Many organizations are moving quickly to incorporate AI into everyday work. Senior leaders often assume employees share that enthusiasm, but recent research suggests the picture is more complicated.

According to People Element's 2026 Employee Engagement Report, based on feedback from more than 94,000 employees, 76% of executives believe employees are excited about AI. However, only 31% of employees say they actually are. That's a significant perception gap that will have implications for HR leaders tasked with managing the people side of the transition. If leaders believe the workforce is embracing AI while employees remain uncertain, communication and adoption efforts may miss the mark.

This difference in perception isn't limited to AI. Perceptyx's 2026 Benchmark Report, which analyzed more than 23 million employee responses, found that optimism about the organization's future declines steadily as you move down the organizational chart. While 83% of executives expressed confidence in the organization's future, only 63% of individual contributors felt the same. Employees generally understand where the organization is headed, but they're less certain they'll be successful in getting there. The same report found that only one-third of employees feel well prepared to use AI tools in their daily work.

Trust tells a similar story. SHRM's Navigating AI in the Workplace: 2026 found that senior leaders are much more likely than individual contributors to trust leadership's messaging about AI (80% versus 47%). Individual contributors were also nearly three times more likely to say their trust declines when leaders rely heavily on AI. Only one-third said they were informed before AI was implemented. Employees closest to the work want to be included in the conversation, not simply told that AI is coming.

AI adoption is fundamentally a change management challenge. Employees need to understand why it matters, how it affects their work, and how they'll be supported through the transition.

Perceptyx's research found that employees who are highly engaged are nearly twice as likely to believe their organization manages change effectively. Yet only about half of employees overall rate their organization's change management favorably. As organizations continue investing in AI, the success of those initiatives may depend as much on communication and leadership as on the technology itself.

Managers play a particularly important role. Gallup has found that manager engagement has declined in recent years, even as organizations increasingly rely on managers to introduce new tools and ways of working. Gallup's research also suggests that employees are significantly more likely to adopt AI when their direct manager actively supports its use. That places managers at the center of successful AI implementation.

The encouraging news is that most organizations already have the information needed to identify these challenges. Rather than relying solely on organization-wide engagement scores, segment survey results by organizational level. Compare executive, manager, and individual contributor responses on confidence in leadership, optimism about the future, and trust in communication. These may all be hidden indicators of how well the organization is positioned for the future.

If senior leaders consistently view these areas much more positively than the rest of the organization, the issue may not be resistance to AI. It may simply indicate that employees need clearer communication, better training, and a stronger understanding of how AI will affect their work.

Organizations don't need employees to be enthusiastic about AI on day one. They do, however, need employees to understand where the organization is headed and feel confident they'll be supported along the way. Measuring the gap between leadership perceptions and employee experiences is an important first step.

Sources: get.peopleelement.com; blog.perceptyx.com; shrm.org; gallup.com