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Generative AI is becoming about as ubiquitous in the modern office as Slack pings and sad desk salads.
That’s according to a new survey from McKinsey, in which 91% of nearly 600 respondents told the firm they use generative AI for work, a big jump from half a year ago, when a similar poll pegged that figure at 30%. McKinsey said this upswing represents “an inflection point” for employee use of AI, but that for all their seeming enthusiasm about the tech, companies aren’t keeping up with their workforces in this respect.
The findings match those of a Microsoft and LinkedIn report from a few months ago, which found that three-quarters of workers used AI at work without their bosses’ OK. While companies like Microsoft, SAP, and Salesforce have embedded AI tools in their workplace products, some businesses report running into growing pains when it comes to large-scale adoption of the tech.
The majority of workers who use AI believe it will help them with communication, critical thinking, and creativity, according to the McKinsey report. Around 70% of these AI enthusiasts consider themselves “light users,” while a 21% slice self-identifies as “heavy users.”
In contrast, just 13% of companies have implemented six or more use cases of AI in the office—a group McKinsey calls “early adopters”—while 60% remain in an experimentation phase, defined as those who have piloted GenAI experiments or have put as many as five GenAI applications into use.
Gartner distinguished VP analyst Arun Chandrasekaran told us that many companies are currently struggling to shift from pilot to production on AI projects, with factors like hallucination and other risks, high costs, or lack of data governance holding them back. Gartner recently predicted that 30% of these projects would be abandoned by next year.
Workers tapping AI on an individual level seem to have fewer of these qualms, according to McKinsey; almost all employees are optimistic about generative AI’s ability to improve work experience, a departure from other surveys showing worker trepidation.
The consultancy recommends that companies make the most of employee usage of AI by implementing governance structures, formally upskilling and reskilling workforces, and providing other means of support for AI on the job.