Most executives believe their AI rollout is going well. Maybe you’re one of them. Your employees don’t agree, and the size of that disagreement should stop every leader reading this in their tracks. Section’s 2026 AI Proficiency Report, a survey of more than 5,000 U.S. knowledge workers, shows 65% of C-suite leaders feel positive about AI in their organization. Among individual contributors, that number drops to 33%. [1] A 32-point gap between how leadership feels and how the workforce actually feels.
I’m not a statistician, but you don’t need to be one to see this gap isn’t a rounding error. It runs through nearly every measure Section tracked. 68% of C-suite leaders say their org has a formal AI strategy; only 22% of individual contributors agree. 91% of executives say they’ve received AI training; 44% of employees say the same. 72% of leaders feel they have clear access to AI tools; 40% of employees do. [1] If you’re reading these numbers thinking “that’s not my company,” that instinct is exactly the problem. It’s the same instinct every leader in this data set had right before the numbers proved them wrong.
The part most AI-and-work conversations skip entirely is that the gap isn’t only between the C-suite and the frontline. It’s a double whammy because the managers standing between them and the workers reporting to them are scared too. Mid-level leaders are the ones translating AI initiatives into daily work, and many of them are quietly afraid, afraid of looking replaceable, afraid of leading a transition they don’t fully understand, afraid to tell their own leadership what they’re actually seeing on the ground. That fear doesn’t stay contained. It gets absorbed and passed straight down to every person who reports to them.
And that fear isn’t paranoia. Employee engagement in the US has been flat at 31% for years, unmoved by all the AI investment leaders have poured into their organizations. [2] Only 15% of employees use AI daily. [3] People aren’t resisting the technology out of stubbornness. They’re disengaged because they haven’t been led through the change, explained why they need to use it and how it’s going to make their work more meaningful to the business and to them. All leadership did was announce it, and maybe offer some tools training. No “why” training.
If you’re asking, why do we need to offer “why” training, the reason is right there in the same data. Engagement jumps from 28% to 43% when employees say there’s a clear plan for integrating AI. It climbs further when managers actively and visibly support AI use, and when all three conditions line up, a clear plan, frequent use, and manager support, engagement nearly doubles, to 53%. [2] The variable was never the tool. It was leadership.
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about the Human Dividend. When leaders reduce fear, create clarity, preserve meaning and build adaptability into their AI transformation plan, they set themselves up for success. The “dividend” is distributed to the business and to the employees.
AI transformation doesn’t fail because of the technology. It fails because leaders skip the trust and meaning work: the blind spot at the top, the fear in the middle, and the disengagement that follows both, all the way down. I dig into this in more depth in Episode 288 of the Life Fulfilled Podcast. 👇🏼
So, consider this. If you just read this and thought “not us,” don’t trust that feeling. The C-suite leaders in this data felt exactly the same way, and the numbers said otherwise. The only way to know where your organization actually stands is to look, not assume. Take the free AI People Readiness Pulse and find out in minutes whether your workforce sees what you see, or something very different.
Sources
[1] Section, “The AI Proficiency Report,” June 2026.
[2] Gallup, “Employee Engagement Remains Flat as AI Adoption Accelerates,” 2026.
[3] Gallup, “Global Indicator: Artificial Intelligence
