Recently, survey data released by Gallup this week showed that half of American employees currently use artificial intelligence technology at least "occasionally" at work. This was up from 46% in the previous quarter, making it the highest rate of workplace AI use recorded by the company.
According to CNMO, among the more frequent user groups, the proportion of employees who use artificial intelligence every day increased from 12% to 13%, and the proportion of employees who use artificial intelligence several times a week also increased from 26% to 28%. The survey, conducted in February and covering more than 23,700 U.S. employees, showed that the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace continues to rise and is triggering structural changes within organizations.
The survey found that 41% of employees said their employers had begun using AI internally to improve organizational practices, but only 26% said their employers had communicated clear plans for how to integrate AI into existing practices. This echoes another recent Gallup survey finding that nearly a quarter of employees surveyed did not know whether their employer had deployed any organization-wide AI tools. This communication gap between the top and the bottom, if it occurs in situations where employers are actively introducing artificial intelligence tools, can undermine the productivity benefits that these tools are supposed to bring.
Notably, among companies that have begun to actively use AI and have clearly communicated this message to employees, the survey found some internal restructuring: 27% of respondents said that the company has made significant changes in the number of employees recently. Among companies that have not yet adopted AI, the figure is 17%. These changes include both positive hiring increases and negative layoffs.
This change is most pronounced among small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, 39% of respondents at companies with 25-499 employees that have adopted AI said their employers are hiring more workers, while 17% said their employers are laying off more people. This compares to 32% and 14% of respondents who work for companies that have not yet adopted AI.
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Another key finding from the survey concerns the actual impact of the use of AI on employees’ daily workflows. Two-thirds of respondents said that the technology has improved their work efficiency, but 12% strongly believed that artificial intelligence has "changed the way work is done." In other words, workers are essentially using AI to do their usual jobs faster.
However, a recent report from software company WalkMe found that the growth in the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace is actually leading to a lot of wasted time. While AI tools for businesses are often designed to help workers reduce routine tasks so they can focus on more impactful, cognitively demanding work.
WalkMe data shows that a lot of work time is now spent just trying to make these tools work. For example, many employees spend time each week moving data from one tool to another or repeatedly tweaking prompt words to produce the desired output. Add up all this scattered time, and workers using AI waste an average of 7.9 hours per week (estimated), which equates to about 51 working days per year.