Workers Reject AI Tools: 54% Avoid In-House AI, Survey Finds

Tech companies are increasingly targeting corporate offices as a revenue source for generative AI tools, but a new survey suggests these efforts are failing to gain traction among workers.

A study by WalkMe, a software company owned by SAP, surveyed 3,750 executives and employees globally and uncovered significant discontent with AI deployments in the workplace.

Workers Reject AI Tools Despite Executive Push

According to the findings:

• 54% of workers reported avoiding their company’s in-house AI tools to complete tasks themselves.
• 33% of workers stated they never use AI at all.
• Only 9% of workers trust AI for complex, “business-critical” decisions, compared to 61% of executives.
• 88% of executives believe the AI tools they imposed on workers are adequate, while only 21% of workers agree.

AI Deployments Fail to Deliver on Productivity Promises

The survey also highlighted a stark contrast in perceptions of AI’s impact on productivity:

• 81% of executives believe their AI deployments have “significantly improved productivity.”
• Workers, however, report wasting eight hours per week cleaning up AI-related errors, equating to 51 workdays lost annually.
• This represents a sharp increase from last year’s survey, where workers lost 36 workdays dealing with AI friction.

Economists and Studies Question AI’s Workplace Impact

“AI didn’t deliver.”

— Steve Hanke, economist at Johns Hopkins, speaking to Fortune about the findings.

“Welcome to the real world. Forget the AI bubble. You know, it didn’t deliver. You look at all the surveys and yeah, everybody’s using it a little bit, but you dig into it and it hasn’t done much.”

“Productivity, by the way, it was weak. If AI delivered, productivity would be way up. You listen to these Silicon Valley guys and they say we’re gonna have GDP going to 5 percent [or] 6 percent. Productivity is gonna go up to six. It’s just not happening.”

The results further bolster the arguments of AI skeptics. An MIT study from August 2023 found that 95% of AI deployments in the workplace failed to generate the expected return on investment. WalkMe’s survey suggests that little has changed in the seven months since.

Executives Remain Out of Touch with Worker Reality

While executives express unwavering confidence in AI tools, workers are left grappling with the consequences—wasting time correcting AI errors rather than benefiting from supposed productivity gains.

This disconnect underscores the growing resistance to AI in corporate environments, despite the technology’s aggressive marketing push.