The Workforce
Broad but shallow#
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, covering 31,000 workers across 31 countries, found that 75% of knowledge workers now use AI at work. Nearly half started less than six months ago.
Deloitte surveyed 3,235 business leaders across 24 countries and found that workforce access to AI tools expanded by 50% in a single year, from under 40% to around 60% of workers with sanctioned access. But among those with access, fewer than 60% actually use it in their daily workflow. That gap has barely moved since last year.
McKinsey found 88% of organisations are using AI. 7% have fully scaled it across the enterprise.
The skills premium#
PwC’s AI Jobs Barometer analysed close to a billion job ads across six continents. Workers with AI skills command a wage premium of over 30%, up from 25% the year before. In roles most exposed to AI, skills are changing 66% faster than in other occupations, up from 25% faster a year earlier.
The World Economic Forum estimates 39% of existing skills will be disrupted by 2030. Its data suggests AI will create 97 million new jobs while displacing 85 million. Whether the people losing the jobs are the same people gaining the new ones is a different question.
The redesign gap#
Deloitte found that 84% of companies have not redesigned jobs around AI. The biggest barrier to AI integration isn’t the technology. It’s insufficient worker skills. Yet fewer than half of companies are making significant adjustments to their talent strategies. Most are educating employees on AI fluency. Far fewer are rearchitecting roles, workflows, or career paths.
36% of companies expect at least 10% of their jobs to be fully automated within a year. 82% expect that within three years. But the jobs being automated first — data entry, reconciliation, first-level customer support — are often the entry point for longer careers. Automating them without creating alternative pathways doesn’t just remove tasks. It removes the bottom rung of the ladder.
Where the results are showing#
McKinsey found that the 6% of companies seeing real financial impact from AI are 3.6x more likely to be aiming for transformative change, 2.8x more likely to have redesigned workflows, and 3x more likely to have strong senior leadership commitment.
Deloitte found that 34% of companies are using AI to deeply transform their businesses. Another 30% are redesigning key processes. The remaining 37% are using AI at a surface level with little change to how they operate. All three groups report productivity gains. Only the first group is building something structurally different.
