According to a study by polling firm Gallup, the adoption of AI in the workplace stalled in the fourth quarter of 2025, but those who have already started using AI are doing more. But don’t think that AI is taking over your jobs. Frequent AI users remain a small minority of the overall workforce.
The sharp increase in AI usage in the workplace over the course of the year leveled off almost completely between the third and fourth quarters of 2025, Gallup reported over the weekend. The total share of workers using AI rose just one percentage point in the last three months of the year, from 45 percent in the third quarter to 46 percent. Similarly, 38% of respondents said their organization had implemented AI in Q4, just 1 percentage point higher than in Q3.
That said, while AI adoption and usage remained flat through the final quarter of 2025, the number of workers who reported frequent and daily use of AI did increase.
Frequent AI usage, defined as several times a week, increased by 3%, and daily AI usage increased by 2%. It’s also worth noting that while larger than the overall 1% increase, these changes are still small and make up a vastly smaller number of overall AI users. According to responses, only 26 percent of workers use AI frequently and only 12 percent use it daily.
So who’s jumping on board? The results there are also not surprising.
According to Gallup, knowledge-based industries are dominant in the use of AI, with the technology sector particularly fond of using it. 77% of technology professionals report using AI in the workplace, with 57% using AI frequently and 31% using AI daily. University employees and financial professionals are also commonly employed.
Interestingly, employees in “remote-enabled” roles, which Gallup defines as “work that can reasonably be completed remotely, regardless of where the employee physically works,” are big fans of AI, with 66% of employees reporting using AI in the fourth quarter. Far fewer employees in non-remote roles report using AI, at just 32%. However, this could be due to the nature of their work, as Gallup notes that remote positions tend to be desk- or office-based, while on-site jobs often involve more physical work.
Leadership positions, which Gallup defines separately from managers and individual contributors, tend to be desk-based or office-based roles and are more likely to use AI than other employees, the pollster said, while noting that the gap between leadership and the rest of the workplace’s AI usage has widened in recent years.
Overall, Gallup argues that the widening gap between users and non-users and stagnant growth means that AI has a use case problem.
“Gallup research shows that the most common barrier to individuals’ use of AI is a lack of practicality, suggesting that clear use cases for AI may be more evident for leaders than for employees in other roles,” the pollster concluded for the fourth quarter numbers.
“This highlights the importance of basing decisions on AI adoption on a clear understanding of how AI will be applied across different roles and functions, not just those closest to decision-making,” Gallup added.
In other words, executives need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to implementing AI because the average employee doesn’t find it particularly useful. Or they are starting to realize that AI may not be saving them time, but eating up even more time. ®
