One night after work in Dublin, Maahir Sharma watched an AI agent that he built call hotels in the United States and negotiate room rates on his behalf.
The project wasn’t part of his job. It was one of many AI experiments he pursues outside work to stay current in an industry being reshaped by AI.
Sharma, a software engineer at a Big Tech company, says AI has dramatically increased his productivity, helping him complete some tasks in days that once took months. But he also spends about 20 hours a week outside of work experimenting with AI tools like Cursor, a coding assistant he pays for out of pocket.
“I think experimentation with AI is very important,” said the 24-year-old. “If you don’t have hands-on experience, it could be difficult to survive in the industry.”
Sharma is among the tech workers who say AI’s rise is creating an unexpected tradeoff. The technology is helping them save time at work, but it’s costing them time after work, as they try to keep pace with rapidly evolving tools and skills. An Ernst & Young survey of more than 1,000 US desk workers across six industries conducted last year found that 85% were learning how to use AI outside of work.
For many workers, the after-hours experimentation is fueled as much by interest in the technology as by a desire to remain competitive. Meta and Microsoft have offered multimillion-dollar compensation packages to top AI talent even as both companies have laid off thousands of workers in recent years. Hiring for AI engineers on LinkedIn has surged since 2022, while hiring for many traditional engineering roles has remained flat or declined, according to data shared with Business Insider.
The new AI homework
In early 2025, Tanvi Pisal began to worry that AI could be coming for her job.
Pisal, then a product designer at an AI healthcare startup in San Jose, said a company leadership summit underscored how quickly AI was advancing, raising concerns that some UX and product design tasks could eventually be automated.
She decided to start expanding her AI skills and exploring other opportunities, but last October, she was laid off. An email accompanying the cuts said they were tied to the company’s rapid adoption of AI.
Today, Pisal, now a UX design contractor for a Big Tech company, spends 10 to 15 hours a week outside work learning about AI, including experimenting with tools and attending workshops. She has also spent hundreds of dollars on AI tools and workshops, including subscriptions to ChatGPT and Claude.
“If I don’t spend a few hours over the weekend catching up on updates, experimenting with tools, or reading about what’s new, I start falling behind,” said Pisal, who’s 29 and lives in San Jose.
While some workers point to gaps in AI training, others said time is the bigger constraint. Despite using AI extensively on the job, many said their day-to-day responsibilities leave limited time to explore the growing number of AI tools and models. The challenge isn’t just keeping up with the tools they need at work today, but understanding which ones may matter tomorrow.
Still, not all tech workers feel pressure to learn AI after hours.
Manoj Aggarwal, a lead engineer at a large software company, spends a couple of hours a week outside work experimenting with AI tools and about $60 a month on subscriptions. He said his employer provides access to many of the latest AI tools, allowing him to develop AI skills on the job. Much of his reading and experimentation happens after his young daughter falls asleep.
Udit Mehrotra, a head of product at Amazon, spends roughly five to seven hours a week outside work experimenting with AI. He said that last December, he built 10 apps in about a month, working evenings and weekends with Claude Code as his main assistant. In recent months, however, he’s tried to approach the learning in a more sustainable way.
“I’ve come to think of this less like a sprint and more like a marathon,” said Mehrotra, who’s in his 30s and lives in Seattle.
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company provides employees with AI training and learning resources, including an internal hub that helps workers identify AI tools relevant to their work. The spokesperson said Amazon encourages employees to experiment with AI as part of their day-to-day work.
For some, the pace of change in the industry has made something closer to a sprint feel like the best option.
Abhinav Bohra, a senior applied scientist at Amazon based in Seattle, spends roughly eight to 12 hours a week outside work keeping up with AI. He said he spent about $3,000 over the past year on AI tools, conference fees, and professional memberships.
“Continuous learning has quietly become part of the job, even when it happens outside the job,” said the 32-year-old.
Much of Bohra’s AI learning happens on evenings and weekends because his workday is consumed by meetings and deliverables. The result, he said, is a “learning tax” that blurs the line between professional development and personal time.
“The concern isn’t that one AI tool will replace me overnight,” he said. “The bigger concern is becoming technically stale in a field where the baseline is constantly moving.”
Do you have a story to share about how you’re navigating a career crossroads? If so, please reach out to the reporter via email at jzinkula@businessinsider.com, or via Signal at jzinkula.29.
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