Overwhelmed by Maintenance Work and Held Back by Organizational Silos; Business Leaders Need to Rethink How Teams Work to Accelerate Innovation

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SAN FRANCISCO & AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 9, 2025--

Miro®, the Innovation Workspace, has announced the findings of its latest industry research the “2025 Momentum at Work Report,” a survey into how evolving work trends are influencing teams’ ability to deliver meaningful, impactful work and the expectations of AI in redefining the experience of knowledge workers worldwide.

The survey reveals a growing imbalance in how knowledge workers spend their time, highlighting a critical challenge for modern organizations. Knowledge workers continue to spend a disproportionate amount of time on tasks that don’t align with strategic impact. The survey found that for every one hour of momentum work— creative and strategic efforts that drive innovation — workers spend three hours on maintenance work, the repetitive tasks that support day-to-day operations, like meetings, email, and paperwork.

While some maintenance tasks are necessary as part of daily work life, workers agree that things have gone too far in the wrong direction. Despite working more hours, more than half (55%) of workers feel like they’re achieving less. Outdated tools (58%), unclear expectations or misalignment (54%), and inadequate use of AI (39%) are cited as the primary reasons for the sprawl in unrewarding work.

6 in 10 workers agree that maintenance work stalls momentum in their company.

This imbalance is leading to damaging consequences for the productivity and mental well-being of individuals. Sixty-eight percent of workers experience emotional overload at least once a month due to their work, with 1 in 5 facing this struggle daily.

The report also found that organizational silos are a widespread reality of modern work, which hinders collaboration and causes stress and confusion. Knowledge workers have never had more tools at their disposal, yet find that information and data are often held across fragmented toolsets (63%). A majority also report communication silos (57%), resulting from inconsistent norms or preferred tools across different teams, as well as functional silos (51%) impeding true cross-functional collaboration. Nearly half (46%) agree that outdated and legacy tools cause these silos, indicating an important role for newer tools and technologies.

But there is room for optimism that inefficiencies and complex work structures can be improved, in particular that AI will ease the demands of maintenance work. Many believe AI will reduce the burden of reporting (55%) and reduce the need to redo work in different tools or apps (64%). Workers are also hopeful that AI can support collaboration by reducing silos that inhibit information sharing (64%), communication (54%), and cross-functional collaboration (45%). Through the effective combination of AI and optimized ways of working across teams, employees can shift the balance to spend more time on the momentum work. And critically, where AI can augment - as well as automate - tasks, then momentum work becomes better.

“It’s clear that maintenance work and silos are making it difficult to do great work and slowing innovation. This is bad for both individual morale, and for organizations looking to accelerate innovation. It doesn't have to be this way,” said Tomás Dostal Freire, CIO & Head of Business Transformation at Miro. “We’re already seeing how AI tools can help individuals reduce the time spent on admin tasks from hours to minutes. But this is only scratching the surface. Truly meaningful transformation comes when AI understands the full team context and contributes to team speed, not just individual task automation. Now teams can spend more time delivering the high value work they value and enjoy, while simultaneously delivering infinitely better quality and results for the business.”

Notes to editors

Report: View the full report ‘Miro 2025 Momentum at Work Report’ https://miro.com/articles/momentum-at-work/

Methodology: The data from the report was gathered via an online survey of 6,148 full-time employed knowledge workers. Respondents were employed across diverse industries and company sizes, and from eight global markets: Australia (1,013), France (565), Germany (1,017), Japan (1,012), The Netherlands (265), The Nordics (202) The United Kingdom (1,032), and The United States (1,042). The survey took place in June-July 2025, and respondents were sourced via an independent, third-party research panel.

Miro Canvas 25: Register now to attend Canvas 25 — Miro’s annual flagship customer event — online or in-person. Learn from forward-thinking leaders who are embedding AI right into their cross-team innovation, so that their teams don’t just work faster — they go further.

About Miro

Miro is the Innovation Workspace that enables teams of any size to build the next big thing. The platform's infinite canvas enables teams to quickly move from idea to outcome. Miro is co-headquartered in San Francisco and Amsterdam and serves more than 90M users worldwide. Miro was founded in 2011 and currently has more than 1,600 employees in 14 hubs around the world. To learn more, please visit https://miro.com.

Miro and the Miro logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealtimeBoard, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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PUB: 09/09/2025 07:00 AM/DISC: 09/09/2025 06:59 AM

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