Artificial intelligence is rapidly shaping how businesses and employees operate in the modern office. A new study from Workera reveals that 80% of companies feel they are on track for an AI-enabled future in 2026. This metric is up from 67% last year. However, organizations may be missing the boat on supporting their people.
Workera published its 2026 State of Skills Intelligence Report on September 23. The findings suggest business leaders and working professionals need to find more common ground on upskilling. Kian Katanforoosh, founder and CEO of Workera, stated that organizations must take the lead in this process.
The research surveyed 1,000 salaried professionals at organizations with 5,000 or more employees in the United States. Conducted in July 2026 using Pollfish, the survey gathered year-over-year measurements by comparing results with a similar study from March 2025.
Workera found that more than two-thirds of employees, specifically 67.8%, now use AI tools beyond ChatGPT at least a couple of days a week. This represents a significant jump from 39.9% last year. That equals nearly a 30% year-over-year increase in daily tool use.
Despite this rise, nearly 60% of employees reported that no time is allocated during work hours for upskilling. Specifically, 56.4% cited a lack of time, while 42.5% mentioned a lack of relevant learning materials. More than 80% of employees spend just five hours or less per week on training.
Katanforoosh explained that AI upskilling can feel cumbersome. Many employees feel overwhelmed by numerous ways to learn and little time built into workdays. He noted that while last year focused on adoption and access, this year centers on outcomes and actions.
While nearly 6 in 10 employees said they have been offered AI-specific training opportunities in the last 12 months, companies still fail to provide proper resourcing. Just under half of employees, or 46.5%, reported using tools not provided by their employer for skill development. Of those, 74.6% used mainstream tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Closing this gap requires organizations to define what AI-ready means for them. Katanforoosh advised that companies must establish standards and measurements to accelerate learning velocity. Enterprise organizations should minimize barriers while using skills assessments to grant access as expertise grows.
Employees are well aware of the current limitations. Nearly 77% of respondents believe they can do their job better than AI. Only 9.5% said an AI agent could effectively handle more than half of their job today. Furthermore, 38.5% said AI will never surpass humans at assessing skills.
New developments aim to bridge this gap through continuous skill measurement. Workera is currently piloting Ambient, an AI-native skills assessment tool with over 10,000 signups on its waitlist. About 41% of respondents said they would opt into a continuous skills measurement tool if they owned the data and controlled what is shared.
Katanforoosh intends to target continuous measurement by merging learning and work closer together. Privacy and data security remain top priorities as Workera continues to innovate. The next known step involves expanding the pilot of the Ambient tool for organizations seeking to track learning velocity.
