Executives Are Using AI at Nearly Double the Rate of Their Staff

Leadership teams are adopting artificial intelligence at a markedly faster pace than the broader workforce, according to recent research examining how different organizational levels engage with the technology. Among 7,675 surveyed U.S. adults—comprising 1,960 executives and business owners alongside 1,471 employees—adoption patterns diverge sharply: 53.2% of senior leaders report using generative AI tools, whereas only 37.9% of other workers do.

The disparity becomes even more pronounced when examining agentic AI systems. Executives prove 2.7 times more inclined to deploy such tools than their staff, with 17.5% of leaders using them compared to 6.6% of employees, according to findings from Channel V Media, a public relations firm specializing in AI narrative strategy. The research, conducted in June by Proper Insights and Analytics, reveals how divergent adoption patterns are taking shape across organizational hierarchies.

How these groups apply AI differs meaningfully. Executives predominantly leverage generative AI for research purposes, while employees tend to rely on it primarily for conducting internet searches. This distinction suggests a fundamental difference in how each tier engages with the technology's capabilities.

"Leaders appear to be moving past AI as a search tool toward AI-assisted creation and knowledge work. Much of the workforce hasn't followed," Channel V Media wrote in its analysis.

Despite their greater comfort with AI generally, executives show little enthusiasm for deploying automated systems in high-stakes customer interactions. Three-quarters of executives (76.8%) prefer human representatives for banking and financial services matters, and 77.4% want human contact for healthcare-related issues. Employee preferences mirror these numbers almost exactly, suggesting that customer-facing AI remains a hard sell across organizational levels.

Channel V Media cautioned leadership to recognize this hesitation when crafting public-facing messaging around AI products. "The same hesitation applies to their customers … and the messaging has to assume it's there," the firm stated.

Yet a separate investigation from Emergn, a technology and management consulting organization, uncovered a troubling undercurrent: nearly one in five senior leaders (18%) acknowledged fabricating understanding of AI beyond their actual knowledge level.

Among 350 surveyed senior leaders, more than a quarter (27%) expressed concern that their career trajectories would suffer without substantial AI skill development over the coming year. Additional findings painted a picture of widespread anxiety: 19% of leaders experience stress or sleep disruption related to AI-driven organizational change, 27% would switch employers for better AI training opportunities, and 20% feel inadequate in their roles due to AI's expanding influence.

"It is hard to admit you do not understand something when you are supposed to be the person with the answers," said Emergn CEO Alex Adamopoulos. "But pretending leaves you with the same unanswered question tomorrow."