Artificial intelligence continues to gain a foothold in U.S. workplaces, but new survey data suggests its expansion is becoming narrower rather than broader. While employees who already use AI are turning to it more often, the overall share of workers engaging with AI has largely stalled, creating a growing divide between frequent users and the rest of the workforce.
Gallup’s fourth-quarter 2025 workforce survey shows that daily AI use rose modestly to 12%, up from 10% earlier in the year. Frequent use, defined as several times per week, climbed to 26%.
But those gains were not matched by an increase in overall adoption. Roughly 46% of workers say they use AI at least occasionally, essentially unchanged from the prior quarter, while nearly half report never using AI in their jobs.
Not Spreading Across the Org Chart
The AI usage pattern suggests AI is becoming more deeply embedded for a subset of workers rather than spreading evenly across organizations. That trend is especially clear across industries. Technology, finance, professional services, and education remain the strongest adopters, with tech workers far outpacing all others—no surprise there.
More than three-quarters of employees in the tech sector say they use AI at work, and more than half do so frequently. In contrast, usage remains far lower in retail, manufacturing, and healthcare, where many jobs are less compatible with current AI tools.
It appears that the type of job plays a defining role in AI use. Employees in positions that can reasonably be performed remotely report far higher AI use than those in on-site roles. Since mid-2023, AI adoption in remote-capable jobs has more than doubled, while growth among non-remote roles has been far slower. In short, desk-based work continues to be the primary environment where AI finds practical application.
Leaders are Leading with AI
Leadership status further widens the gap. Nearly seven in ten senior leaders report using AI at least occasionally, compared with just over half of managers and only four in ten individual contributors.
Leaders are also far more likely to be frequent users, a difference that has grown steadily over the past two years. Gallup researchers suggest that leaders tend to occupy roles where AI tools are easier to apply, and they may also be more aware of how the technology aligns with company priorities.
For some workers, AI has become a practical daily productivity booster. Employees in technology and finance use it to summarize documents, analyze data, draft communications, and manage routine tasks. Retail and frontline workers, by contrast, often rely on personal devices or ad hoc tools rather than employer-provided systems, if they use AI at all.
Hype vs. Reality — And the Importance of Support
Despite the steady drumbeat of enthusiastic messaging around AI’s transformative potential, the data points to a more cautious reality. Many employees report uncertainty about when and how they are expected to use AI. Only a small fraction say they feel very comfortable with the tools, and fewer still say their employer has clearly communicated guidelines or provided training.
Where managers actively support AI use, adoption is significantly higher, which points to the importance of leadership at the operational level, not just the executive tier.
Notably (and perhaps surprisingly), anxiety about job loss remains limited. About half of workers say it is unlikely AI will replace their role in the next five years, a figure that has edged down since 2023. While researchers identify a smaller group of workers with higher exposure to disruption, widespread fear has not materialized.
Overall, this Gallup survey suggests AI’s challenge is no longer awareness but real world usefulness. The technology is widely available, yet for many workers it still lacks a clear, role-specific purpose. Until companies translate high-level enthusiasm into practical applications for a wider range of jobs, AI may continue to advance unevenly, indispensable to some yet barely used by many others.
