AI and the Employee Experience: Balancing Opportunity and Anxiety
Solving the AI Puzzle
AI is reshaping the modern workplace at breakneck speed, promising unparalleled productivity gains — but also provoking disconnects and deep uncertainty.
This year’s Betterworks State of Performance Enablement report reveals a workforce torn between excitement, anxiety, and indifference as employees and leaders grapple with AI’s meteoric ascent.
While senior leaders and tech-savvy employees are reaping its benefits, many individual contributors remain on the periphery of AI's potential.
This year’s report is a clear call to action for HR leaders: embrace inclusive AI strategies that empower employees across all levels, ensuring a people-first approach to this technological evolution.
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AI is Accelerating Productivity, But Strategic Potential Is Stuck In First Gear
Generative AI is widely recognized as a productivity booster, with 87% of daily users reporting improved speed, quality, accuracy, and creativity because of AI.
Overall, employees told us AI has great untapped potential, as 93% of daily AI users say they believe there are ways AI could help them at work that they are not currently using.
Daily AI users see more potential for AI
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25 %
50 %
75 %
100 %
93%
4%
3%
Only 46% use AI for strategic tasks, of which a mere 22% utilize it for strategic planning, and about the same percentage leverage it for creative work.
Most employees rely on AI for routine tasks like drafting communications and data analysis, while the transformative opportunities for strategic and creative work are more often overlooked.
To fully harness AI’s potential, organizations must prioritize training, tools, and cultural shifts that encourage its use beyond routine applications.
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AI Laggards Plan to Stay, While AI Superstars Look to Leave
AI-savvy employees are driving innovation, but they are also the most likely to leave, with 78% of high performers actively seeking new opportunities. Of the individual contributors who are less than fully engaged, 65% said they plan to stay put.
More engaged employees are more likely to be looking for work
3 in 5
Less engaged employees plan to stay
8 in 10
Highly engaged employees are actively seeking work elsewhere
Those less engaged with AI also tend to show lower productivity, minimal interest in upskilling, and little concern about AI’s impact on their roles. In contrast, high performers prioritize skill-building and are motivated to leverage their AI expertise elsewhere.
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Familiarity Breeds Anxiety – The Paradox of AI Optimism
Employees have mixed feelings about AI. Fear, excitement, ambivalence, and lack of concern co-exist. Split sentiments have potentially significant downstream impacts on retention, level of interest in upskilling, and organizations’ ability to be agile and innovative.
Employees who feel very positive about AI are 3x more likely to be worried about losing their jobs to AI (49% vs. 16%) and 3.5x more likely to feel AI might create opportunities (21% vs. 6%).
Frequency of AI usage equates with both higher worry and a sense of greater opportunities.
6 in 10 managers see AI as a way to remove low-performing employees
Some of these fears may also have merit, as a majority of managers told us they do see AI as a potential means to cut underperformers.
Overall, this mixed sentiment suggests a pressing need for companies to foster trust through transparency and development opportunities.
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AI Spots Skills, Managers Unlock Potential: The Perfect Team
As AI gains ground in the workplace, employees are also increasingly drawn to its potential for objective, data-driven career guidance. They trust AI to pinpoint needed skills and identify development opportunities, while still relying on managers for coaching through those career moves.
Only about half of employees say their company has processes in place to guide their careers, but 53% of employees — and 84% of regular AI users — believe AI can actually outperform their human managers in identifying needed skills and career development paths.
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Of daily/ weekly AI users
Employees welcome AI’s help with internal advancement
Employees are also eager for AI assistance: 73% of all employees (and 96% of daily AI users) would like AI to help managers identify growth opportunities and guide their professional advancement in their company.
Once AI has identified needed skills and advancement opportunities, companies can more efficiently use their managers’ time on higher-value coaching activities such as providing specific guidance about sequencing skills, helping with learning challenges, establishing opportunities to use and reinforce new skills, and making introductions to other teams the employee may be interested in.
Employees who would like AI's assistance in helping them find and pursue opportunities for advancement within their company.
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AI Powers Up Performance Enablement
AI also has a clear role to play in performance management. While the feedback and review cycle remains an often frustrating process for many individual contributors due in part to a lack of comprehensive performance enablement,
AI has the power to change that. When AI is used in the performance process, 89% of managers and employees report high satisfaction, compared to only 40% of all employees who don’t have AI in that process.
89% of workers with AI in their performance management say they’re highly satisfied
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More accurate than my manager
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More fair/ objective than my manager
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More comprehensive/ thorough than my manager
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More personalized than my manager
For both managers and individual contributors, the benefits of AI significantly outweigh potential concerns — by a factor of 1.5x to nearly 3x when it comes to accuracy, fairness, comprehensiveness, and personalization. And only 10% of employees say they’d be uncomfortable using AI in performance management.
AI’s role elevates the employee experience and frees managers to focus on high-impact coaching. In organizations where AI is embedded in performance management, satisfaction skyrockets, with employees experiencing greater objectivity, efficiency, and alignment with their goals.
Shaping an AI-forward, People-first Workforce
AI offers organizations a powerful opportunity to enhance productivity and engagement, but only if its adoption is inclusive and strategic. By leveraging Betterworks’ AI-enhanced solutions, HR leaders and executives can equip employees at every level with the skills and confidence to thrive in an AI-augmented workplace — ultimately creating a more resilient, future-ready workforce.
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About This Report
Discover Betterworks
Founded in 2013, Betterworks is the pioneer in intelligent performance management solutions that help workforces and organizations achieve their highest potential. Betterworks reimagines performance management for all with an enterprise-ready platform that fosters greater manager effectiveness and employee performance, leading to higher satisfaction and retention and better business outcomes.
Our customers’ employees are proven more engaged and satisfied in their roles, which is why industry leaders like Colgate-Palmolive, Intuit, ATB Financial, Freddie Mac, Arcesium, and the University of Phoenix rely on Betterworks to manage and enable excellent performance. Betterworks is backed by Kleiner Perkins, Emergence Capital, and John Doerr.
For more information, please visit www.betterworks.com.
