Employees Are Using AI Differently Than Employers Expect — Here’s Why That Matters

Employees Aren’t Using AI How Leaders Intended — And It’s Slowing Down Productivity Gains

63% of employees use AI in the workplace to double-check their work. That’s it.

Not for research. Not for workflow management. Not for data analysis.

Your teams are using AI as a proofreader while you’re paying for a strategic tool. Here’s why that gap matters and how to close it.

The Employer vs. Employee Gap

• 62% of employees use AI for initial research
• 58% employees use it for workflow management
• 5% employees use it for data analysis

What employees actually do:

63% use AI primarily to double-check their work

Three Reasons Teams Avoid AI for Strategic Work

1. Lack of Training

Only 23% of employees feel fully trained on the AI tools you provided. They don’t know how to incorporate AI into research, planning, or analysis workflows. So they fall back to the safest use case: verification.

2. Lack of Transparency

Your teams have questions that go unanswered:

• Can I trust the output?
• Is my data safe?
• Will this replace me?
• “Is this safe to use on my task?”

Without clear guidance and best practices, they hesitate.

3. Fear of Getting It Wrong

Your employees view using AI for research or analysis as riskier than for proofreading. Doubt leads to under-utilization — and ultimately, lost productivity.

What This Means for Managers

60% of employers say AI significantly increases productivity…

…but only 44% of employees agree — and 10% say it doesn’t help at all.

The result?

Companies believe AI is doing more for the organization than it actually is.

How to Fix the Disconnect

To unlock the real power of AI in the workplace:

1. Create Clear Use-Case Expectations: Show employees exactly where AI should be used — with examples and templates. Don’t assume they’ll just figure it out.
2. Provide Real Training, Not Guidelines: Hands-on workshops outperform policy documents every time.
3. Make AI Part of the Workflow: Embed AI into tools people already use — like Slingshot’s AI:
4. Write with AI
5. AI Action Items
6. Discussion Summaries
7. AI Data Insights

This removes friction and increases adoption.

The Bottom Line

Employees want to use AI — but they need training, clarity, and confidence to use it the way employers expect.

The organizations that close this gap the fastest will see the biggest productivity lift.

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