Nearly half of American workers now use artificial intelligence at work at least occasionally, according to new survey data showing a sharp increase in workplace AI adoption over the past year.
Forty-five per cent of U.S. employees reported using AI at work at least a few times a year in the third quarter of 2025, up from 40 per cent in the second quarter, according to Gallup. Frequent use — defined as a few times per week or more — grew from 19 per cent to 23 per cent during the same period.
Daily AI use remained limited, increasing slightly from eight per cent to 10 per cent of the workforce between the second and third quarters of 2025.
The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of 23,068 U.S. adults employed full-time and part-time, conducted by web Aug. 5-19 using the Gallup Panel.
Knowledge workers lead adoption
Employees in knowledge-based roles showed significantly higher AI adoption rates than frontline workers. Seventy-six per cent of technology or information systems employees, 58 per cent in finance, and 57 per cent in professional services reported using AI at least a few times a year.
In contrast, only 33 per cent of retail employees, 37 per cent in healthcare, and 38 per cent in manufacturing reported using AI at work at the same frequency.
Many employees uncertain about organizational AI strategy
Thirty-seven per cent of employees said their organization has implemented AI technology to improve productivity, efficiency and quality in the third quarter of 2025. Forty per cent said their organization had not, while 23 per cent said they did not know.
The gap between employees who use AI and those aware of their organization’s AI strategy suggests some workers are using personal AI tools without knowledge of company policies, according to Gallup.
Individual contributors were more likely to report uncertainty about organizational AI implementation than managers or leaders. Twenty-six per cent of individual contributors said they did not know whether their organization had implemented AI, compared to 16 per cent of managers and seven per cent of leaders.
Consolidating information, generating ideas top uses
More than four in 10 employees who used AI at least yearly reported using it to consolidate information (42 per cent) and generate ideas (41 per cent). Thirty-six per cent said they used AI to learn new things.
Chatbots or virtual assistants were the most commonly used AI tools, with more than six in 10 workplace AI users reporting their use. AI writing and editing tools were used by 36 per cent of employees, while 14 per cent used AI coding assistants.
More specialized AI tools for data science, analytics or coding remained relatively rare. However, frequent AI users showed higher adoption of these advanced tools. Twenty-two per cent of frequent users reported using coding assistants, compared to eight per cent of less frequent users.
