Business leaders are embracing AI, but their employees are not so sure

When incorporated into business operations, AI’s ability to act as an assistant in virtually every aspect of a professional’s workload should increase efficiency. However, many obstacles, including leadership perceptions of the technology, are preventing widespread adoption by organizations. 

To better understand how organizations are welcoming AI-related change,  Accenture surveyed 3,450 C-suite leaders and 3,000 non-C-suite level employees from organizations worldwide with revenues greater than $500 million.

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According to Accenture’s research report, C-suite leaders anticipate a high level of change in their organizations, with 72% expecting more change in 2025 than in 2024, and 23% expecting the same level. Compared to the expectations for change in 2024, the numbers are slightly lower, with 88% of C-suites in 2024 expecting more change than the year prior. 

While a sense of change is palpable, preparedness levels fall short.

Across several industries, fewer C-suite leaders reported feeling “very prepared” to respond to changes in their business environment heading into 2025, compared to how they felt in 2024. 

The same sentiment was shared by employees, who felt even less confident. The average level of preparedness for C-suite leaders sat at 43%, while employees’ confidence fell to 36%. Despite the joint lack of confidence, leaders are prepared to ramp up AI investments. 

A majority (86%) of C-suite leaders feel prepared to up their investment in generative AI in 2025. Similarly, 83% of the leaders claimed their past year’s experience with generative AI has allowed them to see “greater potential for positive business impact,” in the upcoming year, according to the report. 

Moreover, a whopping 50% of C-suite leaders see IT as the primary focus of those generative AI investments, followed by engineering, manufacturing, production, and operations (38%), and customer service (29%).  

Those areas of focus align with what is generally regarded as the subject areas where generative AI tools can provide meaningful assistance, including STEM-related tasks such as coding, bug fixing, malware detection, math calculations, and threat modeling.

Generative AI also has significant potential to optimize the customer service realm because of its ability to intake robust amounts of data, process it, and then reference it in conversations with customers to answer their questions using natural language. 

Despite the perceived benefits, obstacles to adoption remain, with C-suite leaders listing a lack of clarity on ROI (26%) and data or technology infrastructure limitations (28%) as limiting factors. 

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The disconnect between how leadership and employees perceive the value of implementing generative AI is also a major obstacle; there’s a 20% gap between how C-suite leaders and their employees understand “to a great extent” the potential value of generative AI.

Furthermore, employees are less inclined to feel as though their organizations are trained to use the AI tools efficiently, with 55% of employees reporting that comprehensive training and clear guidance would provide them with a boost in confidence using generative AI tools — signaling a wider need for an increase in effective communication and training.