Research
Generative AI in the Workplace Statistics 2026
Generative AI workplace statistics measure how many employees use chatbots and assistants for their jobs, how much time they say it saves, how employers govern it and what measured effects show. They come from central bank surveys, statistics offices, academic field studies and large employer and worker surveys.
This page collects dated figures on generative AI at work from the Federal Reserve system, Eurostat, the U.S. Census Bureau, NBER studies, Gallup, KPMG with the University of Melbourne, Deloitte UK and Microsoft. Self-reported and vendor-run surveys are labeled as such in the notes. General consumer usage, European enterprise adoption and coding assistants have their own pages, and forecasts are left out.
How many workers use generative AI at work, and how often?
- #128%
In a nationally representative U.S. survey from August 2024, 28% of workers said they used generative AI at work to some degree.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (2024). First nationally representative U.S. survey of generative AI adoption, August 2024; the author notes a later post revises these figures.
- #29% every workday
The St. Louis Fed found 9% of U.S. workers used generative AI every workday in the previous week, and a further 14% used it on some but not all workdays.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (2024). Pooled August and November 2024 surveys; 21.8% of all workers used it in the previous week.
- #352.0% vs 7.3%
Among workers who used generative AI every workday, 52.0% spent an hour or more per day with it, against 7.3% of those who last used it more than a week earlier.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (2024). Intensity is concentrated in daily users; among all previous-month users, 31.9% spent an hour or more per workday.
- #4about 41%
The Federal Reserve Board estimated that work-related generative AI adoption among U.S. individuals stood at about 41% in November 2025, from the Real-Time Population Survey.
Federal Reserve Board, Monitoring AI Adoption in the US Economy (2025). Share of the workforce; the same note reports non-work generative AI use at about 50% of the population.
- #563% finance, 62% professional services
The Fed's note put work-related generative AI adoption at 63% of workers in finance and 62% in professional services, the highest of the sectors shown.
Federal Reserve Board, Monitoring AI Adoption in the US Economy (2025). Real-Time Population Survey, November 2025; manufacturing showed the fastest year-on-year growth in work-related adoption.
- #65% to 40%
Across 16 U.S. surveys, point estimates of work-related AI adoption as of mid-2024 ranged from about 5% to 40%, a spread the Federal Reserve attributes largely to sampling and wording.
Federal Reserve Board, Monitoring AI Adoption in the US Economy (2024). The Fed note cites a review of 16 surveys by Crane, Green and Soto (2025); it names sampling differences as the biggest driver of variation.
- #715.1% work, 25.1% private
In 2025, 15.1% of EU residents aged 16 to 74 used generative AI tools for professional purposes, compared with 25.1% who used them privately.
Eurostat, 64% of 16-24-year-olds used AI in 2025 (2025). Use in the previous three months, EU household ICT survey; 9.4% used generative AI for formal education.
- #815.8% vs 15.1%
Professional use of generative AI in the EU was nearly identical for 16 to 24 year olds (15.8%) and the general population (15.1%) in 2025.
Eurostat, 64% of 16-24-year-olds used AI in 2025 (2025). Young people led on private use (44.2%) and education (39.3%) but many have not yet entered the labor market.
- #963% use, 24% daily
In a May to June 2026 survey of UK workers, 63% of working adults said they knowingly use generative AI for work, and 24% said they use it every day.
Deloitte UK, British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work, landmark Deloitte research finds (2026). Online survey of 25,000 UK workers aged 18 to 70 run by Ipsos UK, May 7 to June 10, 2026; self-reported and run by a consultancy.
- #1046% free tools
Deloitte UK found that 46% of workplace generative AI users rely on free tools, 34% on external tools paid for by their employer and 17% on in-house tools.
Deloitte UK, British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work, landmark Deloitte research finds (2026). Share of the 16,749 respondents who said they use generative AI for work.
- #1143% search and emails
The top three workplace generative AI uses reported to Deloitte UK were searching for information (43%), drafting emails (43%) and creating summaries (31%).
Deloitte UK, British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work, landmark Deloitte research finds (2026). Self-reported by users; Deloitte describes these as everyday tasks where adoption is only scratching the surface.
Does generative AI make workers more productive?
- #1214%
A study of 5,179 customer support agents found access to a generative AI conversational assistant raised issues resolved per hour by 14% on average.
National Bureau of Economic Research, Generative AI at Work (NBER Working Paper 31161) (2023). Staggered rollout of one company's assistant to support agents; results in one setting may not carry to other jobs.
- #1334% for novices
The same NBER study found a 34% productivity gain for novice and low-skilled agents, with minimal impact on experienced and highly skilled workers.
National Bureau of Economic Research, Generative AI at Work (NBER Working Paper 31161) (2023). The authors suggest the assistant spreads the practices of more able workers to newer ones.
- #145.4% of hours
U.S. workers who used generative AI in the previous week reported saving an average of 5.4% of their work hours, about 2.2 hours of a 40-hour week.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (2024). November 2024 survey, self-reported time savings among previous-week users.
- #1520.5% saved 4+ hours
In the St. Louis Fed survey, 20.5% of previous-week generative AI users said they saved four or more hours that week, while 33.0% saved an hour or less.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (2024). Among workers who used it every workday, 33.5% saved four or more hours.
- #161.1%
The St. Louis Fed's authors estimated that self-reported time savings imply a 1.1% increase in aggregate U.S. productivity.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (2024). An estimate built on self-reported savings spread across all workers, including non-users, not a measured output gain.
- #17under 2%
A Danish study linking surveys to administrative records ruled out effects larger than 2% of earnings or recorded hours two years after ChatGPT launched.
National Bureau of Economic Research, Still Waters, Rapid Currents: Early Labor Market Transformation under Generative AI (NBER Working Paper 33777) (2025). Difference-in-differences on Danish administrative data; the authors report that work changed in structure and tasks before it changed in pay or hours.
Are employers ready for the way workers use generative AI?
- #1831%
Deloitte UK reported that 31% of workplace generative AI users use it without their employer's knowledge, which the firm calls shadow AI.
Deloitte UK, British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work, landmark Deloitte research finds (2026). Share of users who bring their own tools to work; self-reported survey of UK workers.
- #19about half
Around half of UK employees who use generative AI at work said they have received no formal training on using it safely and effectively, according to Deloitte.
Deloitte UK, British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work, landmark Deloitte research finds (2026). Deloitte also found 65% of users report a lack of convincing leadership on how generative AI should be used.
- #2017%
One in six (17%) UK generative AI users pays for at least one tool themselves for work, which Deloitte estimates at £958 million of personal spend a year.
Deloitte UK, British workers spend nearly £1bn of their own money on GenAI for work, landmark Deloitte research finds (2026). The £958 million figure is Deloitte's own estimate extrapolated from survey responses.
- #2144% vs 22%
In Gallup's 2025 workforce study, 44% of U.S. employees said their organization had begun integrating AI, but only 22% said it had communicated a clear plan or strategy.
Gallup, AI Use at Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Years (2025). Gallup Panel web survey of U.S. adults working full or part time for organizations.
- #2230%
Gallup reported in 2025 that 30% of U.S. employees said their organization had general guidelines or formal policies for using AI at work.
Gallup, AI Use at Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Years (2025). Employee-reported; the survey cannot show whether the other 70% have policies that employees do not know about.
- #2316%
Only 16% of U.S. employees who use AI strongly agreed that the AI tools their organization provides are useful for their work, Gallup found in 2025.
Gallup, AI Use at Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Years (2025). Asked of employees who report using AI in their role.
- #2466% rely, 56% mistakes
In the 2025 KPMG and University of Melbourne global study, 66% of AI users said they rely on AI output without evaluating its accuracy and 56% said they have made mistakes at work because of AI.
KPMG and University of Melbourne, Trust, attitudes and use of Artificial Intelligence: A global study 2025 (2025). Survey of more than 48,000 people in 47 countries; the 66% and 56% figures are as stated on KPMG's summary page.
How far has generative AI reached across firms and sectors?
- #2539.7% Information
The U.S. Census Bureau found AI use in 39.7% of Information-sector firms and 33.9% of Finance and Insurance firms as of May 3, 2026, against 19.8% nationally.
U.S. Census Bureau, Large Firms With at Least 20 Employees Biggest AI Users (2026). Business Trends and Outlook Survey; the question covers AI in any business function, not generative AI alone.
- #26about 14%
Retail Trade businesses reported about 14% current AI use in the Census Bureau's May 2026 data, below the national rate, with about 17% expecting to use it within six months.
U.S. Census Bureau, Large Firms With at Least 20 Employees Biggest AI Users (2026). Business Trends and Outlook Survey, period ending May 3, 2026.
- #2778% AI, 54% LLMs
A November 2025 survey of senior leaders estimated that 78% of the U.S. labor force works at firms that have adopted AI and about 54% at firms that use large language models.
Federal Reserve Board, Monitoring AI Adoption in the US Economy (2025). Survey of Business Uncertainty, employment-weighted, so it counts workers rather than firms; the Fed notes its estimates differ from other surveys.
- #2824% org-wide, 12% pilot
In Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index, 24% of leaders said their company had deployed AI organization-wide, while 12% remained in pilot mode.
Microsoft, 2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born (2025). Survey of 31,000 knowledge workers in 31 markets, February 6 to March 24, 2025; vendor-run, and the vendor sells AI products.
- #2946%
Microsoft's 2025 survey found 46% of leaders said their companies use agents to fully automate workflows or processes.
Microsoft, 2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born (2025). Leader-reported in a vendor-run survey; Microsoft says 67% of leaders are familiar with agents against 40% of employees.
- #3052% tool, 46% partner
When Microsoft asked how workers see AI, 52% described it as a command-based tool and 46% as a thought partner for brainstorming and challenging their thinking.
Microsoft, 2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born (2025). Vendor-run survey of knowledge workers; the remaining 2% did not know.
Frequently asked questions
What share of workers use generative AI at work?
It depends on the survey and the country. The Federal Reserve Board puts work-related generative AI adoption in the U.S. at about 41% in November 2025, Deloitte found 63% of UK workers in 2026, and Eurostat measured 15.1% of EU residents aged 16 to 74 for professional use in 2025. Wording and sampling explain much of the spread.
Does generative AI actually raise productivity?
Field evidence shows gains in specific jobs, while economy-wide effects are small so far. An NBER study of 5,179 support agents found 14% more issues resolved per hour, and 34% for novices. A Danish study found no earnings or hours effect larger than 2% two years after ChatGPT launched.
How many employees use generative AI without their employer knowing?
Deloitte UK found that 31% of workplace generative AI users in its May to June 2026 survey use it without their employer's knowledge, and 17% pay for a tool themselves. Gallup separately found in 2025 that only 30% of U.S. employees say their organization has AI guidelines or policies.
Which industries use generative AI at work the most?
Finance and professional services lead. The Federal Reserve Board reports work-related generative AI adoption of 63% in finance and 62% in professional services in November 2025. Census Bureau data from May 2026 shows AI use in 39.7% of Information firms and 33.9% of Finance and Insurance firms, versus about 14% in retail.