AI in the Workplace: Answering 3 Big Questions

In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, marking a new era in artificial intelligence. Since then, corporate investment in AI has soared, with businesses aiming to boost productivity. According to Gallup’s latest study on AI adoption, 93% of Fortune 500 CHROs say their organization has begun using AI tools and technologies to improve business practices.

However, most workers remain unaware of these efforts. Only a third (33%) of all U.S. employees say their organization has begun integrating AI into their business practices, with the highest percentage in white-collar industries (44%).

If leaders want to achieve the productivity and innovation gains that AI promises, they need to clearly communicate their plans and provide more intentional training and guidance for employees who feel unprepared for this new era of work.

How Many U.S. Employees Are Using AI?

Weekly use remains limited, and many employees never use AI. Despite leaders prioritizing AI adoption and using AI tools themselves, most employees are not.

Gallup asked employees how often they use AI in their role: Nearly seven in 10 employees say they never use AI, while one in 10 say they use it at least weekly. These figures remained essentially unchanged from 2023 to 2024, suggesting that AI adoption requires leadership and training to increase usage.

White-collar workers are more likely to be using AI. White-collar workers are, by far, the most frequent users of AI in their roles. While 81% of employees in production/frontline industries say they never use AI, only 54% of white-collar workers say they never do and 15% report using AI weekly.

How Are Employees Using AI?

Most employees using AI use it for idea generation and task automation. Among employees who say they use AI, the most common uses are to generate ideas (41%), to consolidate information or data (39%), and to automate basic tasks (39%).

This is particularly true for leaders: Forty-six percent of leaders, compared with 36% of individual contributors, indicate they use AI in their roles to consolidate information or data. Gallup finds a similar gap between leaders who automate basic tasks (45%) and individual contributors who do so (36%).

Employees using AI find it helpful. Nearly half of employees (45%) say that their productivity and efficiency in their role has improved because of AI. Leaders also report benefits at the organizational level: Forty-five percent of CHROs say their organization’s operational efficiency has improved because of AI.

How Can Organizations Improve AI Adoption?

Few employees feel prepared to use AI in their roles. Only 6% of employees feel very comfortable using AI in their roles, while about one in six employees (16%) are very or somewhat comfortable using AI. Meanwhile, about a third of employees (32%) say they are very uncomfortable using AI in their roles.

Surprisingly, from 2023 to 2024, the number of employees who say they are very prepared to work with AI dropped by six percentage points. Some employees may be facing a “reality check” when it comes to AI adoption. Or it may be a sign that leaders are talking more about AI without providing clear support or direction, leaving employees worried they will be left behind.

So, what makes employees feel prepared and comfortable using AI as part of their work? Gallup has identified three key strategies for supporting AI adoption within organizations:

• Clearly Communicated Plan for Integration

As mentioned above, while 93% of CHROs say they have begun using AI in their organizations, only 33% of employees have heard about it. And only 15% of employees say their organization has communicated a clear plan or strategy for integrating AI technology into current business practices.

However, when employees strongly agree that there is a clear plan, they are 2.9 times as likely to feel very prepared to work with AI and 4.7 times as likely to feel comfortable using AI in their role.

In other words, only a small part of the workforce is self-motivated early adopters. Most employees won’t feel comfortable with AI until leadership communicates a plan.

• Clearly Established Guidance for AI Use

Seventy percent of employees say their organization does not have guidance or policies for using AI at work. While this percentage is lower (60%) for white-collar industries and employees who currently use AI at least once a year (47%), it still means a majority of employees in the most AI-affected jobs do not have straightforward guidelines about using AI at work.

This lack of guidance limits employee use of AI technology and creates security risks. By establishing clear guidelines for usage, organizations can empower their workforce to use these technologies effectively and securely, ensuring AI serves as a tool for furthering innovation and efficiency rather than a liability.

• Training Aligned With Employees’ Roles

Similarly, almost half of workers who use AI at least once a year say their organizations have not offered any sort of training on using AI at work. When employees participate in required training, they are 89% more likely than those who have not received any training -- formal or informal -- to say that AI will have an extremely positive impact on their individual productivity and efficiency at work.

While experimentation may be part of getting comfortable with AI tools, formal educational experiences are crucial to motivating employees to explore AI tools and use them effectively on their own.

Realizing the Promises of AI

Although few can predict what will happen next with breakthrough technologies like AI, one thing is clear: Without effective leadership, AI adoption in the workplace will remain limited. This means that the billions of dollars being invested in AI workplace transformation may not pay off if organizations do not manage it well.

Leaders need both a technology and a people strategy to see results. This requires a clearly communicated plan, established guidelines and formal training.