Daily AI Users at Work Report Higher Productivity and Job Satisfaction, Says Slack
From hype to habit: Slack's latest Workforce Index shows the AI-powered workday is already here—and what it means for everyone else
Marc Benioff’s vision of a digital labor force is no longer hypothetical—it’s starting to take shape. Days after his company, Salesforce, launched its fourth-generation agentic development platform capable of scaling AI agents across business use cases, its subsidiary Slack released its latest Workforce Index report, which shows AI gaining acceptance among workers.
According to the research, daily AI usage has skyrocketed among employed full-time workers, rising 233 percent in just the past six months. Those workers who use it regularly consider it a competitive advantage and claim they’re 64 percent more productive and 81 percent happier with their jobs. In a way, the data strikes a similar tone to what PwC revealed in its Global AI Jobs Barometer earlier this month.
Slack states that more than 5,000 desk workers from Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. were polled. “The surge in AI adoption is fundamentally reshaping the workplace,” the company’s Chief Executive, Denise Dresser, says in a statement. “As workers embrace AI with growing trust and confidence, businesses gain a clear opportunity to unlock greater productivity and innovation, while workers grow more confident and fulfilled.”
Today’s findings mark a sharp reversal from Slack’s 2024 Workforce Index, which found that most workers remained skeptical of AI, with two-thirds yet to try any tools. In addition, 93 percent reported that AI outputs were not trustworthy for work-related tasks. But while last year’s report emphasized broad enthusiasm among daily AI users—81 percent said it improved their productivity—this year’s research reframes the conversation around performance gaps.
And while the percentages aren’t directly comparable, the shift appears to signal a move from the workplace perception of AI to more of a performance-based framing.
Workers Are All-In On AI
“We’re seeing a real inflection point,” Lucas Puente, Slack’s head of research, explains. “The fact that overall usage has jumped 50 percent since November 2024, and daily use has more than doubled, tells us this isn’t just hype or experimentation—it’s behavior change. AI is moving from the sidelines into people’s everyday workflows.”
Indeed, it appears that workers now see the value in using AI: 60 percent report they’re now using AI, 40 percent of them have experience working with a bot, and nearly a quarter (23 percent) have even offloaded tasks to these agents. It appears that innovations made to AI to perfect the technology have restored confidence in some workers.
And unlike in 2024, those who use bots daily say they’re twice more likely to have a higher degree of confidence in AI across data protection, accuracy, and decision-making. Puente attributes this to workers becoming more comfortable with the technology. “As people use AI more frequently, they learn to leverage its strengths,” he responds. “That clarity leads to better results and builds user confidence. When you set AI up for success—just like a human teammate—it performs better, saving time and increasing productivity. This creates a powerful trust-usage flywheel: Greater trust inspires more sophisticated use, which in turn delivers real business impact.”
Daily AI users claim that among the advantages of using the technology bestowed upon them, it creates a better connection with their colleagues. These workers report they’re 246 percent more likely to have a better relationship with their office peers. But while the research doesn’t unpack the drivers behind this increased sense of belonging, it’s possible that by offloading routine tasks, AI is giving workers more space to breathe, think strategically, and collaborate more creatively with colleagues.
However, what if some of those people aren’t daily AI users? This creates a conflict. Workers who use AI daily may move faster, generate more output, or contribute differently in meetings, but this could potentially create friction with colleagues who have yet to be as accepting of AI. This disparity could lead to uneven team dynamics, with AI-savvy employees gaining more visibility or favor, while others feel left behind or pressured to catch up. As organizations push for widespread adoption, managing that cultural divide may be just as important as training workers on the tools themselves.
What does it mean that AI has improved worker productivity? Slack identifies eight specific ways users benefit from the technology:
Providing quick access to information without the need for extensive research
Assisting with writing and communication
Helping with idea brainstorming and resolving creativity blocks
Automating repetitive or mundane tasks
Providing real-time feedback to improve performance
Integrating different tools, automating data flows, and streamlining workflows
Enabling work outside areas of expertise and reducing reliance on colleagues, thanks to “vibecoding”—96 percent have used AI to perform tasks they couldn’t have otherwise done themselves
Decreasing the need to attend meetings
“The promise of AI is becoming reality,” Dresser writes. “Those who use AI every day are gaining a measurable edge—they’re more productive, less stressed, and more fulfilled. This isn’t just efficiency; it’s a transformation in how work gets done and how people feel about their jobs.”
Who’s Using AI at Work?
To Slack’s surprise, the Workforce Index finds Millennials as the AI power users in the workplace. A third of this demographic state they “thoroughly understand” AI agents—Gen Z workers were second at 22 percent. Sixty-eight percent of Millennials report using it to support their strategic work.
“While Gen Z is often seen as the ‘AI native’ generation, it’s millennials who are using AI the most at work,” Puente reasons. “They’re more likely to hold senior roles, and our research shows a clear correlation between seniority and AI usage. The higher up you are, the more likely you are to use AI to drive impact. They’re also hearing from leadership that AI is a priority, and they’re running with it.”
In fact, when broken down, daily AI usage is made up primarily of executives (43 percent), followed by senior managers (35 percent), and then middle managers (23 percent). Individual contributors make up a tenth of the respondents. Slack suggests this gap highlights an opportunity for businesses to expand access to AI while also improving training and support to ensure everyone isn’t left behind. The embrace by senior managers is notable given past research suggesting leadership was slow to adopt AI.
He shares that Gen Z users are using AI in different ways, specifically for personal projects. When it comes to work, they’re looking for permission and clear guardrails—they want to know the lines they shouldn’t cross. “Give younger employees the right tools, connect those tools to real workflows and data, and make expectations around AI usage explicit,” Puente suggests to leaders. “Doing so not only empowers Gen Z to contribute more confidently and creatively, but also helps shape a future-ready workforce that sees AI as a natural extension of their capabilities.”
Despite being the “digital native generation,” research finds that half of all Gen Z workers don’t believe AI has changed how often they ask questions at work or interact with their teammates, though nearly a third (29 percent) say it has increased their engagement.
With Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta, and other technology platforms introducing enterprise-scale AI tools, it’s unsurprising to see that large companies are at the forefront of AI adoption. Slack’s data reveals that 30 percent of desk workers at organizations with more than 1,000 employees are using AI daily. That percentage drops to 22 percent for midsize companies and 14 percent for small businesses. Why? According to Slack, it’s because these enterprise firms are nearly half (44 percent) as likely to have AI safeguards in place.
What’s Next?
With data showing AI at work has gone “mainstream,” what are business leaders to do with this information? First, continue to encourage AI usage; don’t discourage it. “While some norms can emerge spontaneously, others are created with intention,” Elizabeth Gerber, a professor of mechanical engineering and cofounder of the Center for Human Computer Interaction and Design at Northwestern University, opines. “Leaders can try to intentionally persuade others to adopt a norm — explaining the desirability of the behavior and outlining expectations for the behavior.”
Additionally, Puente advises business leaders to embed AI directly into every work tools. “If AI is off to the side in some separate app, it’s not going to drive behavior change,” he argues. “But if it’s right there in your workflow…AI becomes a natural part of how work gets done. And once it’s part of the daily rhythm, that’s when you see the flywheel kick in: More trust, more productivity, more fulfillment—and ultimately, a workforce that’s not just using AI, but thriving because of it.”