Report: Workers Are Ready for AI. Organizations Aren't.

NEW YORK, Dec. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite widespread concerns about AI's impact on jobs, new research reveals a striking insight: Workers overwhelmingly believe AI will improve their jobs, even as they expect it to shrink their organizations' workforces.

This optimism presents a powerful opportunity—but only for companies prepared to act. While employees are ready to embrace AI's benefits, research from The Conference Board shows that many organizations still lack a clear, unified AI vision tied to business priorities. Unlocking AI's full potential will require a comprehensive transformation across strategy, culture, governance, and operating models.

"AI is reshaping work at extraordinary speed. Workers are largely energized by AI's possibilities, but organizations must rethink how they operate or risk missing the broader value AI can deliver," said Matt Rosenbaum, Principal Researcher, Human Capital Center, The Conference Board.

These findings draw on global surveys of more than 900 leaders and workers, as well as 26 interviews with enterprise executives. Findings include:

Workers expect AI to improve their jobs—even if employment declines.

• The vast majority of workers (85%) expect AI to improve their jobs over the next two years, even among those who believe AI will reduce employment at their organizations.
• 42% of workers expect AI to decrease employment at their organization. 40% of leaders surveyed also expect employment to decrease.
• 91% of workers say AI has already changed their tasks, and most report increases in both productivity (87%) and job satisfaction (57%).

"Workers are telling us something leaders need to hear: They believe AI will make work better," said Erka Amursi, Principal Researcher, Human Capital, The Conference Board. "This optimism offers organizations a powerful foundation for building engagement, trust, and readiness for change."

Many organizations lack a coherent enterprise strategy.

• Most leaders report that AI has already prompted shifts in their organizational strategies, structures, or internal processes. Yet many companies lack a clear and unified AI vision aligned to business priorities.
• Over half of leaders (54%) say their organization has an insufficient link between AI redesign and business strategy.

Bottom-up innovation is critical but requires a top-down vision.

• Bottom-up innovation is a powerful driver of AI redesign: employees are already identifying use cases, participating in hackathons, and creating their own tools.
• A clear AI strategy guides investment and resource decisions—indicating which AI uses to pursue or avoid, and which innovations should be strengthened and scaled across the organization.

HR plays a pivotal role in AI transformation but must transform itself first.

• Despite AI's profound impact on jobs, culture, and skill requirements, HR is not consistently positioned as a strategic leader in AI redesign. Some companies involve HR only in training or adoption planning, leaving them out of upstream decision-making about strategy, structure, and work design.
• Yet both leaders (57%) and workers (42%) agree that CHROs can create the greatest value by partnering with business leaders to co-lead enterprise-wide redesign.
• Still, only 42% of workers and 56% of leaders believe HR is currently providing sufficient AI training and support—creating a credibility gap that organizations must address.
• HR will be a more credible partner in enterprise AI redesigns when it adopts AI itself, upskilling its teams to meet strategic business needs and modernize HR operations.

Culture is a make-or-break factor in AI transformation.

• Organizations must cultivate a culture rooted in transparency, psychological safety, and continuous learning, including:
• Co-creating AI solutions with employees
• Normalizing experimentation and "fail-fast" learning
• Being transparent about how AI will reshape jobs
• Clarifying which tasks and skills will remain uniquely human
• Both leaders (56%) and workers (48%) believe workers should be fully involved throughout AI redesigns.

The skills gap is growing, demanding new workforce and reward models.

• 68% of surveyed leaders say their organizations struggle with insufficient employee skills to take advantage of AI redesigns.
• Organizations must invest in continuous upskilling, rethink performance expectations, and redesign rewards to reinforce agility, collaboration, and innovation.
• Interviewees underscore that talent models must evolve to accommodate:
  • Rapidly shortening skill life cycles
  • New combinations of human and AI-enabled tasks
  • Increasing need for systems thinking and process redesign skills

Read Transforming Organizations for AI: Critical Factors for AI Success.

Read Workers' AI Optimism Abounds: How Workers Say AI Affects Their Jobs.

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers trusted insights for what's ahead. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.TCB.org 

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SOURCE The Conference Board