Not Adopting AI? Expect the Chopping Block
C-suite executives report they’re creating a two-tiered workforce: 92% are actively cultivating a new class of “AI elite” employees; 75% say their company’s AI strategy is “more for show” than real guidance.
This is according to WRITER, an enterprise AI agent platform, which released its second annual AI survey: AI Adoption in the Enterprise. The study, conducted in partnership with independent research firm Workplace Intelligence, surveyed 2,400 global employees and C-suite leaders using AI at work.
The report examines the very real obstacles companies continue to face as they implement generative and agentic AI. In fact, 79% of executives acknowledge struggling with issues like lagging ROI, strategy gaps, and internal power struggles. The pressure is felt most acutely at the top, with 38% of CEOs reporting a high or crippling amount of stress around AI strategy. And it’s not just their companies on the line — 64% of CEOs fear they could lose their job if they fail to lead their organisation through the AI transition.
To get ahead in the AI race, 92% of the C-suite admit they’re actively cultivating a new class of “AI elite” employees. Most leaders (87%) report that these AI super-users are at least 5X more productive than employees who aren’t embracing AI. But the stakes are high for those who lag behind — 77% of executives warn that employees who refuse to become AI-proficient won’t be considered for promotions or leadership roles, and 60% plan to lay off employees who can’t or won’t use AI.
Nearly all executives (97%) say AI has been beneficial, and 75% believe AI agents will be part of their company’s C-suite within the next 5 years. Still, few leaders say they’ve seen significant ROI from generative AI (29%) or AI agents (23%), and nearly half (48%) feel that AI adoption at their company has been a massive disappointment.
About seven in ten (69%) C-suite executives report that their company is doing layoffs due to AI, but 39% admit they don’t have a formal strategy in place to drive revenue from AI tools. Even where strategies do exist, quality is lacking — 75% of executives say their company’s AI strategy is more for show than for actual internal guidance.
As pressure from boards intensifies, internal friction is growing. 54% of the C-suite say adopting AI is tearing their company apart, and 56% say this has created power struggles and disruption at their organization — double digit increases from 2025. 78% of executives say AI has created tension between IT and other lines of business, with 55% reporting that AI use is a chaotic free-for-all at their company.
Nearly all (95%) executives say roles, titles, and team structures are changing at their company because of AI, and 90% say the rise of AI super-users will require them to completely rethink how they evaluate and reward performance. Managers’ roles are also under scrutiny: 80% of Gen Z trust AI more than their manager, for example for tasks like providing performance feedback and career advice.
Instead of embracing AI, some workers are pushing back. In fact, 29% of employees — including 44% of Gen Z — admit to sabotaging their company’s AI strategy, for example by entering company information into public tools, using unapproved tools, or refusing to use AI. Executives recognise the danger: 76% say employee sabotage poses a serious threat to their company’s future.
67% of executives believe their company has suffered a data leak or security breach because of an employee using an unapproved AI tool. More than one-third (35%) concede they aren’t very confident they could “pull the plug” on a rogue AI agent if it started causing financial or reputational damage to their company.
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“Layoffs are not a viable AI strategy,” said May Habib, CEO & Co-Founder, WRITER.
“I’m on the front lines with WRITER’s Fortune 500 customers every day, and the leaders who are putting in the work to radically redesign operations with human-agent collaboration at the center are the ones compounding their advantage in ways competitors can’t replicate. AI transformation is ultimately about people, and the future belongs to the companies putting agent-building power directly into the hands of people closest to the work.”
The report describes how organisations can address the structural, cultural, and governance gaps slowing progress. That means tying AI initiatives to measurable business outcomes, empowering employees to innovate without creating IT bottlenecks, and focusing investment on opportunity and growth — not just efficiency and cost-cutting. It also requires documented roadmaps, enterprise-grade governance for AI agents, and change leadership that works both top-down and bottom-up.
“This is a defining moment in AI adoption, and the gap between super-users and laggards is widening fast,” said Dan Schawbel, Managing Partner, Workplace Intelligence. “We’re already seeing this play out — the super-users we surveyed were around 3X more likely to have received both a promotion and pay raise in the past year, compared to employees who have been slow to adopt these tools. Top AI users are also saving nearly 9 hours per week using AI — 4.5X more than the 2 hours a week reported by AI laggards.”
“The top AI users are gaining huge amounts of leverage inside organizations. To turn these individual productivity gains into real business ROI, copilots aren’t enough. Companies need enterprise AI platforms that support deeper structural change,” said Mina Alghaband, Chief Customer Officer, WRITER. “At WRITER, we focus on empowering entire departments to expand their capacity with agents, with full IT supervision and control from day one.”
