Why Perk Targets US$1.7tn Shadow Work with New AI

Businesses are facing a substantial drain on productivity due to non-core tasks that fall outside of employees’ main responsibilities.

Research from Perk has defined this as ‘shadow work’ and suggests it is costing businesses US$1.7tn globally each year.

The study, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Perk, surveyed over 700 decision-makers in finance, operations, HR and IT alongside more than 8,000 employees across the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

The companies represented varied in size from small businesses with over 50 employees to large enterprises with more than 5,000 staff members.

The UK’s shadow work problem

The data indicates that employees in the UK are losing approximately nine hours per week to these non-essential tasks.

The research also highlights a loss of 12 minutes of focus each time an employee attempts to return to their primary duties after being distracted by shadow work.

According to the research, the impact on UK teams is substantial.

Key findings for the UK include:

• 76% of employees engage in shadow work during their working hours
• 50% of UK-based staff identify it as the leading cause of burnout
• 59% report that the volume of shadow work is increasing year-on-year
• 52% state that shadow work lowers their job satisfaction
• 75% would be open to using AI-enabled tools to reduce these tasks

Automation and AI as a solution

The findings from Perk’s research suggest a strong employee appetite for intelligent tools to minimise shadow work and business leaders appear to be in agreement.

The study found that around 71% of UK decision-makers surveyed are planning to reinvest the time saved through automation into areas of growth and innovation.

“More than a decade ago, we started by removing the friction from travelling for work,” explains Avi Meir, Perk CEO and Co-Founder.

“Over time, we realised those small, frustrating tasks people do outside of their core job weren’t just hiding in travel; they were everywhere. To truly solve the problem, we first had to grasp its scale, and the numbers from the research surprised even me.”

Avi questions the sustainability of this lost productivity, asking: “How can a 1,000-person company afford to lose around 7,000 hours to shadow work every week? Perk gives companies the fuel they need to make work simpler and give people their time back.”

Integrating travel and spend management

To address these challenges, Perk has launched a new platform that integrates travel and spend management through an AI-native experience.

Perk aims to address the hidden administrative tasks that reduce efficiency, such as booking business trips, filing expenses, coding invoices and chasing approvals.

The platform’s AI-native module is designed to automate many of the tasks that can slow down operations.

With the introduction of Perk Pay, companies can use physical cards to simplify employee spending while maintaining corporate control over transactions.

This system centralises the oversight of company expenditure, which could reduce the risk of fraud and automates the expense reconciliation process.

Perk’s platform now automates 67% of the most common non-core tasks, including booking work-related travel, filing expenses, managing invoices and organising team events.

It offers a single global platform, allowing companies to set spending and travel rules once to be applied universally.

To support its next phase of growth, Perk is establishing dual headquarters in London and Boston.

This move follows two strategic acquisitions in less than a year, a Series E financing round to fuel innovation and substantial investment in AI.

Perk currently has a footprint of more than 1,800 employees across 12 global offices.