85% of U.S. Employees Encouraged to Use AI but Lack Clear Leadership Guidance

Culture Amp, the leading employee experience and performance platform, has released its first AI at Work benchmark, revealing that 85% of employees in the United States are actively encouraged to explore and experiment with AI by their organizations. However, 42% of employees say their leaders haven't clearly explained how AI will be used to reach company goals.

The data, drawn from 123 organizations representing approximately 112,000 employees, shows that 71% of employees say AI tools are helping them feel more productive, with this figure increasing to 93% among power-users. Despite the rise in productivity, employees across every level of AI use report roughly the same workloads. Specifically, 72% of power users say their workload is reasonable for their role, compared with 69% of non-users, a difference of just three points.

These findings raise a critical question for companies investing heavily in AI: If employees are creating more capacity, where is that capacity going? The answer matters because AI power users aren't simply reporting they feel more productive; they are also more motivated at work. Seventy-two percent of the heaviest AI users say their organization motivates them to go beyond what they would in a similar role elsewhere, compared with 57% of non-users.

The report highlights a significant gap between encouragement and clear guidance. Only 58% of employees say their leaders have clearly explained where the company is headed, the lowest-scoring item in the AI benchmark, a 27-point gap from those who say they are encouraged to experiment. This pattern also holds closer to day-to-day work, with only 60% of employees saying their manager shares examples of how AI can support their goals or workflows.

Culture Amp's data also shows that employee awareness of internal career opportunities has fallen 10 percentage points since July 2025, the largest single-year change in the benchmark data set. At the same time, satisfaction with career development has remained at 66%, where it has sat since 2021. Employees aren't less satisfied with the development they're getting; they're less clear about what opportunities they'll have access to next.

"We do not know with certainty which roles AI reshapes, which skills hold their value, or what a career path looks like three years out. As a result, leaders may go quiet, because saying nothing feels safer than saying something that turns out to be wrong. The most useful thing a leader can do right now is admit the plan is unfinished and then keep talking anyway. Certainty is not what employees need from you right now. Candor is."

The analysis draws on 342 surveys run by 292 organizations on the Culture Amp platform, representing approximately 112,000 employees and 343,000 individual responses, collected in the 12 months to July 2026.