Twenty-three working days. That’s how much time UK advertising, marketing and PR firms waste annually because nobody can make a bloody decision.
The figure comes from the UK Productivity Gap Index, released Tuesday, which surveyed 1,000 business leaders between 13th and 24th February. Professional services firms—spanning advertising, PR, design, media, broadcasting and market research—lose 3.26 hours every week to delayed or unclear decisions. Over a year, that’s 169 hours of thumb-twiddling, email-chasing limbo.
The irony? These firms are actually the most efficient of nine sectors studied. They lose 28% less time than the worst offender: public sector and education organisations, which haemorrhage 4.55 hours weekly.
But efficiency is relative when projects still grind to a halt. Over half—56%—of professional services leaders admitted projects frequently stall because decisions take too long. Meanwhile, 48% said meetings end without clear outcomes, and half reported teams regularly redo work because nobody clarified expectations in the first place.
One in five leaders reported losing 20% of productivity to poor collaboration alone.
The culprit isn’t lazy workers or outdated tools. It’s something more fundamental: alignment. Or rather, the lack of it.
Enter artificial intelligence—which was supposed to make everything faster.
Instead, 68% of professional services leaders said AI has increased the need for team discussion. Not reduced it. Increased it. Almost half—42%—reported AI has already caused major or significant operational disruption, with another 28% experiencing moderate impact. The technology designed to accelerate decision-making is, in practice, creating new layers of complexity that require human interpretation.
Which brings teams back to the conference room.
Nearly 60% of leaders said complex or sensitive decisions get made more quickly face-to-face than over Zoom or Slack. That preference reflects a broader tension around hybrid work, which many organisations are still figuring out. Just over half—53%—worried that hybrid arrangements slow early-career development in professional services, where learning often happens through observation and informal mentoring.
The findings, commissioned by The Meetings Show and conducted by research firm 3Gem, surveyed managers, business owners and C-suite executives across companies with more than 20 employees. Sectors included IT, finance, healthcare, manufacturing and retail alongside professional services. The research builds on Northstar Meetings Group and Cvent’s PULSE study, developed in partnership with The Business of Events.
A spokesperson for The Business of Events framed the issue as structural rather than technological. “This research highlights a fundamental shift in how productivity challenges are emerging across UK organisations. It is no longer simply about how hard people work, but how effectively teams align, make decisions and move work forward,” they said.
“As organisations adopt AI and more flexible ways of working, the need for clarity and shared understanding becomes more important, not less. Without that alignment, technology can accelerate activity, but not necessarily progress.”
The spokesperson added: “What this study shows is that collaboration, particularly when it brings people together to resolve complexity, plays a critical role in how businesses perform.”
Jack Marczewski, Portfolio Event Director of The Meetings Show, acknowledged the research was designed to capture the messy reality inside organisations rather than theoretical best practices.
“We wanted this research to reflect how work actually happens inside organisations today. It shows very clearly that productivity isn’t just about tools or effort. It’s about how well teams align, make decisions and move work forward,” he said.
Marczewski pointed to AI as amplifying rather than resolving the challenge. “As AI becomes more embedded in the workplace, the need for clear, confident decision-making becomes even more important. Bringing people together in the right environment is a big part of that.”
He added: “We’re looking forward to exploring these findings in more depth at the show and working with the industry to help organisations tackle some of these challenges.”
The Meetings Show returns to Excel London on 24th and 25th June 2026, co-located with Business Travel Show Europe and TravelTech Show. The event will feature a session unpacking the productivity research in detail.
The study’s methodology required respondents to work in one of eight sectors: energy and resources, finance, healthcare, IT, manufacturing, professional and creative services, public sector and education, or retail. All participants held managerial roles or above at firms employing at least 20 people. 3Gem, which conducted the research, adheres to the Market Research Society and ESOMAR codes of conduct and holds membership in the British Polling Council.
The timing of the findings coincides with a broader reckoning across UK business about how hybrid work, AI adoption and collaboration actually fit together. Many organisations adopted flexible arrangements during the pandemic, then added AI tools over the past 18 months without fully working out how the two interact.
What emerges from the data is a picture of organisations caught between competing pressures: the promise of technology-driven efficiency and the persistent human need to talk things through before committing. AI can generate options, draft proposals and surface insights. But someone still has to decide which option to pick, which proposal to approve, which insight actually matters.
And that’s where the 169 hours disappear.
For professional services firms that bill by the hour and live on tight margins, nearly a month of lost productivity isn’t trivial. Three weeks of indecision means three weeks of stalled client work, delayed pitches and frustrated teams waiting for someone upstairs to say yes or no.
The research suggests the answer isn’t abandoning hybrid work or rejecting AI. Both are embedded in how modern organisations operate. Instead, firms face a more uncomfortable challenge: redesigning how decisions actually get made. That means clearer accountability, tighter meeting structures and—based on what leaders reported—more intentional use of in-person time for the conversations that actually matter.
Whether organisations can solve that problem faster than they’re currently making decisions remains to be seen. For now, the clock keeps ticking. Three hours and 15 minutes every week. One hundred sixty-nine hours every year.
Twenty-three working days of waiting for someone, somewhere, to make the call.
