UK firms are struggling to scale AI across their business

Asana claims two-thirds of UK companies are struggling to scale AI usage
Businesses are more focused on financial ROI than worker satisfaction
AI is also seen as a tool for solo use, not for team collaboration

Over two-thirds (67%) of British companies are failing to scale AI tools across their organizations, noting a distinctive ‘leadership bubble’ where the technology doesn’t get disseminated more broadly, new research has claimed.

Figures from Asana claim senior leaders are 66% more likely to be early adopters than their employees, with managers 38% more likely to use AI weekly than regular workers.

On the flip side, there’s 32% more concern over job security among workers than leaders, with regular employees 39% more sceptical than leaders.

Managers are more likely to use AI than employees

Notably, fewer than one in four (23%) companies track employee satisfaction with artificial intelligence, even though three in five (59%) track financial ROI, highlighting the lack of a holistic approach to the deployment of the technology.

According to Asana, those that do track employee satisfaction are 32% more likely to see AI adopted across all job levels.

The company likens the technology to a personal assistant, saying that nearly half (49%) of AI workflows are built for individual use, not team collaboration.

Among the teams most likely to collaborate better through the use of AI are IT and engineering, IT and HR, finance and legal, marketing and IT, and marketing and finance.

The company’s report calls for businesses to assess how their teams work together before considering how they can effectively deploy AI that can be used by team members of all levels.

“Teams are operating in silos, workers are more likely to continue using AI for solo use rather than unlock AI use within teams – and crucially, across different team functions, where we are seeing the strongest impact from AI,” said Dr Mark Hoffman, Collaborative Intelligence Lead at Asana’s Work Innovation Lab.

By increasing employee dialogue, tracking satisfaction and addressing concerns like job security, Asana says that businesses will be able to shift from solo experiments to collaborative approaches with more ease.