UK lags behind in AI adoption, driven by lack of trust and uncertainty, says Slack Workforce Index
AI adoption is slowing among UK desk workers, according to Slack’s new Workforce Index – a shift largely driven by lack of training, worker uncertainty and discomfort around AI.
Over half (54%) of UK workers report feeling uncomfortable admitting AI use to their managers for fear they might be seen as incompetent, lazy, or cheating. Despite business leaders continuing to emphasise urgency in leveraging AI technology, UK workforce adoption rates have grown slowly over the last three months — increasing from 32% to just 39%.
Why it matters: Companies can’t afford to have AI adoption stall out. According to McKinsey, AI could increase corporate profits by $4.4 trillion a year, and Salesforce research finds that sales teams using AI are 1.3x more likely to see revenue increase than those who don’t use it.
To realise the benefits of AI, however, employers need to encourage employees to use the technology and equip them with the training and guidance needed to work successfully in this new era.
Salesforce perspective: “Too much of the burden today has been put on workers to figure out AI. It’s important that leaders not only train workers to use AI, but encourage employees to talk about it and experiment with AI out in the open,” said Christina Janzer, SVP of Research and Analytics at Slack. “The arrival of AI agents – with clearly defined roles and guidelines – will also help with this, alleviating the ambiguity and anxiety many workers feel around using AI at work.”
The arrival of AI agents – with clearly defined roles and guidelines – will also help with adoption, alleviating the ambiguity and anxiety many workers feel around using AI at work.
Christina Janzer, SVP of Research and Analytics at Slack
Detailed findings:
Workers hide AI use out of fear, confusion
Without clear guidance, workers are confused about when it is socially and professionally acceptable to use AI at work — and are keeping their usage under wraps.
Among those UK workers who said they feel uncomfortable admitting using AI for tasks to their managers, the top reasons include:
- Fear of being seen as less competent
- Fear of being seen as lazy
- Feel like using AI is cheating
On the other hand, global workers who are comfortable sharing AI use with their manager are 67% more likely to have used it for work.
Workers aren’t using AI to focus on executive priorities
The data reveals a disconnect between what leadership wants employees to focus on and what workers expect they’ll focus on with the time saved by AI. Globally, executives want employees to prioritise upskilling and innovation, while employees expect to use the time saved by AI to catch up on busy work and existing projects.
The top areas that execs, globally, want employees to prioritise to move the business forward are:
- Learning and skill-building
- Innovation
- More work on existing projects
What UK employees expect they will do with the time AI helps them to save:
- Administrative tasks
- More work on existing core projects
- Learning and skill-building
Workers expect AI-savvy employers
Despite uncertainty around AI in their current workplace, UK workers want to skill up on AI as 72% feel an urgency to become an AI expert. However, 65% of UK workers have spent less than five hours total learning how to use AI, and 30% of global workers say they’ve had no AI training at all, including no self-directed learning or experimentation.
Employers will need to solve for the gap in training and get clear about AI guidelines, as current employees and new professionals entering the workforce will gravitate to more supportive workplaces.
- Globally, workers with guidance to use AI saw a 13 percentage point increase in AI adoption since January, while workers with no guidance saw an increase of only 2 percentage points.
- Over two thirds (64%) of UK workers say that a prospective employer’s ability to provide and enable workers on AI tools is a factor in their job search.
- Nearly 2 in 5, global workers say they’d prefer working for companies that provide AI tools and enable their use.
- Globally, people in their first job are 1.8x times more likely to say AI enablement is a “very important factor” in their job search.
More information:
- Dig deeper into the Slack Workforce Index results and learn how leaders can encourage employee adoption
- Read about the five distinct AI personas that employers need to understand
- Find more stats and data on worker AI adoption in the Salesforce stat library
- Get more insights on AI agent trends
Methodology: The survey included 17,372 workers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S. and was fielded between August 2 and August 30, 2024.
The survey was administered by Qualtrics and did not target Slack or Salesforce employees or customers. Respondents were all desk workers, defined as employed full-time (30 or more hours per week) and either having one of the roles listed below or saying they “work with data, analyze information or think creatively”: executive management (e.g. president/partner, CEO, CFO, C-suite), senior management (e.g. executive VP, senior VP), middle management (e.g. department/group manager, VP), junior management (e.g. manager, team leader), senior staff (i.e. non-management), skilled office worker (e.g. analyst, graphic designer).
