AI at Work: Rising Usage, Training Hindered by Time

In large American companies, AI is becoming part of daily practices. However, training is struggling to keep up due to a lack of time and resources. Workera advocates for continuous skills measurement, supported by contrasting figures on employee expectations and perceived limitations.

Continuous Skills Measurement: Interest Under Conditions and Ongoing Pilot

Workera argues that a controlled and continuous assessment of skills could benefit all parties. The company is piloting Ambient, an AI-native skills assessment tool designed to measure skills in the workflow, which has over 10,000 people on the waiting list. Approximately 41.1% of respondents would choose a continuous measurement tool like Ambient, provided they have control over the data and what is shared, while 31.2% remain undecided. Workera aims for continuous measurement to bring learning closer to work. Data privacy and security are presented as priorities. Kian Katanforoosh anticipates that products like Ambient will eventually become a reality and will have a positive impact, linked to the idea that continuous learning maximizes the speed of learning and that employees, like consumers, are getting used to technological support.

Employees Trust Humans: AI Still Considered Limited in Assessment

Respondents express strong confidence in human contributions to work: 76.6% believe they perform their jobs better than AI. Only 9.5% think that an AI agent could effectively perform more than half of their tasks today. They believe that skills assessment remains an area where AI does not yet match humans: 7% think it already surpasses humans, and 38.5% believe it will never exceed human capabilities in this domain.

Operational Barriers: Lack of Time and Relevant Content

The main obstacle cited for training is time: 56.4% of employees have no dedicated time during their working hours, and 84.3% spend five hours or less per week on training. The lack of relevant content is also highlighted by 42.5% of respondents. Kian Katanforoosh describes training as perceived as burdensome, with employees overwhelmed by the multitude of learning pathways and little time allocated to engage in them. He believes that over the past 12 months, attention has shifted from adoption and access to results and action, increasing pressure. Workera argues that despite more training offerings, organizations are still not providing sufficient resources and time for effective implementation. In this context, 46.5% of employees report using tools not provided by their employer to develop their skills, with 74.6% using common AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Increasing Adoption, but Companies Lagging in Preparation

The use of AI tools beyond ChatGPT is on the rise: 67.8% of employees use them at least a few days a week, compared to 39.9% a year earlier, representing nearly a 30% year-over-year increase, according to Workera. However, Workera observes that 2026 metrics are changing little compared to the previous year, suggesting that companies are lagging despite the expansion of adoption. Last year, most employees did not have access to dedicated AI training; this year, nearly six out of ten say they have benefited from specific opportunities in the past 12 months.

Organizations: Define the Standard, Measure, and Free Up Time

Workera reports that 80% of companies consider themselves more likely to be ready for a future with AI by 2026, up from 67% last year, in a report published on September 23. Kian Katanforoosh urges leaders to explicitly allocate training time and create psychological safety around experimentation. He recommends defining what it means to be "AI-ready," then establishing standards, measurements, and incentives to accelerate the speed of learning. Organizations are also encouraged to reduce barriers to accessing AI tools; Workera suggests that skills assessments can support training efforts by broadening access as skills progress. Katanforoosh argues that AI is for everyone and that proactive training can reduce the production of low-quality AI. Workera and its leader say they are working to improve the speed of learning with projects like Ambient; they remind that there is a premium attached to this speed, historically reinforced by skills measurements serving as a basis for quickly closing gaps. The stated goal is continuous measurement that brings learning and work closer together, with the support of AI to process unstructured data. Skills development is seen as an effective and affordable means of growth, even though most companies still do not know how to evaluate the effectiveness of their methods. The survey was conducted in July 2026 via Pollfish and compared to a wave from March 2025; it involved 1,000 salaried professionals from companies with 5,000 employees or more in the United States.