AI Adoption in the Workplace: Rapid Growth Meets Persistent Challenges

More workers are using AI, but businesses still struggle to make it useful

In context: The use of GenAI in the workplace is evolving at a breakneck pace. Two new reports - one from Gallup and another from Salesforce AI Research - paint a picture of both growing enthusiasm and persistent challenges as organizations and their employees adapt to this technological shift. Together, these studies reveal a central theme: while AI is being embraced more widely than ever, the gap between its promise and practical performance remains a significant hurdle for businesses and workers alike. Gallup's latest research finds that the use of AI among US employees has nearly doubled over the past two years. In 2023, just 21 percent of workers reported using AI in their roles at least a few times a year; by 2025, that figure has soared to 40 percent. Frequent use - defined as a few times a week or more - has also nearly doubled, climbing from 11 percent to 19 percent. Daily AI use, while still a minority behavior, has doubled in the past year alone, reaching 8 percent. This surge is most evident among white-collar professionals. Twenty-seven percent of white-collar employees now report frequent AI use, up 12 points from last year, with technology, professional services, and finance leading the way. In contrast, frontline and production workers have seen little change, with frequent AI use actually slipping slightly from 11 percent to 9 percent over the same period. Leadership roles are also more likely to embrace AI. One in three managers of managers use AI several times a week or more, compared to just 16 percent of individual contributors. Yet, despite this rapid adoption, most employees do not feel their jobs are under immediate threat from automation. Only 15 percent believe AI or robots are likely to eliminate their roles within the next five years, a figure unchanged from previous years, though concern is somewhat higher in sectors like technology, retail, and finance. A striking finding from Gallup is the disconnect between AI integration and organizational guidance. While 44 percent of employees say their workplace is rolling out AI, only 22 percent have received a clear plan or strategy. Just 30 percent report the existence of any guidelines or formal policies, leaving many to navigate this new terrain without clear direction. The most common challenge cited is the lack of a clear use case or value proposition, and only 16 percent of AI users strongly agree that the tools provided are truly useful for their work. Gallup's data underscores that leadership plays a crucial role in determining how comfortable and prepared employees feel about AI. Workers who say their leaders have communicated a clear AI strategy are three times as likely to feel very prepared to work with the technology and more than twice as likely to feel comfortable using it. The research also shows a stark contrast in perceptions of AI's value: 68 percent of employees with firsthand experience using AI to interact with customers believe it improves those interactions, compared to just 13 percent among non-users. While Gallup's findings highlight the human side of AI adoption, Salesforce AI Research turns the spotlight on the technology itself, finding that despite advances, AI agents still fall short of what real-world enterprise scenarios demand. The Salesforce study found that even the best LLM agents succeed on only about 58 percent of single-turn business tasks - those that require just one step to complete. When tasks become more complex and require multi-turn interactions, such as follow-up questions or clarifications, success rates plunge to around 35 percent. Workflow execution tasks, where agents follow clear rules, are the easiest for current models, with top performers reaching over 83 percent success. However, policy compliance, textual reasoning, and database queries remain significant weaknesses. A particularly troubling finding is the near-total lack of confidentiality awareness among AI agents. When asked to handle sensitive information, these systems almost never refuse, unless given explicit instructions to do so. While adding confidentiality prompts can improve their ability to refuse inappropriate requests, this often comes at the expense of overall task performance, highlighting a difficult trade-off between safety and utility. The research also shows that models with stronger reasoning abilities generally perform better across all tasks, and that agents who ask more clarification questions in multi-turn scenarios tend to achieve higher success rates. Some models, such as Gemini-2.5-pro and Gemini-2.5-flash, offer a good balance between performance and cost, making them attractive for practical use, but the overall gap between AI capabilities and business needs remains wide. Both reports agree that while AI is making significant inroads into the workplace, the journey is far from complete. Gallup's findings suggest that greater clarity, communication, and training from leadership are essential for employees to truly benefit from AI tools. Meanwhile, Salesforce's research makes clear that the technology itself still has a way to go before it can reliably handle the full complexity - and responsibility - of real business environments.

AI not always being used the way the boss ordered, finds workplace survey

A recent survey reveals a disconnect between AI's promise and its actual impact in the workplace. While employees are using AI, many lack proper training and are deploying it inappropriately, even for tasks requiring emotional intelligence. This leads to skepticism about AI's reliability and hinders its potential to boost productivity, highlighting the need for better education and clear guidelines.A global survey by cloud communications and IT service provider GoTo and Workplace Intelligence reveals that while employees are using artificial intelligence (AI) at the workplace, many are deploying it in situations their supervisors wouldn't approve of -- and the productivity boom AI promised remains largely elusive. According to the report, titled 'The Pulse of Work in 2025', 62% of the workers who participated in the survey believe that AI is overhyped. Despite widespread deployment of AI tools in the workplace, a staggering 86% of workers admitted they're not using these tools to their full potential, and 82% said they are not familiar with how to use AI in their day-to-day work. This disconnect may explain why many employees are taking AI into unexpected territory. Over half (54%) of respondents said they've used AI for tasks requiring emotional intelligence (29%), safety-sensitive decisions (25%), and even ethical and personnel actions (16%) -- matters they admit they weren't supposed to use AI for. More strikingly, 77% of those who used AI for such tasks said they didn't regret doing so. The findings are based on a survey of 2,500 full-time employees and IT leaders conducted across the US, UK, India, Australia and Germany by GoTo in partnership with research firm Workplace Intelligence. "Employees are already using AI and are seeing clear productivity gains, yet despite these benefits, our latest research shows people still view AI as overhyped. "While many recognise its value, they don't yet see it as the revolutionary change they were promised," said Rich Veldran, chief executive of GoTo. "This gap likely exists because many workers admit they aren't realising AI's full potential or don't know how to apply it in practical ways." The findings suggest it's not just a matter of access, but education. GoTo's research showed that most employees spend 2.6 hours daily, or 13 hours per week, on tasks that could be done by AI. Yet, 86% of workers remain skeptical of AI's accuracy and reliability, with 76% saying they often must fix or refine AI-generated outputs. The issue spans generations, too. "Contrary to what you might think, it's not just older workers who are struggling to realise the benefits of AI tools," said Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence. "Younger workers also admit they're not using these tools to their full potential. In fact, 74% of Gen Z employees say they aren't very familiar with how to use AI practically in their day-to-day work. This highlights the importance of equipping all generations with the tools and education to use AI safely and effectively." Company size also plays a role in AI adoption. At firms with fewer than 50 employees, just 59% of workers who participated in the survey said they use AI tools, while 46% said they don't know how to use AI to save time or improve work outcomes. Larger organisations see much higher usage rates, with close to 80% of employees using AI, according to the report. Beyond education, gaps in infrastructure and planning are compounding the problem. Employees surveyed said they would find AI-powered virtual assistants (88%), task automation tools (86%), and generative AI (81%) valuable, but less than half reported having access to these. Only 45% of IT leaders said their company even has an AI usage policy, according to the survey report. Even among those leading tech adoption, purpose appeared to be lacking. One in five IT leaders admitted their company is buying AI tools but the decision is not based on any deliberate plan. Nearly half (49%) said they aren't effectively measuring the return on investment. "The solution is clear: companies must go beyond just providing access to AI by ensuring employees have both the right tools and the right education," said Veldran. "By equipping teams with effective training and clear guidelines, organisations can empower their workforce to unlock the true transformational impact of AI."