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EY helps you accelerate your AI Adoption with a clear framework and a people‑centered change approach.
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A workforce evolving faster than organisations
According to Sophie Gräler, Manager Organization & Workforce Transformation, who interprets the study’s data-analyses, AI-adoption remains surprisingly shallow. “Almost everyone uses AI, but mostly at a surface level. Real value only emerges when people get the time to learn and when AI truly becomes part of their workflow.”
AI is fundamentally reshaping work. Roles are shifting, tasks are being redistributed and new skills are becoming essential. The numbers highlight this paradox: by 2030, 70% of today’s job skills will have changed. Notably, employees who get the opportunity to learn and work with AI, show a strong desire to grow. They achieve more time savings, deliver more impact and feel better equipped. At the same time, we see an unexpected side effect: once people learn enough, their willingness to leave increases. In the study, this rose to 45%, compared to the average of 29%. Not because they are dissatisfied, but because they want to apply their new skills in an environment that enables them to do so. This makes one thing unmistakably clear: organisations that fail to invest in a modern employee value proposition risk losing their most forward‑thinking talent.
Why current AI-adoption is stalling
AI does deliver time savings for employees: on average an entire working day per week. Yet in practice, progress remains limited. The main reasons: processes are barely being redesigned, roles are not being re‑defined, teams don’t yet know how humans and digital assistants should work together, and usage remains mostly individual.
Too often, AI is treated as an extra layer on top of existing ways of working, rather than as a new foundation for how work can be organised. Organisations that break this pattern don’t start with tools, they start with the work itself. What changes in how teams make decisions, collaborate, learn and create value? Only when AI is fully embedded in processes, roles and daily routines can true, scalable impact emerge.
The rise of emotional intelligence in AI
One of the most surprising insights from the research comes from Patrick Ruijs, EYStudio+ Global Customer Experience Solution Leader, who focuses on the interaction between humans and AI. In experiments where digital assistants were used in sensitive situations, such as financial insecurity, job loss or difficult decision‑making, participants responded remarkably positively. “People sometimes feel better supported by a digital assistant than by a human, not because AI is more human, but because it never judges.”
Participants felt free to ask questions again, express doubts and explore information without fear of embarrassment or misunderstanding. This led to what Patrick describes as a growing need for empathetic support: the desire to be acknowledged, respected and emotionally supported, even when that support comes from technology.
This insight led to a new concept: the demand for empathetic support. Users want to feel recognised, respected and appropriately guided, even when the interaction is with technology. It’s an important lesson: technology that truly connects earns trust. Technology that remains distant or purely functional creates distance instead.