If you’ve been holding off on using AI tools in your business because you’re worried about security, their effect on your team, or their impact on workloads, a new study from PwC just dropped some interesting and unexpected news.
The biggest winners in AI's growth (at least so far) are everyday AI users. Regular folks who open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or similar tools every day are getting more from them than businesses do.
Who’s Really Using AI?
PwC surveyed workers across industries and countries, and the big takeaway surprised many: only 14% of employees use generative AI every single day. That’s barely up from 12% last year. Even broader AI adoption is sluggish, as only 54% of workers have used any AI tool for their actual job in the past 12 months.
It appears that most of the workforce is still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to implementing AI into workplace automation and digital skills development. However, despite lackluster corporate adoption numbers, those using AI for work are seeing results that are impossible to ignore.
What Everyday AI Users Are Actually Getting
While most people who use GenAI tools do so for personal projects, users who rely on them for work reported dramatically better outcomes than everyone else. For example:
- 92% say it boosts their workforce productivity (vs. just 58% of non-daily users)
- 58% feel more confident about job security (vs. 36%)
- 52% have already seen higher pay or bonuses tied to their output (vs. 32%)
The irony is that the same technology that many workers fear will replace them is, at least for now, making everyday AI users more valuable to their employers, and giving them more job security and more money.
Hitting the Human-AI Collaboration Sweet Spot
Smart business owners understand that embracing AI isn’t about robots taking over, but about empowering employees. The workers who are winning aren’t trying to outsmart the machines; they're treating AI as a helpful tool to do their jobs better.
AI can draft emails in seconds, turn meeting notes into action plans, pull insights from mountains of data, create first-draft presentations, and free up hours for the creative, strategic, relationship-building work that actually moves the needle.
How To Turn Your Team Into Everyday AI Users
If you want to leverage AI to your advantage and encourage your workers to streamline their workflows, consider implementing a few incentives.
Start small. Pick one repetitive task (expense reports, email triage, basic research) and run a two-week experiment with a specific tool to measure the time saved. People get hooked fast when they see results firsthand.
It can also help to publicly celebrate the people who save the most time or generate the best output with AI. When people see how others are using AI, they’re more likely to try it for themselves.
The data is crystal clear: the future doesn’t belong to the companies with the fanciest AI strategy. It belongs to the ones whose people become confident, everyday AI users first.
