New survey shows that leaders are all in on AI

Even though we’re more digitally connected than ever, collaboration still requires a lot of effort. Keeping distributed team members updated on the status of projects, taking notes, sharing action items from meetings, and keeping up with chats and emails all take time away from getting work done.

This collaboration paradox is preventing many of us from achieving greater productivity and doing more meaningful work, as we found out in a new survey from Morning Consult,* commissioned by Zoom. The good news is that new generative AI technologies can help. The global survey of more than 11,000 leaders and employees uncovered compelling findings in AI usage and sentiment between leaders and employees, revealed which tasks they spend most of their time on, and demonstrated the impact of the latest generative AI tools on helping them save time and improve collaboration.

Below are some key trends and insights, and you can take a look at the full AI in the workplace report for all the findings related to how AI helps fuel modern collaboration.

The report confirms what many of us experience day to day – that the majority of people spend a lot of work time on administrative or busy tasks like status updates and sharing notes with colleagues. More than 70% of leaders said they spend a few times a week on these tasks, compared to more than half of employees. Adding to that, many leaders said they spend more time than they want to on these types of tasks.

With 67% of leaders saying they often work more than eight hours a day, their responses indicate they could use more time back to focus on other things. When asked what they’d do with more time back, the top response from leaders was developing better processes and workflows for their team; employees wanted more uninterrupted focus time to complete their work.

Respondents who are currently using AI tools at work say they are seeing significant time savings — leaders more so than employees. Seventy-four percent of leaders say it saves them one or more hours a day, versus 46% of employees.

However, those who don’t use AI at work aren’t just missing out on those extra hours — they don’t recognize how much time they could potentially be saving. When asked how much time they anticipated AI would save them during a typical workday, 55% of employees and 50% of leaders who don’t use AI said they didn’t know. This uncovers a huge opportunity cost for AI avoiders, and educating this group on the benefits of AI could potentially help drive adoption.

Leaders whose teams are using AI reported many benefits, especially around collaboration. This may be because AI can be used to automate or aid in certain tasks like sharing notes and action items after meetings, composing messages, and organizing information.

However, tension remains between the benefits leaders are seeing, and employees’ overall sentiment toward AI — 82% of leaders said they were excited about AI, compared to 57% of employees. That sentiment gap also translates to adoption: 73% of leaders said they use AI at least a few times a week, compared to just 32% of employees. And 23% of employees say they don’t use AI at all (at work or for personal use). 

The lack of adoption could explain employees’ perceived drawbacks related to technology, with employees’ top three concerns including job loss, data security, and accuracy. This shows just how imperative it is for leaders to take the opportunity to educate employees and equip them with the right training to help them understand and adopt AI.

Read the full report to gain even more insights into how leaders and employees are thinking about and using AI, and how sentiment breaks down across the globe. 

As you consider your organization’s next steps with AI, including implementing tools like Zoom AI Companion, find out how leaders are implementing AI successfully in their own organizations to create positive employee experiences in our follow-up piece: “AI at Work: Enhancing Employee Engagement and Business Success,” developed by Harvard Business Review.

*Zoom’s AI in the Workplace report is based on an online survey of 11,023 full-time knowledge workers in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. Conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of Zoom Video Communications, Inc., between August 10 – 25, 2023.