GenAI and the compression of time

With the introduction of GenAI into the workforce, more people are able to do more with less. While many people expect this to give the average person more free time, the immediate impact is counterintuitive: our perceived time available actually decreases. We become busier.

To understand this, we only need to look at what the internet did to productivity and spare time. Instead of booking tickets via a travel agent—who would call the airlines, negotiate prices with hotels, and prepare an itinerary—we use mobile phones to carry out all these tasks ourselves: we are doing the work for the companies we pay.

The less time needed to complete individual tasks, the higher the demand on our ability to complete them ourselves, and the less time we perceive we have.

What this means for creators and connectors is that the more time you can save your users, the more willing they will be to spend money on what you offer.

It also decreases attention spans and patience with interfaces: it has to work from the second the user connects. Latency has to be minimal. Any time-based friction becomes harder to negotiate away with features or pricing.