Chart of the Week: AI Use at Work

Recently, I wrote about how AI has already replaced 50,000 jobs this year.

I use AI practically every day myself. So if you thought that everyone at work is using AI by now, you’re in good company.

But the latest data reveals something surprising.

Yes, AI use is growing fast. But most workers still aren’t using it regularly.

And that’s what makes today’s chart so fascinating:

A Gallup survey found that U.S. employees who use AI in their jobs “a few times a year or more” doubled over the last 12 months, rising from 21% to 40%.

Daily use is growing too. But slowly.

The portion of workers who say they use AI every day rose from 4% to 8%.

At first glance, those numbers feel low to me. As I mentioned, I use AI multiple times a day. I’m sure many of you do too. But this chart shows just how early we still are…

And how much productivity is still left on the table.

Last month, Pew Research reported that about one in five U.S. workers now use AI as part of their job, up from 16% a year earlier. Most of that growth came from knowledge workers, engineers, analysts and administrative roles.

That makes sense because white collar jobs tend to benefit the most from being early on new digital tools.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve released its own analysis showing that the share of work hours involving generative AI has climbed from 4.1% in late 2024 to 5.7% this summer.

But it’s not just that more people are using AI. It’s that the people who do use it are using it more often, for deeper parts of their job.

And inside companies, adoption is racing ahead even faster. According to Stanford’s AI Index, 78% of organizations used some form of AI in 2024, up from 55% the year before.

This tells me that the adoption phase of AI is heating up.

Companies bought the tools, and now they’re figuring out how to get employees to use them productively and consistently.

Here’s My Take

At first glance, the numbers in today’s chart might seem surprising. But they’re not so unusual when you consider typical adoption curves.

Think about the internet in the 1990s.

Big companies wired their offices years before most employees used the web for anything more than email. Productivity didn’t surge until workers built new habits around search, e-commerce and digital communication.

Today, AI is going through this same evolution.

The enterprise side is surging, and early adopters are accelerating this surge. But the majority of workers are still figuring out how to use AI in a meaningful way.

This is exactly what a long, durable productivity boom looks like in its earliest stage.

And it means the real gains haven’t arrived yet.

If adoption continues at this pace, daily AI use could hit 20% of the U.S. workforce by the end of 2026.

And that’s when the AI productivity boom will really start to take off.

Regards,

Ian KingChief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing

Editor’s Note: We’d love to hear from you!

If you want to share your thoughts or suggestions about the Daily Disruptor, or if there are any specific topics you’d like us to cover, just send an email to [email protected].

Don’t worry, we won’t reveal your full name in the event we publish a response. So feel free to comment away!