These costs could be ignored, or even accepted, if there was a clear idea of how precisely AI would streamline and improve the workplace—or offer any tangible public benefit significant enough to make these underlying trade-offs acceptable. But the answers to these questions remain extremely tenuous. According to a February 2026 paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, 80 percent of companies that have begun actively using AI have reported no impact on company productivity. A separate, widely cited 2025 MIT study revealed that 95 percent of corporate AI pilot programs received zero return.
The AI Industry Is Discovering That the Public Hates It | The New Republic
I’m not sure the calculations are the same for nonprofits because they have never been fully staffed. How to get the benefits while mitigating the costs is still a very big question.