What changed
A METR survey of 349 technical workers found a median self-reported 1.4-to-2-times increase in value created and a three-times increase in speed from AI tools. METR explicitly cautioned that counterfactual productivity surveys have overstated benefits relative to measured outcomes.
Why it matters
The gap between perceived speed and actual business value is becoming a central measurement problem for enterprise AI.
What to do
Track value, elapsed time and output quality separately, and pair surveys with workflow telemetry, blind review or controlled comparisons.
Caveat
The sample was small and non-representative, outcomes were self-reported and METR's earlier work found people can substantially misestimate AI's effect.