Nine out of ten workers believe they are proficient in using AI at work, yet only 25% report that AI functioned as expected on their first attempt. This disparity in confidence is particularly pronounced among Gen Z workers, with one in three indicating that inflated perceptions of their AI skills have led to job-related issues.
On August 30, the digital adoption platform WorkMe released findings from its "AI at Work Pulse Survey 2026," which surveyed 2,037 adult workers in the U.S. who use AI in their jobs. This is the third installment of a tracking survey conducted annually since 2024.
The survey revealed that 94.1% of Gen Z respondents expressed confidence in their AI usage, the highest among all age groups. Additionally, 45% reported having exaggerated their AI skills in the past.
In contrast, only 13% of baby boomers claimed to have similar experiences, highlighting a more than threefold generational gap. Among Gen Z, 31% acknowledged that their inflated skills led to specific problems such as mistakes, missed deadlines, poor decision-making, and loss of trust. Only 7% of baby boomers reported facing similar issues.
The report noted that this generational divide is not a temporary phenomenon but a structural pattern, as evidenced by similar findings in the 2025 survey.
The generational gap was also reflected in the overall responses. While 90% of all respondents felt confident in their AI skills, only 24.6% reported that AI worked as intended on their first try. Furthermore, 50.2% indicated that it took longer to delegate tasks to AI than to handle them personally. Additionally, 51% stated that the introduction of AI has led managers or teams to expect more output in the same timeframe, suggesting that AI may be increasing work pressure.
K.J. Kushi, WorkMe's Chief Technology Officer, stated, "The issue lies in the gap between personnel who feel proficient and the actual capabilities of AI tools. Acknowledging that everyone, from new hires to executives, is learning AI in real-time is the first step toward realigning strategies to match actual tool proficiency."
Amid this pressure, 33% of respondents admitted to having pretended to be more skilled with AI than they are, and 32.5% reported submitting AI-generated results as their own.
Trust in leadership was low, with 53.6% of respondents feeling that executives publicly leading their company's AI strategy do not fully understand it. In a separate survey by WorkMe, "State of Digital Adoption 2026," which included 3,750 employees from 14 countries, only 12% of workers were confident that AI fully understands their work context, and just 9% trusted AI for high-stakes decision-making.
Workers identified a need for integrated improvements between work tools and AI rather than separate AI training, with 33.7% citing this as essential. Additionally, 30.2% expressed a desire for real-time guidance embedded within tools.
A related report by SAP and Oxford Economics, "Value of AI Report 2026," which surveyed 2,600 business leaders across 13 countries, echoed these findings. Seventy-nine percent of responding companies reported experiencing rework, delays, and bottlenecks due to low-quality AI outputs, while 67% felt their AI implementations were not reaching their full potential.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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