I was at a conference a few months ago, and every session on the agenda was about agentic AI. From walking the halls, you’d think that every company in the world was running on agents and the AI value problem was solved.
Our most recent AI Proficiency Report paints a much more nuanced picture. Most workers (69%) report some type of agentic action from their organization – giving access to agent-capable tools, encouraging employees to build AI agents, etc.
But only 16% of workers say they use the agentic tools they have access to. Just 13% report building AI automations. And when asked to define an AI agent in their own words, less than 10% know (even directionally) what one is.
Unsurprisingly, the C-Suite is still delusional. 57% say AI is widely integrated in workflows, compared to 18% of ICs. Execs are 2x more likely to think the organization feels positive about AI.
When we ran the first AI Proficiency Report in 2024, the headline was: Few organizations are ready to deploy AI, because most employees are untrained and unprepared. Today, the tech has changed, but the problem has not. Enterprises continue to invest in AI licenses and tools while drastically under-investing in adoption. CEOs brag at the All Hands and the earnings call, but don’t back it up with resources for their workforces.
I still deeply believe that AI-powered organizations will have a meaningful advantage. We’re already seeing it with the first “supercompanies” - organizations like Anthropic, which run on AI. But transformation starts with empowering the workforce, and there, enterprise organizations have a lot of work to do.
