{"slug": "generative-ai-reduces-working-hours-for-government-staff-survey-finds", "title": "Generative AI reduces working hours for government staff, survey finds", "summary": "Japan's Digital Agency reported that government ministry and agency employees cut working hours by an average of 110 minutes per week using the Gennai generative AI platform, according to an online survey of 6,439 valid respondents conducted in August and September. More than 50% of respondents said they reduced working hours by at least one hour per week, with 35.1% cutting one to three hours, 10.9% three to five hours, 5.2% five to 10 hours and 3.2% 10 hours or more, while 34.6% said their hours stayed largely the same. Gennai, developed and operated by the Digital Agency, is available to about 180,000 government employees and now includes an AI agent function that can autonomously perform two or more tasks simultaneously.", "body_md": "Employees at government ministries and agencies have been able to reduce their working hours by 110 minutes per week, on average, through the use of the Gennai generative artificial intelligence platform, a Digital Agency survey showed Friday.\n\nThe online survey was conducted among workers at the ministries and agencies in August and September, collecting valid responses from 6,439 people.\n\nOver 50% of the respondents said they were able to reduce working hours by at least one hour per week.\n\nSpecifically, 35.1% said they cut working hours by one to three hours, 10.9% three to five hours, 5.2% five to 10 hours and 3.2% 10 hours or more. Meanwhile, 34.6% said their working hours remained largely the same.\n\nAsked about the effects from the use of the AI platform, many said they were able to “quickly create a rough draft,” “find necessary information from vast volumes of documents” or “catch up with technical knowledge faster.”\n\nThe survey showed that 10.4% use the AI platform almost every day, 11% three or four times a week and 26.4% once or twice a week. A total of 31.2% said they rarely use or have never used it.\n\nGennai, developed and operated by the Digital Agency, is available to about 180,000 government employees and now features an AI agent function capable of autonomously performing two or more tasks simultaneously.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-reduces-working-hours-for-government-staff-survey-finds", "canonical_source": "https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/10/30/japan/society/bureaucrats-working-hours-ai/", "published_at": "2026-10-30 03:54:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-30 04:17:04.379994+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-agents", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Digital Agency", "Gennai", "Japan"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-reduces-working-hours-for-government-staff-survey-finds", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-reduces-working-hours-for-government-staff-survey-finds.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-reduces-working-hours-for-government-staff-survey-finds.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/generative-ai-reduces-working-hours-for-government-staff-survey-finds.jsonld"}}