EY: Work Reimagined Survey

31 Aug

Reaping value from AI investments requires mastering the tensions between talent and tech or risking an AI productivity drop of 40%

Source: EY, Work Reimagined Survey , 11 October 2024.

Executive summary

EY’s Work Reimagined survey highlights a widening gap between AI deployment and value capture. In the survey, 88% of employees report using AI, yet only 28% of organizations say they are positioned to unlock its full value. The report flags a material downside when adoption outpaces workforce readiness: organizations that leave workforce tension unaddressed risk a 40% AI productivity drop.

The practical message is that scaling AI is an operating model and workforce readiness problem, not an access problem. Capturing value requires redesigning how work gets done, clarifying how humans and AI collaborate, and building the workforce intelligence and change mechanisms that prevent productivity loss and downstream attrition.

Key stats and quotable claims

88% of employees are using AI.
Only 28% of organizations are positioned to unlock full value from AI.
Organizations that leave workforce tension unaddressed risk a 40% AI productivity drop.

Opening context

CEOs across industries now see artificial intelligence (AI) as essential, not optional. Yet, according to a recent MIT study, despite billions invested in generative AI (GenAI), roughly 95% of organizations report no measurable return, while only about 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value and demonstrating meaningful P&L impact. This, despite companies’ massive investments in AI – a third (35%) of senior leaders whose organization is investing in AI anticipate spending US$10 million or more next year, according to a recent EY study in the US.

The EY Work Reimagined study has tracked the evolution of work for years. This year, building on our past work on Talent Advantage, we zeroed in on AI in the workplace – specifically, why some organizations achieve transformational results while most see only modest gains. We surveyed 15,000 employees and 1,500 employers across 29 countries and looked at a range of outcome measures including productivity, quality of work, decision making and various dimensions of the work experience. We looked at how employees are adopting AI and the benefits at work and then compared that with the benefits companies are seeing from a business perspective.

The findings of our Work Reimagined 2025 study reveal the scale of the challenge. Nearly nine out of 10 employees now use AI at work, yet only 28% of organizations are positioned to turn AI deployment into high-value outcomes. Our research shows why: employees may be saving a few hours here and there but nothing that fundamentally changes how work gets done or how the business performs.

What separates the 28% from everyone else? The organizations achieving transformational results have honed five strategic capabilities working in concert: having the right approach to recruiting and retaining talent; driving AI adoption at scale; building continuous learning into daily operations; reshaping culture and workplace norms; and aligning rewards with new behaviors and outcomes.

AI investment on its own isn’t enough. When new technology lands on fragile talent foundations – weak culture, insufficient learning, misaligned rewards – productivity benefits lag by over 40%.

Chapter 1 How to drive AI Advantage and why it’s not enough

Widespread adoption masks shallow use and fragile talent foundations.

Employee usage of AI at work is now widespread, with 88% of survey respondents saying they use AI at work to some degree and 37% use it daily. Usage spans from 80% of essential workers to 94% of knowledge workers, with near-universal adoption among leaders and managers.

Mind the maturity gap

However, this surface-level adoption masks a deeper problem. While most workers use AI for basic tasks like searching for information (54%) or summarizing documents (38%), only 5% qualify as advanced users who blend multiple tools to unlock roughly a day and a half of additional productivity per week. Advanced users extract far more value, using AI as a thought partner rather than a simple tool.

Skill sets, toolsets and mindsets drive the AI Advantage

What drives this gap between basic AI adoption and true AI adoption excellence is a model we call the AI Advantage. We analyzed more than 15 variables in our 15,000-employee dataset to understand what fuels employees who see the most AI adoption value at work, a measure of adoption success from 0-100 that examines median hours unlocked per employee per week as an outcome variable. We found that three interconnected drivers – skill set, toolset and mindset – power this AI Advantage.

Skill sets unlock productivity

Unsurprisingly, AI training is key to success, accounting for nearly 50% of the AI Advantage score. Employees with 81 or more hours of AI training per year save 14 hours per week, compared to just 3 hours for those with fewer than 4 hours of training. Yet only 12% of surveyed employees received this level of training in the past 12 months, which explains why the global AI adoption value score sits at just 34 out of 100.

Manager proficiency also plays a crucial role – employees who are confident their managers know how to use AI effectively see better outcomes. However, the catch is that these highly skilled employees are also 55% more likely to leave. Employers need to align the employee value proposition for employees with hot skills in the market. It is critical to grant continued access to the latest technology as well as opportunities to translate the skills to career options.

Toolsets provide the right tools for the right role and clear guardrails

The right AI tools matter, and employees who report their AI tools are tailored to their specific role also demonstrate significantly higher adoption value. However, in parallel, employees who are most passionate about AI potential are also taking matters into their own hands with 23% to 58% of employees bringing their own AI to work, and even paying for their own subscriptions.

Further, there is substantial pressure to perform, with 64% of employees perceiving a workload increase in the past 12 months and 38% fearing job loss without replacement.

Mindset becomes the new multiplier

Mindset drives adoption. Having formal goals or incentives to adopt AI, along with involvement in organizational AI programs, correlates strongly with time saved and positive outcomes.

Organizations that build an AI Advantage face new tensions

However, getting these drivers right is necessary but not sufficient. Organizations that build an AI Advantage face new tensions that can offset productivity gains. Bridging the gap between AI investment and tangible impact requires a balanced approach that considers both technological capability and human readiness. The Talent Advantage – a framework of five strategic capabilities – can help to manage these tensions.

Chapter 2 Five capabilities that unlock high-value AI outcomes

Less than a third of organizations master the Talent Advantage that makes transformation enduring.

Organizations with weak talent foundations see productivity benefits lag by over 40% relative to organizations with what we’ve termed Talent Advantage – five interconnected strategic capabilities that create the foundation for sustainable transformation. Only 28% of organizations in our survey demonstrate strength across all five – not as separate initiatives but as an integrated system where each capability reinforces the others.

Talent health and flow: Talent health and flow drive everything else, measuring overall conditions for success using employees’ likelihood to recommend their employer to friends and family.

Based on our analysis of the variables that predict net promotion (measured from 0-100 based on employees’ self-reported importance on the largest effect on the outcome to recommend the company), the global Talent Health score stands at 65 out of 100, with culture accounting for 44%, rewards 32% and development 24%.

While only 20% of employees at Talent Disadvantage organizations are likely to promote their company as a great place to work, 89% are likely to do so at Talent Advantage organizations. This creates network effects – employee promoters become talent magnets who attract more high-performers.

AI adoption excellence: AI adoption excellence requires frequent, sophisticated use of AI with role-specific tools and strategic goals.

Learning and capability development: Learning and capability development stands as the strongest predictor of AI success.

Culture and workplace transformation: This kind of transformation provides the enabling environment for AI integration.
Strategic total rewards: Strategic total rewards must be personalized and flexible, aligning with evolving employee needs and AI-driven roles.

Chapter 3 Navigating the five critical tensions to reach the Talent Advantage

Leading organizations don’t avoid tensions; they actively manage them.

Every organization that pursues a Talent Advantage must pay attention to five important tensions that can derail progress. The key is to lean into these challenges, providing the right support at the right time while learning as you go.

Address the learning-retention dilemma: Employees with fewer than 4 hours of AI learning have 21% quit intent, rising to 45% for those with 81 or more hours.
Maximize AI-enabled time gains: AI delivers tangible time savings, with employees reporting an average of eight hours saved per week.
Deal directly with the anxiety-innovation gap: While organizations struggle to find talent, 38% of employees fear job loss due to AI.
Resolve the shadow AI challenge: Between 23% and 58% of employees bring personal AI tools to work.
Energize reorganization to combat fatigue: Roughly eight out of 10 Talent Advantage employers have already significantly reorganized due to AI, yet 74% recognize this still needs to evolve.

Closing

Only 28% of organizations have reached Talent Advantage, unlocking transformational results. The remaining 72% have a choice: become fast followers who quickly build the five capabilities while navigating the tensions or fall further behind as the gap between leaders and laggards widens.

Sustainable advantage in the AI era depends on combining the ability to build strong human foundations and advanced technology. There’s no question whether AI will transform an organization’s industry and workforce. It will. The question is whether organizations will shape their transformation – or react to it.

The five capabilities provide what to build. The five tensions reveal the challenges organizations will face. The 28% who have achieved Talent Advantage prove it’s possible. Now the question becomes: will your organization build the systematic excellence required to join them?

Key takeaways, Chasm compliant

Treat AI value as an operating model problem, not a tooling problem.
Measure the gap between AI usage and value readiness explicitly.
Look for workforce tension as an early indicator of productivity risk.
Redesign workflows and roles before scaling across the enterprise.
Build leadership routines that sustain trust, adoption, and accountability.

Abinesh Kanagaraj