Gallup Workforce shows details of AI adoption in US workplaces

Artificial intelligence has moved into the US workplace, but its adoption remains uneven, fragmented, and tied to role, industry, and organisation. Findings from a Gallup Workforce survey covering the period to the end of December 2025 show how employees use AI, who benefits most from it, and where areas of uncertainty remain.
The findings draw from a nationally-representative questioning of more than 23,000 US adults in full- and part-time work, conducted online in August 2025. Its conclusions are that instances of AI in the workplace are increasing, but its use is far from universal, and is concentrated among knowledge-based workers.

The office AI

Employees in technology, finance, and professional services are by far the biggest user group. More than three-quarters of those working in IT report using AI “at least a few times a year”. In finance and professional services, the figure is a touch under 60%. AI-enabled or aided roles tend to be those that involve significant digital workflow and information synthesis; tasks that correspond with AI’s current abilities.
AI use is lower in sectors dominated by customer-facing or manual work. Only around a third of retail workers report comparable levels of use to their office counterparts, although those in healthcare and manufacturing do tend to deploy AI more often than those in retail, for example. The fact that current raft of AI platforms fit more naturally into desk-based, cognitive roles seems obvious – less so is a drop-off in user numbers in tightly-regulated environments.

Do we, or don’t we?

Gallup’s data reveals a significant number of workers ore unsure whether or not their employer had adopted AI – nearly a quarter of those surveyed weren’t sure. In the third quarter of 2025, just over a third of employees said their organisation had implemented AI. 40% said there was no adoption of AI in their place of work
It’s worth noting that earlier versions of Gallup surveys didn’t include a “don’t know” option for questions about employers’ AI adoption, which encouraged respondents to guess. Belief in organisational AI adoption appeared to rise sharply between 2024 and 2025, therefore, Gallup says. Once uncertainty could be stated explicitly, it became clear a good number of employees were simply uninformed on the matter.
It’s staff in non-managerial roles who are more likely to say they’re unaware of their organisation’s AI use, a tendency mirrored in part-time staff and hands-on roles. The further workers are from decision-making, it seems, the less sure they become.

How workers use AI

The way employees use AI are consistent: of those using AI at least once a year, the most common applications are consolidating information, searching for information, and “generating ideas”, tasks that have changed little since Gallup first measured workplace AI use in 2024.
More than 60% of AI users refer to chatbots, with using AI for writing and editing coming some way behind. Coding assistants and data science tools remain niche, but popular. Employees who use AI often are far more likely to use any more advanced tools at their disposal; particularly true in the cases of coding assistants and data analysis.
Although use figures are generally up, Gallup concludes that AI has yet to be embedded in daily work for most Americans. Around 45% of workers say they use AI “a few times a year”, but only about 10% use it every day.

Conclusions

Business leaders have an easy win: simply clarifying a position on AI use would be a positive, plus publicising the availability (or otherwise) of AI tools would be an easy way to improve adoption rates.
The current abilities of AI pertain to desk-based, digital and data-centric workflows, although there are a myriad of platforms that will utilise AI in other roles. Exploring these more fully would certainly be bucking the trend, and may make the difference between an organisation’s long-term prospects and those of its direct competitors.
A page detailing Gallup’s findings can be found on the company’s website.
(Image source: “DIY Open Plan Office” by lower29 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.)
 

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