Half of US employees now use AI at work, but waste nearly 8 hours weekly managing the tools

Half of all US employees use AI at work now - and waste almost 8 hours a week doing it

Half of employees now use AI at work at least occasionally.Many of them also don't know their employers' AI strategy.AI is boosting productivity, but not reshaping workflows. Half of all employees now use AI at work at least a few times each year, Gallup reported on Monday. Up from 46% last quarter, the new figure marks the polling company's highest-ever reported rate of AI usage in the workplace. Among more frequent AI users, the number of employees who report using the technology on a daily basis was also up (13% compared to 12% last quarter), as were those who report using it a few times each week (28% vs. 26%). Based on a February survey of more than 23,700 US employees, the new report from Gallup highlights both that the use of AI in the workplace is continuing to climb and also that this increase is causing some structural changes within organizations. The poll found that 41% of respondents said their employers had begun officially incorporating the use of AI tools to boost organizational efficiency, a notably higher figure than the 28% of employees who are using it at least every week. Gallup calls this an "integration-adoption lag": employers' adoption of AI doesn't automatically translate to widespread employee use. Also: More workers are using AI, but don't know if their employers are, too - why that's a problem At the same time, while 41% of employees said their employers had begun using AI internally "to improve organizational practices," far fewer (26%) said they have a roadmap: that their employers have not "communicated a clear plan for integrating AI into current practices." It echoes another recent Gallup poll, which found that just under one-quarter of employees surveyed didn't know if their employer had deployed any kind of organization-wide AI tools -- a communication gap between the top brass and the rank and file which, if the former actually is actively trying to onboard AI tools, could undercut the very productivity gains those are supposed to enable. In short, while employees seem increasingly confident that their employers are using AI in some organization-wide capacity, many of those employers still aren't communicating the terms and scale of that usage in a clear, organized manner, which, according to Gallup, "may contribute to low comfort levels and limited adoption." Within those organizations that have actively begun using AI (and have clearly communicated that usage to their employees), the new Gallup poll found some internal restructuring: 27% of respondents employed by those companies reported major recent changes to employee headcount, compared to 17% of those working for companies that haven't adopted AI. Those changes were both positive -- meaning more employees were hired -- and negative -- meaning more were laid off. Also: This AI expert says the job apocalypse isn't coming, even if you're a coder - here's why The changes were most prominent within small and medium-sized businesses. For example, out of all the survey respondents working for "AI-adopting organizations" with a headcount of 25-499, 39% said their employer has been hiring more employees, while 17% said their employer has been letting more people go, compared to 32% and 14%, respectively, for respondents working for companies that haven't adopted AI. Another important finding from the new Gallup poll is related to the tangible impacts of AI usage upon employees' day-to-day workflows. While two-in-three respondents said the technology has made them more productive at work, far fewer (just 12%) said they "strongly" feel that it's "transformed how work gets done." In other words, AI is like an energy jolt to existing procedures, but it's not (yet) fundamentally reshaping the procedures themselves. Employees are effectively using AI to do what they've always done, only faster. Also: Will AI steal your job? It's complicated, new survey reveals A recent report published by software company WalkMe, however, found that the growing use of AI in the workplace is actually leading to a lot of wasted time. Though enterprise-facing AI is generally designed to help employees cut back on routine tasks so they can focus on more impactful, cognitively demanding work, the new WalkMe data showed that lots of working time is now being sunk into just trying to get these tools to function properly. Many employees are spending moments each week transferring data from one tool to another, for example, or rephrasing prompts over and over again in order to produce a desired outputs. All of those moments add up. The authors of that report estimated that employees using AI are wasting on average 7.9 hours per week -- about 51 working days per year -- due to the accumulation of all these little moments. "Employees are losing one full working day every week to friction, not to actual work, but to managing the tools that are supposed to help them work," they wrote.

Half of all US employees now use artificial intelligence at work, crossing landmark threshold for first time -- Gallup data shows daily and weekly usage hitting all-time high of 28% in Q1 2026, with 65% feeling positive about its impact on productivity

Half of all American adults in active employment now use some form of artificial intelligence in their role, according to a new Gallup poll. While that figure relates to the whole number of employees using AI in some form across a year, the active number of daily and weekly users using AI has risen over the last quarter, too. The results of the Gallup survey, dating from February 4 to February 19, 2026, and specifically asking 23,717 U.S. employees how often they used AI as part of their role, show an increase in total AI users from 21% in Q2 2023 to 50% in Q1 2026, an increase by 4% since Q4 2025. The number of users who are using AI daily has also increased to a record high of 13% this quarter, while those using it daily or a few times weekly have risen to 28%. This isn't a huge surprise: AI adoption is booming across all major industries. Major tech companies involved in AI are investing heavily in its growth, with Google owner Alphabet doubling its expenditure on AI to $180 billion this year. While a recent survey of executives by the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that over 80% of AI-consuming companies see no productivity gains from using tools to improve productivity and cut employment costs, the steamroller shows no sign of slowing down. Gallup's survey shows how quickly AI tools are beginning to rework the workplace around them. It also suggests that AI's adoption is causing a large proportion of disruption to companies, with 27% of employees at companies using AI reporting a large or very large disruption to their workplace over the last year. It isn't definitive, however, with 12% of employees at non-AI firms also reporting similar disruption. Paradoxically, a larger number of employees at firms adopting AI report their companies both expanding with new hires (34%, in comparison to 28% against non-AI firms) and doubling down on headcount reduction (23% versus 16%). Despite the disruption, 65% of employees at companies using artificial intelligence are positive about its impact on productivity and efficiency at work, with 16% extremely positive. It's a double-edged sword, however. Employees who responded did suggest that AI was useful with specific tasks, like summarizing information, but the benefits don't reach as far as improving the workplace itself. 10% of respondents said AI was having a negative impact on their work, while 21% said AI was transforming how work "gets done" at their workplace. This survey is further proof that, so far, AI continues to grow apace, leaving organizations of all sizes struggling to adapt to its growth and adoption. What this Gallup survey suggests is that, while individual employees have begun to find specific use cases for it to help them work, there's still work to do for AI-positive employers to successfully transform the workplace around it. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

As AI use increases at work, many employees still choose not to use it: Gallup poll

More American workers are experimenting with artificial intelligence in their jobs, but skepticism is still widespread. New Gallup polling finds that while more employees are using AI frequently in their work, there's been an uptick in alarm that new technologies will replace their jobs. Many workers who are not using AI say they prefer to work without it, have ethical oppositions to the technology or worry about data privacy. The poll, conducted in February, points to a divergence in how AI is reshaping American workplaces. Some find it to be a gamechanger for productivity and efficiency, while others are concerned about its potentially negative impacts. Social worker Scott Segal said he regularly uses AI to find information that will help connect his elderly and vulnerable patients to health care resources in northern Virginia. While he knows that the human connection and care he brings to that work is important, he also believes that AI could soon replace him. "I'm planning ahead," said Segal, 53. "I think everyone who works in a replaceable field or trade should be planning ahead." Roughly 3 in 10 employees are frequent users of AI in their jobs, meaning they use it daily or a few times a week. About 2 in 10 are infrequent users, using AI tools at work a few times a month or a few times a year. The Gallup poll found that about 4 in 10 workers say their organization has adopted AI tools or technology to improve organizational practices. About two-thirds of those workers say AI has had an "extremely" or "somewhat" positive impact on their individual productivity and efficiency at work. Workers using AI in management roles are more likely to say the technology has been at least "somewhat" positive for their productivity, compared with individual contributors. About 7 in 10 leaders using AI at least a few times a year say AI has made them more efficient at work, compared with just over half of individual contributors. Labor and employment attorney Elizabeth Bloch of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said she uses ChatGPT to help "draft letters or emails in a diplomatic way because it's a very adversarial profession and sometimes you get heated." AI tools appear to have a greater benefit for workers in managerial, health care and technology roles than in service jobs. About 6 in 10 employees in those fields who are using AI say it's boosted their productivity at least "somewhat," compared with 45% of those using it in service jobs. Even when companies make AI tools available, there's no guarantee employees will adopt them. About half of U.S. employees use AI only once a year or not at all, according to the Gallup study. Bloch said she's tried using AI for legal research but finds it is prone to hallucinations, or making up false information, even when using AI tools custom-built for legal work. She's worried other lawyers who were already bad at finding and citing relevant case law are "going to be bad at using AI, because you're not using the right prompts," leading judges to sanction them for false citations. Among workers who have AI tools available at their company and don't use them, 46% say it's because they prefer to keep doing their work the way they do it now. About 4 in 10 non-users who have AI available to them report that they are ethically opposed to AI, are concerned about data privacy or don't believe AI can be helpful for the work they do. About one-quarter of these non-users who have AI tools available say they have used AI at work and don't find it helpful, while about 2 in 10 say they do not feel prepared to use AI effectively. Thuy Pisone, a contract administrator in Maryland for a company that works with the federal government, said she uses AI weekly for mundane tasks but has avoided it for things she already can do just fine. "I have heard from my colleagues that we could use AI to put together our PowerPoint slides," Pisone said. "I'm a little biased in that, well, I could put my own PowerPoints together. I don't need help because it took me time to hone up my skill." While this was less of a reason for forgoing AI at work, the poll also found U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being driven out of a job by new technologies. About 2 in 10 -- 18% -- of U.S. workers say it is "very" or "somewhat" likely that their current job will be eliminated within the next five years because of new technology, automation, robots or AI. That's up from 15% in 2025. People working at companies that have adopted AI are even more likely to be concerned that their job will be eliminated: 23% call this at least "somewhat" likely in the next few years. A Fox News poll conducted in March found that about 6 in 10 registered voters believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the next five years. Only about 1 in 10 expect it will create more positions, and about one-third say it's too soon to say. About 7 in 10 employed voters say they are "not very" or "not at all" concerned their current job could be eliminated by AI. Segal, the social worker in Virginia, said his alternative plan if AI replaces him is to start a new "health care chaperone service" that physically escorts patients from one appointment to another, especially when they've been sedated and don't have family or others to pick them up. "I don't think that's something that will be replaced for another maybe 10 or 15 years, until robots are embodied with AI," Segal said. "I do believe that AI is going to displace most people's employment functions and I question what people will do for livelihood at that point." In the meantime, he's been asking AI chatbots to help him strategize on saving for his retirement. ___ Gallup's quarterly workforce surveys were conducted with a random sample of adults age 18 and older who work full time and part time for organizations in the United States and are members of Gallup's probability-based Gallup Panel. The most recent survey of 23,717 employed U.S. adults was conducted Feb. 4-19, 2026. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 0.9 percentage points.

Is this the tipping point for AI at work? New Gallup survey finds half of all US employees now use it in some way

Half of American workers now say they use some form of AI technology in their role, pushing the number over the critical point for the first time. New Gallup research found 50% of employees now reported using AI tools at work in some capacity, a rise of 4% from the previous quarter, and up 21% from the same period just three years ago. The study also found the mood around using AI at work appears to be changing, with many workers softening their stance on the technology despite the risk it poses to their jobs. AI acceptance Taking place over February 4 to February 19, 2026, Gallup's survey specifically asked 23,717 US employees how often they used AI as part of their role, and what effect it was having on their work. It found the usage of AI at work is also increasing, with 13% of employees now saying they use AI on a daily basis, with 28% reporting they use it a few times a week or more. Overall, businesses appear to be getting to grips with the changes, with 41% of employees reporting their organization has integrated AI in a bid to improve organizational practices, up three points from the previous quarter. Workers in AI-friendly businesses were more likely to report "disruption" and both positive and negative changes in staffing levels, along with a boost in productivity. However only about one in 10 employees in organizations adopting AI said they strongly agree the technology has transformed how work gets done in their organization. The survey found 27% of employees in those firms embracing AI stating their workplace has changed in disruptive ways to a large or very large extent in the past year - as opposed to just 17% in non-AI firms. More and more workers are voicing concern about the effect AI will have on their jobs, with a shocking 18% of all employees surveyed saying it would be very or somewhat likely their job will be eliminated within the next five years due to AI or automation. "Most employees who use AI report improvements in their productivity and efficiency, particularly in leadership and knowledge-based roles where they can readily apply AI to daily tasks," Gallup noted in its report. "For many workers, however, these benefits appear at the level of individual tasks rather than broader workplace systems. While some employees report transformational effects, relatively few say AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done across their organization." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

Here's who's leading AI adoption in the work place

By the numbers: The February survey of 23,717 U.S. employees found that regular AI usage is also increasing, with 13% of workers saying they use the tech daily, compared to 12% last quarter and 10% before that. * But where workers fall on the food chain makes a difference: In organizations that make AI tools available, 67% of leaders said they used AI daily or a few times a week, compared to 52% of managers, 50% of project managers and 46% of individual contributors. * The report says that differences by role "reflect how many mainstream AI tools align with the tasks employees perform," with leaders and managers taking on "desk-based" responsibilities for which such tools can be "readily applied." What we're watching: Workers' concerns about their jobs being displaced have grown with AI adoption and organizational shifts, Gallup's report notes. * Across U.S. employees, 18% say it is very or somewhat likely their job would be replaced within the next five years due to new tech and automation. * Among those who work in organizations that have adopted AI, that share jumps to 23%. Methodology: These results for the quarterly Gallup workforce studies are based on self-administered web surveys conducted with a random sample of adults. The survey conducted Feb. 4 to 19 was among 23,717 employed U.S. adults with a margin of error of ±0.9 percentage points.

'I don't need help': Meet some of the AI resisters who smell their own extinction | Fortune

More American workers are experimenting with artificial intelligence in their jobs, but skepticism is still widespread. New Gallup polling finds that while more employees are using AI frequently in their work, there's been an uptick in alarm that new technologies will replace their jobs. Many workers who are not using AI say they prefer to work without it, have ethical oppositions to the technology or worry about data privacy. The poll, conducted in February, points to a divergence in how AI is reshaping American workplaces. Some find it to be a gamechanger for productivity and efficiency, while others are concerned about its potentially negative impacts. Social worker Scott Segal said he regularly uses AI to find information that will help connect his elderly and vulnerable patients to health care resources in northern Virginia. While he knows that the human connection and care he brings to that work is important, he also believes that AI could soon replace him. "I'm planning ahead," said Segal, 53. "I think everyone who works in a replaceable field or trade should be planning ahead." Roughly three in 10 employees are frequent users of AI in their jobs, meaning they use it daily or a few times a week. About two in 10 are infrequent users, using AI tools at work a few times a month or a few times a year. The Gallup poll found that about four in 10 workers say their organization has adopted AI tools or technology to improve organizational practices. About two-thirds of those workers say AI has had an "extremely" or "somewhat" positive impact on their individual productivity and efficiency at work. Workers using AI in management roles are more likely to say the technology has been at least "somewhat" positive for their productivity, compared with individual contributors. About seven in 10 leaders using AI at least a few times a year say AI has made them more efficient at work, compared with just over half of individual contributors. Labor and employment attorney Elizabeth Bloch of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said she uses ChatGPT to help "draft letters or emails in a diplomatic way because it's a very adversarial profession and sometimes you get heated." AI tools appear to have a greater benefit for workers in managerial, health care and technology roles than in service jobs. About 6 in 10 employees in those fields who are using AI say it's boosted their productivity at least "somewhat," compared with 45% of those using it in service jobs. Even when companies make AI tools available, there's no guarantee employees will adopt them. About half of U.S. employees use AI only once a year or not at all, according to the Gallup study. Bloch said she's tried using AI for legal research but finds it is prone to hallucinations, or making up false information, even when using AI tools custom-built for legal work. She's worried other lawyers who were already bad at finding and citing relevant case law are "going to be bad at using AI, because you're not using the right prompts," leading judges to sanction them for false citations. Among workers who have AI tools available at their company and don't use them, 46% say it's because they prefer to keep doing their work the way they do it now. About 4 in 10 non-users who have AI available to them report that they are ethically opposed to AI, are concerned about data privacy or don't believe AI can be helpful for the work they do. About one-quarter of these non-users who have AI tools available say they have used AI at work and don't find it helpful, while about 2 in 10 say they do not feel prepared to use AI effectively. Thuy Pisone, a contract administrator in Maryland for a company that works with the federal government, said she uses AI weekly for mundane tasks but has avoided it for things she already can do just fine. "I have heard from my colleagues that we could use AI to put together our PowerPoint slides," Pisone said. "I'm a little biased in that, well, I could put my own PowerPoints together. I don't need help because it took me time to hone up my skill." While this was less of a reason for forgoing AI at work, the poll also found U.S. workers are increasingly concerned about being driven out of a job by new technologies. About two in 10 -- 18% -- of U.S. workers say it is "very" or "somewhat" likely that their current job will be eliminated within the next five years because of new technology, automation, robots or AI. That's up from 15% in 2025. People working at companies that have adopted AI are even more likely to be concerned that their job will be eliminated: 23% call this at least "somewhat" likely in the next few years. A Fox News poll conducted in March found that about six in 10 registered voters believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the next five years. Only about one in 10 expect it will create more positions, and about one-third say it's too soon to say. About seven in 10 employed voters say they are "not very" or "not at all" concerned their current job could be eliminated by AI. Segal, the social worker in Virginia, said his alternative plan if AI replaces him is to start a new "health care chaperone service" that physically escorts patients from one appointment to another, especially when they've been sedated and don't have family or others to pick them up. "I don't think that's something that will be replaced for another maybe 10 or 15 years, until robots are embodied with AI," Segal said. "I do believe that AI is going to displace most people's employment functions and I question what people will do for livelihood at that point." In the meantime, he's been asking AI chatbots to help him strategize on saving for his retirement. ___ Gallup's quarterly workforce surveys were conducted with a random sample of adults age 18 and older who work full time and part time for organizations in the United States and are members of Gallup's probability-based Gallup Panel. The most recent survey of 23,717 employed U.S. adults was conducted Feb. 4-19, 2026. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 0.9 percentage points.