Rising AI Adoption Spurs Workforce Changes

For the first time in Gallup’s measurement, half of employed American adults say they use AI in their role at least a few times a year, up from 46% last quarter. Frequent AI use is also increasing, with 13% of employees now saying they use AI daily and 28% reporting they use it a few times a week or more.

Organizational AI adoption rates are also increasing, though at a slower pace. Forty-one percent of employees say their organization has integrated artificial intelligence technology or tools to improve organizational practices, up three points from the previous quarter.

Gallup’s Feb. 4-19, 2026, survey of 23,717 U.S. employees suggests the growing presence of AI is beginning to reshape workplace dynamics. Employees in organizations that have adopted AI are more likely to report disruption and both positive and negative changes in staffing levels. Employees who use AI frequently say it improves their productivity, but evidence that AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done across organizations remains more limited.

AI Adoption Coincides With Workforce Shifts

Twenty-seven percent of employees in AI-adopting organizations say that their workplace has changed in disruptive ways to a large or very large extent in the past year. By comparison, 17% of employees in organizations that have not adopted AI report the same level of disruption.

This disruption appears closely tied to changes in workforce composition. Employees in AI-adopting organizations are more likely to report both expansions and reductions. Compared with employees in organizations that have not implemented AI, they more often say that their organization is hiring new people and expanding the size of its workforce (34% vs. 28%) or letting people go and reducing the size of its workforce (23% vs. 16%).

Both AI-adopting and non-adopting organizations report a similar net trend toward workforce expansion overall. However, the underlying staffing changes are more pronounced in organizations that have adopted AI, particularly among small and midsized employers.

The staffing pattern by AI use is different among the largest organizations. Employees in AI-adopting organizations of 10,000 or more are slightly more likely to report reductions in workforce size (33%) than expansion (30%). This contrasts with organizations of 10,000 or more that have not adopted AI. In these organizations, 36% report hiring and expanding their workforce compared with 23% reporting reductions.

Because these organizations employee a large share of the workforce and are also among the most likely to adopt AI, workforce changes within large organizations may shape public perceptions of AI’s impact on jobs.

Worker concerns about job displacement have grown alongside expanded AI adoption and organizational shifts. Eighteen percent of all U.S. employees say it is very or somewhat likely their job will be eliminated within the next five years due to AI or automation. Among employees working in organizations that have adopted AI, that share rises to 23%.

AI Users Report Productivity Gains but Rarely Transformational Changes to Work

Within organizations implementing AI, 65% of employees say artificial intelligence has improved their productivity and efficiency, regardless of how often they personally use AI. Sixteen percent say the effect has been extremely positive, while fewer than one in 10 say AI has had a negative impact on their work.

Frequent AI users are more likely to report stronger productivity gains, suggesting that employees who find clear use cases for AI will continue using it and see greater results. Many employees report that AI at work helps them complete specific activities more efficiently, such as drafting written content, summarizing information or generating ideas.

Yet the benefits of workplace AI use appear concentrated at the level of individual tasks rather than broader workplace systems. Only about one in 10 employees in AI-adopting organizations strongly agree that artificial intelligence has transformed how work gets done in their organization.

These findings are consistent with empirical evidence from firm-level studies across the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia, which show chief executives reporting minimal effect of AI on productivity over the past three years.¹

The gap between reported individual and firm-level productivity suggests that while AI is helping many employees work more efficiently, many organizations have not yet fundamentally redesigned workflows, roles or processes around AI.

AI Productivity Gains Vary by Leadership Level and Job Type

Employees’ experiences with AI also vary by the type of work they perform. Among employees who use AI at least a few times a year or more, those in leadership roles are most likely to report strong productivity gains. Twenty-one percent of leaders say artificial intelligence has had an extremely positive impact on their productivity, compared with 13% of individual contributors.

These differences likely reflect both greater exposure to AI tools and clearer use cases for the technology in leadership roles. Leaders are more likely to work in knowledge-based, remote-capable roles where they can apply AI tools to tasks such as analysis, communication and planning.

Differences also appear across job categories. Among employees who report using AI, healthcare workers and employees in technical and professional roles stand out as early leaders in reported productivity gains.

By contrast, workers in service roles and office administrative support roles are more likely to say AI has had little or no effect — or a negative effect — on their productivity.

A similar pattern appears in perceptions of broader workplace change. Leaders and employees in technical and professional roles are somewhat more likely than other workers to say AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done in their organization. Even among these groups, only a small share strongly agree that AI has transformed how work gets done across their organization.

Implications

Use of AI in the workplace continues to expand across the U.S. workforce, with half of employees now reporting that they use artificial intelligence at least a few times a year in their role. As adoption of AI in business grows, employees in organizations implementing AI are also more likely to report disruption and workforce changes. Many organizations are still adjusting how they organize work and manage staffing as AI becomes more common.

At the same time, 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. 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.

These findings suggest that AI’s effect will likely unfold unevenly across roles, industries and organizations. In the near term, many workplaces may experience a combination of productivity gains for some employees alongside ongoing adjustments to staffing, workflows and job design.

For leaders, the variation in how employees experience AI highlights the importance of managing AI adoption challenges effectively. As organizations continue integrating AI into workflows, its long-term effect may depend as much on how leaders guide adoption and redesign work processes as on continued improvements in AI tools themselves.