Most U.S. workers using AI on the job are not getting their training from their employer, according to new research. Instead, they are learning from social media, news articles and conversations with friends.
Nexthink, which monitors IT usage across 3.4 million employees, found GenAI users average 10 interactions a day and nearly four hours a week using these tools, and that they save roughly the same amount of time in return.
‘AI adoption is a game of chance’
The research suggests that employers are moving too slowly on training and governance. Relatively few workplaces offer formal AI training programs, and many workers instead turn to informal sources for guidance that they surface through their own online hunting.
“This has made successful AI adoption a game of chance,” said Liz Raymond, VP of Global Talent at Nexthink. “Employees are not waiting for formal rollouts or training; they are bringing these tools into their working day regardless. But when adoption outpaces training and governance by this margin, organizations have no clear path to AI value.”
Research from workforce development non-profit Jobs for the Future (JFF) found that 56% of workers say their employer has never consulted them on how AI tools are used in their work. Among workers who consider AI training important, nearly 6 in 10 are not being offered formal guidance.
When employees learn AI practices from unvetted sources, organizations lose visibility into how tools are being used, what data is being entered into them and whether outputs are being applied appropriately. This atmosphere creates exposure across compliance, security and performance management.
The combo of rising usage, uneven access to training and growing worker anxiety can change AI from a technology project into a workforce‑strategy problem. Surveys from Gallup and JFF both found that although employees are experimenting with AI on their own, they want structured guidance, guardrails and a say in how these tools reshape their jobs.
Forrester projects that AI will augment 20% of jobs over the next five years, and J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, said in a release, “To navigate the complexity around the human and AI era, leaders must prioritize governance and invest in their people—treating AI not as a replacement for human talent, but as a tool to enhance it.”
The Forrester research also found that many organizations announcing AI-related layoffs do not have mature, vetted applications ready to replace the roles they are cutting, suggesting companies are moving faster on workforce decisions than on workforce preparation.
HR leaders are already grappling with how to turn that demand into something more than a one‑off training push. As one learning leader recently told HR Executive, “The most common misconception is that AI transformation begins and ends with tool adoption. In reality, successful transformation starts with mindset,” supported by ongoing capability building in the flow of work.
In a separate HR Executive piece, Amy Mosher, chief people officer at isolved, defines AI fluency as employees knowing “how AI fits into their role, how it can enhance their work and how to use it responsibly” and practicing when to trust, question and override AI outputs.
Together, those perspectives suggest that getting ahead of self‑directed AI use will require access to tools plus sustained investment in skills, governance and employee experience. “Effective AI training has to reach everyone,” said Raymond. “But to do that well, organizations first need to understand how employees are actually using AI.”
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