Any application people use to "produce" information. Virtually any program used to create or modify a document, image, audio or video clip is productivity software. However, business application suites such as Microsoft Office, which include word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs, are typically called productivity software. Contrast with "utility program," such as a file manager, which is used to organize files and folders on the computer. See application suite and utility program.

In computer advertising, productivity is an overused buzzword. Every new hardware and software product supposedly makes its users more productive. Naturally, the ads never mention the hours of training people need to use it effectively and the wasted time dealing with tech support afterwards. It has been said that "every solution to a problem creates a new problem" (see Systemantics).