025 Adobe study found that marketers using AI save an average of 114 minutes weekly on content creation, translating to $3,520 per worker yearly – suggesting the hole between present practices and automatic ones carries actual financial weight.

The place productiveness breaks down

The research identifies a particular set of obstacles that erode focus. In accordance with Adobe, the primary driver of misplaced productiveness throughout all surveyed workers is coworker interruptions or distractions, cited by 43% of respondents. For entrepreneurs particularly, the image shifts barely: unclear priorities high the record at 39%, adopted by coworker interruptions at 37%, and context switching between too many duties or initiatives at 36%.

The variance by business issues right here. Finance employees cite coworker interruptions as their major barrier at 48%, matching healthcare employees precisely. Retail workers are much more affected, with 51% pointing to the identical situation. Know-how employees, in the meantime, are probably to flag poorly spaced conferences (35%) as their core downside. Entrepreneurs are the one sector surveyed the place unclear priorities – a structural, organizational failing somewhat than an environmental one – sit on the high of the record. This element deserves consideration: the problem for advertising groups is much less about bodily atmosphere and extra about how work is deliberate and prioritized earlier than it reaches the person.

That planning hole carries penalties that reach past productiveness metrics. In accordance with Adobe’s analysis, challenge administration points have precipitated office stress for greater than half (56%) of entrepreneurs. Much more placing: practically one in three entrepreneurs surveyed – 32% – has left a job particularly due to poor work administration. Girls are 50% extra doubtless than males to have completed so, in keeping with the research. These should not summary dissatisfactions. They translate instantly into expertise retention failures and recruitment prices that organizations usually don’t instantly attribute to workflow dysfunction.

The staffing implications match a sample PPC Land has tracked across the industry’s adoption of AI, the place organizations going through stress to scale output have begun creating devoted automation roles somewhat than merely asking present groups to soak up extra.

The automation hole

The information on automation reveals a particular and measurable shortfall. In accordance with Adobe’s January 2026 research, entrepreneurs at present automate solely 18% of their day by day duties. However when requested how a lot of their work might theoretically be automated, they estimate one other 29% – practically a 3rd of their whole workload – is appropriate for automation however stays manually dealt with. This creates what Adobe frames as a major alternative: practically half of all advertising duties might probably be automated, but lower than a fifth at present are.

Advertising tops the business rankings for AI adoption among the many sectors surveyed, with 18% of duties automated. Know-how follows at 16%, and finance at 13%. Nonetheless, the hole between present automation (18%) and perceived potential (47%, combining present plus further 29%) is substantial. Amongst employees already utilizing AI in work administration, practically three in 4 – 73% – report greater productiveness in contrast with the earlier 12 months. One in six workers who don’t use any work administration merchandise report a drop in productiveness over the identical interval.

These numbers land towards a backdrop the place Adobe expanded GenStudio in October 2025 with custom AI models and integrations across Amazon Ads, Google Marketing Platform, LinkedIn, and TikTok – a platform positioned particularly to handle the content material creation bottleneck the brand new research paperwork. The earlier Adobe launch of AI agents for enterprise customer experience automation in September 2025 mirrored the identical underlying evaluation: that fragmented instruments and handbook handoffs are the first structural drag on advertising staff efficiency.

The unified workflow case

The research makes a direct quantitative case for unified workflow methods. In accordance with Adobe’s analysis, workers estimate a extra built-in work system might save them a mean of 38 further days per 12 months – a determine the analysis staff derived from self-reported estimates of time at present misplaced to fragmented processes. Practically three in 4 entrepreneurs agree a unified workflow system would enhance their work-life steadiness. Amongst know-how employees, that determine rises to 83%; amongst hospitality employees, it falls to 71%.

The potential for stress discount is equally substantial. In accordance with respondents, streamlining workflows might lower total work stress by practically 50%. Amongst entrepreneurs particularly, 54% say a unified workflow system would cut back their stress – the best determine throughout any sector within the research. Finance employees observe at 53%, healthcare at 49%, and hospitality at 45%.

Ache factors with present work administration instruments reveal what workers discover most poor. Poor integration with different instruments tops the record at 33%. Complicated or advanced workflows observe at 28%, inadequate coaching at 24%, and lack of AI or automation capabilities at 21%. Issue monitoring challenge progress and a non-user-friendly interface every register at 21% and 20% respectively. The absence of a single, unified platform throughout groups is cited by 19%, whereas restricted reporting or analytics options register at 18%.

What workers need from a piece administration resolution breaks down clearly. Elevated total effectivity is the highest precedence at 49%. Vital time financial savings observe at 44%. Decreased work-related stress or burnout is cited by 30%, activity automation capabilities by 27%, improved challenge visibility and monitoring by 24%, and improved collaboration by 22%. Larger deal with high-value, strategic work issues to 21%, and enhanced decision-making via higher knowledge to 18%.

The business and seniority dimensions

The research doesn’t deal with the workforce as a monolith. Vital variation exists by job stage. In accordance with Adobe, senior leaders are 22% extra doubtless than entry-level workers to face coworker interruptions. Entry-level workers, in the meantime, are 50% extra prone to report inefficient workflows as their major problem – a discovering that implies organizations are systematically failing newer workers with processes that demand extra handbook effort than skilled employees encounter.

The stress dimension varies by sector in ways in which replicate the completely different rhythms of every business. Finance workers are the probably to expertise work management-related stress, at 61%. Healthcare employees are the least, at 40% – although healthcare loses probably the most time of any sector to low-impact duties, at 101 days per 12 months. The disconnect between time misplaced and stress reported means that stress is formed not simply by quantity of labor however by the character of the organizational pressures surrounding it.

On-site employees occupy a very pressured place. Past spending 16% extra time on low-impact duties than distant employees, they’re 82% extra prone to battle with collaboration – a counterintuitive discovering on condition that bodily co-location is usually assumed to simplify working collectively. The friction, Adobe’s knowledge implies, comes not from geography however from the absence of coherent methods for managing work no matter the place it takes place.

PPC Land has covered how marketers are already under structural content pressure, with executives from firms together with Jacquard and Funnel figuring out content material creation – not knowledge – as the first operational bottleneck coming into 2026. The Adobe research’s findings on time misplaced to administrative work add a second layer: even earlier than content material creation begins, advertising groups are dropping practically 1 / 4 of every working 12 months to duties that exist beneath the strategic waterline.

Analysis methodology and scope

Adobe performed the survey via the Adobe for Enterprise staff, gathering responses from 1,106 full-time workers throughout the US. The research supplies a 95% confidence stage with a ±3% margin of error. The analysis covers a number of sectors together with advertising, know-how, finance, healthcare, schooling, hospitality, and retail. As Adobe notes in its methodology assertion, outcomes could replicate private perceptions and experiences that might differ from precise habits – a regular caveat for self-reported analysis, however one value conserving in thoughts when decoding the productiveness day estimates particularly.

The research was printed on January 27, 2026, as a part of Adobe’s broader analysis into office productiveness, and the PR abstract was distributed to media on February 19, 2026. Adobe’s separate October 2025 consumer research confirmed that content material calls for on advertising groups are concurrently intensifying from the surface – customers anticipate twice-weekly model touchpoints throughout most channels, with social and SMS pushing towards thrice weekly. The interior productiveness knowledge and the exterior content material demand knowledge collectively describe a scissors dynamic: workloads increasing whereas the organizational infrastructure to help them lags.

Adobe’s 2026 creative trends forecast, launched in late 2025, famous that almost two-thirds of entrepreneurs consider content material demand will develop by no less than 5 instances between now and 2026. That projection makes the productiveness findings from the January 2026 research significantly extra pointed: if 18% automation is producing 91 days of wasted time now, the identical structural gaps at 5 instances the content material quantity would symbolize an organizational disaster with out parallel in fashionable advertising operations.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: Adobe for Enterprise, surveying 1,106 full-time US workers throughout advertising, know-how, finance, healthcare, schooling, hospitality, and retail sectors. The findings are instantly related to advertising professionals, HR leaders, and enterprise know-how patrons.

What: A proprietary productiveness research revealing that 84% of entrepreneurs work previous scheduled hours, workers lose the equal of 91 enterprise days per 12 months to low-impact duties, 32% of entrepreneurs have left jobs due to poor work administration, and solely 18% of duties are at present automated regardless of workers believing 47% may very well be. The analysis additionally finds {that a} unified workflow system might save a mean of 38 days per 12 months and cut back work stress by practically 50%, in keeping with respondents.

When: The research was printed on January 27, 2026, and coated in media distribution on February 19, 2026. The analysis displays situations as of late 2025 and early 2026.

The place: The survey covers full-time workers in the US throughout a number of industries and work settings, together with on-site and distant employees. The findings apply to enterprise organizations utilizing fragmented work administration instruments throughout bodily and distributed staff environments.

Why: Adobe positioned the analysis as proof for the operational case behind unified work administration platforms, notably as content material calls for on advertising groups are projected to develop fivefold by 2026. The productiveness hole between present automation charges and perceived automation potential – 18% precise versus 47% potential – represents the core argument: that the instruments exist to shut the hole, however adoption has not but matched organizational want.


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