A new survey found that one in five people secretly use AI at work, even if they don't have an official policy.
And for many, it's rewarding.
According to a poll of 1,000 American business owners, marketers and salespeople, 77% believe that the more AI tools they use for their jobs, the more confident they are in the quality of their work.
Similarly, 75% believe that using AI for their business will make them more effective by competing with larger, well-known businesses.
A survey commissioned by ActiveCampaign and conducted by Talker Research found that 82% of respondents using AI in the workplace use it for marketing purposes.
Many others use it for customer support (31%), operations/human resources management tasks (28%), and product-related tasks (25%).
However, despite the usefulness of AI, 20% still aren't officially permitted, so they feel they have to “sneak” AI. 48% said they use AI every day, while 17% reported using AI only once a month, and an additional 9% do not use AI with their official work ability.
Respondents shared that the main reasons why they do not use AI tools in the workplace are related to the various fears surrounding it. One in five respondents are concerned about poor quality output, but 21% of employees in particular are concerned that AI will replace their jobs.
Additionally, 19% fear that users and consumers will lose trust in their business, while 17% hear negative feedback and opinions from others regarding the use of AI.
Over half (57%) said they either had negative opinions about AI themselves or had negative opinions shared by others.
20% admitted they were the biggest critics, while others found negative feedback was occurring from social media comments (20%) or from clients and clients (18%).
“While some companies are still thinking about how to integrate AI into their core operations, many are moving beyond experimentation to strategic implementation, focusing not only on what AI can do, but also on how to produce better results that are measurable for customers. “Whether it's increasing revenue or saving time, we see AI discovering the impact of eye in real time. Often, it starts with a personal “aha moment” where we experience the power of AI firsthand.
The study also found that using AI tools in a more personal setting can help solve some of the fears people have.
Nine in ten people use AI for both individual and work-related tasks. And of them, two-thirds first used AI in their personal life, taking away six weeks to fully understand what they use on average.
In work settings, it takes on average the same length of time to understand it, but the subsequent rewards appear quickly.
In a typical week, people said they saved 13 hours of time using AI at work. And the more it was used, the more time it seemed to save. Respondents who used it daily said they saved 14 hours a week on average. Those who use it less than once a month can only save six hours.
Also, during a typical month, AI tools saved $4,739 in operational costs. This follows the same pattern, with the more money I saved, the more money I saved. On average, daily users saved $5,038, while rare users saved only $2,237.
Many said that incorporating AI into the company's workflow would help them feel more efficient in task completion and resource allocation (39%), feel more confident in the quality of their work (29%), and feel more creative with their marketing approach (37%).
They said they found AI to be particularly effective in certain departments, such as marketing (82%), design and creative (78%) and analytics (75%).
“We're excited to be able to help you get the most out of our business,” said Amy Kilpatrick, Chief Marketing Officer at ActiveCampaign. “Our survey shows that 82% find AI is particularly effective in marketing as it handles time-consuming tasks like data analytics and content ideas, allowing marketers to focus on building true connections between strategies and audiences.
Research method:
The Talker survey looked at 1,000 American business owners, marketers and sales representatives. The survey was commissioned by ActiveCampaign and was managed and conducted online by Talker Research from May 21st to June 12th, 2025.
