Artificial intelligence is becoming more common in U.S. workplaces, but it remains unevenly adopted and poorly understood by many employees, according to new Gallup workforce data.
Between the second and third quarters of 2025, the share of U.S. workers who said they use AI on the job at least a few times a year rose from 40% to 45%. More frequent use is also growing: employees using AI a few times a week or more increased from 19% to 23%. Daily use, however, remains limited, inching up from 8% to just 10%.
Knowledge Workers Lead AI Adoption
AI use is heavily concentrated in knowledge-based roles. Employees in technology and information systems report the highest usage, with more than three-quarters saying they use AI at least occasionally. Finance and professional services also show strong adoption, with close to 60% reporting AI use.
By contrast, frontline-heavy industries lag significantly. Only about one-third of retail workers and just over a third of healthcare and manufacturing employees say they use AI at work with the same frequency. The gap highlights how access to AI tools is often tied to job type rather than overall workforce availability.
Many Employees Don’t Know If Their Company Uses AI
Despite rising individual use, organizational clarity around AI remains low. In the third quarter of 2025, only 37% of employees said their employer had implemented AI to improve productivity or quality. Forty percent said their organization had not adopted AI, while nearly one-quarter said they didn’t know.
Uncertainty was highest among individual contributors, part-time workers, frontline employees, and those working fully on-site. Employees farther from leadership and decision-making were much less likely to be aware of AI initiatives.
This disconnect suggests that some workers are using AI tools independently—such as personal chatbots or writing assistants—without clear guidance or visibility into company-wide AI strategies.
AI Communication Gaps Come Into Focus
Gallup adjusted its survey in 2025 to include a “don’t know” option when asking about organizational AI adoption. Earlier versions forced employees to choose whether AI had or had not been implemented, making those results difficult to compare directly.
The updated approach revealed a key issue: many organizations are deploying or allowing AI use without clearly communicating what is approved, how it fits into workflows, or why it is being used.
How Employees Are Actually Using AI
Among employees who use AI at least occasionally, the most common tasks are practical and basic. Workers primarily rely on AI to summarize or consolidate information, generate ideas, and learn new skills. These use cases have remained consistent over the past year.
Chatbots and virtual assistants are the most widely used AI tools, followed by writing and editing software. More advanced tools, such as coding assistants or data analytics platforms, remain niche and are mostly used by frequent AI users.
Employees who use AI often are far more likely to rely on specialized tools, particularly for coding and analytics, highlighting a growing skills divide within the workforce.
AI Growth Continues, but Adoption Is Still Shallow
While nearly half of U.S. employees now use AI at work at least occasionally, only a small fraction rely on it daily. Usage remains concentrated in specific industries and roles, and many employees remain unclear about their organization’s AI strategy.
The data suggests that broader AI adoption depends less on tool availability and more on leadership support, clear communication, and thoughtful integration into everyday work. Without that structure, AI use is likely to remain fragmented rather than transformational.
