Half of U.S. Employees Now Use AI at Work

Ok, I usually don't use some smart ass computer to think for me and only Claude AI. I can quit anytime I want.

Half of U.S. Employees Now Use AI at Work

Gallup

The Data: For the first time in Gallup's tracking, half of U.S. employees say they use AI in their role at least a few times a year, more than double the rate in 2023. Frequent use is climbing too: 28% use AI a few times a week or more, and 13% use it daily.

More Details: While 65% of employees in AI-adopting organizations say AI has improved their productivity, only about one in 10 strongly agree that it has fundamentally changed how work gets done.

Leaders Are the Most Frequent AI Users

A note on the data: The chart in No. 1 includes all U.S. employees. This chart narrows the lens to employees at organizations that make AI tools available and regroups the usage categories, so the numbers appear higher and the colors represent different things. Don't compare them side by side without that context.

The Data: Among employees in organizations that make AI tools available, 67% of leaders say they use AI daily or a few times a week, compared with 52% of managers, 50% of project managers and 46% of individual contributors.

More Context: Role differences alone do not fully explain why some employees use AI and others do not. Gallup's February 2026 study of 23,717 U.S. employees finds that manager support and deliberate integration of AI into existing workflows are closely tied to more frequent use. Concerns about usefulness, ethics, data security and established work habits may also affect adoption.