Writer, a generative AI platform developer, have released The Writer 2025 Generative AI survey, drawing on experiences of 1,600 workers - 800 C Suite execs and 800 employees. Among the insights, 66% of execs shared that generative AI was leading to tension and division, and that 41% of Gen Z employees are actively sabotaging their company’s AI strategy !
The factors that lead to these insights point to a lack of alignment and collaboration. Many report AI applications being created in isolation, with IT teams not collaborating with the employees who will use these tools. Many execs report adoption challenges, and nearly half of employees had to figure out AI on their own.
Another finding of the study however is that there can be an unrealistic expectation of the timeframe within which a return on investment in AI can be realised. And when that timescale is 2-3 years or more, this is halting investment. This is leading to workers bringing in their own AI tools, exposing the company to risk of data breaches and other security issues.
Takeaways for Leaders
Whilst some of the stats are sobering, many issues around siloed behaviours and developing collaborative ways of working across departments are issues that leaders have faced before in previous transformations and can work through.
The ambitions of how quickly AI will provide a return is one for leaders to ponder. We are living through an age where transformation now will set the stage for a company’s relevance for coming decades. Taking a short term view will lead to a very high risk that your company will be left behind - and business history is littered with examples where companies failed to transform and over time dwindled and in many cases disappeared
