October 21, 2025
Companies Are Pushing AI but Few Employees Know How to Use It
AI is showing up in offices faster than ever, but most people at work don’t feel ready to use it well. Even if they are, many of them admit they aren’t leveraging the tools to their full potential.
A recent study by Perceptyx, which looked at over 3,600 workers in North America and Europe, shows that about 70% of workers are using AI in some way, but only 15% think their teams are really getting the most out of it.
This is leading to AI anxiety, or AI fatigue, if employees are overusing it, where people aren’t sure how AI makes choices, wonder if it’s being used fairly, and don’t feel like they have what they need to keep up.
This issue is biggest for regular employees, with only 35% of them using AI right now, compared to 68% of managers and 82% of those at the executive level. At the same time, managers and executives are feeling the pressure of these changes; more than 80% say AI has changed how much they work, and almost 90% need new skills to stay current. If they don’t get the help they need, lower-level employees could fall behind as AI changes their work.
Hype without Purpose
Less than half of regular employees know why companies choose to use AI, and only 43% think AI-helped decisions are fair. Even though Gen Z employees use AI tools a lot, they’re the least sure that AI is being used ethically: 62% trust their company to use AI responsibly, compared to 72–74% of older workers.
Workers are also concerned about things like bias and knowing what their roles are. Just over half are scared of unfairness in AI decisions, and almost 40% aren’t clear on how AI will change what they do every day. These problems suggest that just putting AI in place quickly won’t automatically make things better.
The report suggests some simple ways to fix these problems: explain clearly what AI tools are for and how they affect things, train managers to guide their teams, deal with skill gaps, and make sure everyone has fair access to AI.
