Why Analysts Spend 60% of Time on Manual Tasks and How AI Changes This
December 12, 2025 | By GenRPT
Analysts play a critical role in every enterprise. They guide decisions, track performance, and explain why numbers move. Yet most analysts spend most of their time on manual tasks instead of deep analysis. Studies show that analysts often spend close to 60 percent of their work hours gathering files, cleaning data, copying numbers, fixing errors, building reports, and preparing visuals. These tasks slow insight delivery and reduce the value analysts can bring to strategic work.
AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI now create a clear shift in how analysts work. These systems remove repetitive tasks, automate reporting workflows, and help analysts focus on thinking rather than formatting. This blog explains why manual tasks take so much time and how AI driven workflows transform the entire process.
Why analysts lose hours to manual work
Analyst workflows grew from older systems that depend on human effort. Many companies still rely on spreadsheets, emails, exports, and dashboards that need constant updates. As a result, analysts start every reporting cycle from scratch.
Most hours are lost because of three main problems. The first problem is scattered data sources. Analysts collect numbers from spreadsheets, CRMs, ERPs, PDFs, and business tools. Each source uses a different format. Analysts must fix errors, align columns, merge files, and check for missing values. This cleaning process alone consumes large amounts of time.
The second problem is tool limitations. Traditional dashboards require manual editing for even small changes. Every new version must be built separately. Analysts export results, add comments, create visuals, and prepare slides for meetings. This work repeats every month and every quarter.
The third problem is review cycles. Leaders request updates, clarifications, and new comparisons. Analysts revise the same report multiple times. Insights become outdated by the time they reach decision makers.
These issues create a cycle where analysts spend more time preparing data than understanding it.
How AI removes the burden of manual tasks
AI offers a new foundation for analyst work. Instead of spending hours fixing data, analysts receive inputs that are already clean and ready for use. AI can detect errors, remove duplicates, fill missing values, and match records across sources.
AI systems also understand patterns and connect data that once required manual effort. This reduces one of the biggest time drains in the entire workflow. Analysts start their work with consistent and accurate information.
AI supports analysts by automating repetitive tasks. It can blend datasets, classify documents, extract tables from PDFs, tag important fields, and standardize formats. This removes the dependency on copy and paste work. Analysts focus on insight instead of mechanical steps.
How GenAI accelerates analysis and communication
GenAI speeds up the stages that depend on interpretation and writing. It analyzes trends, identifies movements, and produces clear explanations. Instead of writing long commentary from scratch, analysts receive drafts they can refine.
GenAI prepares summaries, forecasts, comparisons, and narrative insights that match the latest numbers. It even suggests visuals and highlights anomalies. This reduces the time analysts spend building reports and explaining changes to stakeholders.
GenAI also supports natural language exploration. Users ask questions about performance, and the system gives direct answers based on real data. This reduces the pressure on analysts to answer every small query.
How Agentic AI automates reporting workflows
Agentic AI completes the transformation by running entire workflows without human supervision. It monitors data sources, fetches updates, reruns calculations, refreshes visuals, and sends alerts when something changes.
Agentic AI handles steps that once required constant checking. It keeps insights accurate and ensures that reports stay current. It creates new versions automatically when data changes. It delivers notifications to teams when performance moves in an unexpected direction.
This creates a continuous reporting environment. Analysts no longer depend on scheduled cycles. They receive fresh insights at any time.
Why manual tasks disappear with AI driven workflows
When AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI work together, analyst workloads change completely. Manual data collection disappears. Formatting tasks fade away. Report updates become automatic. Communication becomes faster because AI prepares first draft insights in seconds.
This shift frees analysts from low value tasks. They move toward higher level work such as forecasting, scenario modeling, risk evaluation, and strategic guidance. Analysts spend more time understanding what the data means instead of preparing it.
Teams across the enterprise benefit from faster reports. Leaders act with confidence because insights stay current. Decisions no longer wait for manual updates.
How GenRPT accelerates analyst productivity
GenRPT brings all these capabilities into one environment. It blends data from spreadsheets, databases, PDFs, and business tools without manual preparation. Users ask questions in simple language and receive clear summaries and visuals.
GenAI inside GenRPT writes explanations for trends, changes, and movements. Analysts refine them instead of starting from scratch. Agentic AI updates reports, checks for inconsistencies, and alerts users about important shifts. This reduces the entire reporting cycle from days to minutes.
GenRPT helps analysts deliver insights at the speed the business needs.
The new standard for analyst work
Analysts no longer need to spend 60 percent of their time on manual tasks. AI removes the load. GenAI speeds up understanding. Agentic AI automates every stage of reporting. Workflows become faster, cleaner, and more accurate.
Enterprises that adopt these modern systems give analysts more time to think, explore, and guide strategic decisions. This leads to stronger performance and better decision making across the company.
GenRPT supports this transformation and helps analysts work at their highest level.
