Google study says scientists save nearly seven hours a week with AI
Google's own study shows AI is now embedded in daily research work, but verification backlogs are growing.
Original event 2026-09-27
A new Google study reports that scientists using AI save nearly seven hours per week, with the freed time mostly reinvested into more research.
The study by Mihai Codreanu and colleagues draws on three data sources: a sample of 15 million Gemini interactions, an inventory of over 2,600 discipline-specific AI models, and a survey of more than 600 scientists. Nearly half of surveyed scientists report using some form of AI every day.
The study also flags a structural shift: as analysis and writing get faster, bottlenecks move downstream — scientists report a growing backlog of untested hypotheses and rising demand for output verification. Note this is Google's own research, with usage proxied through Gemini and the time savings self-reported by scientists.