Despite Enthusiasm, Employees Underwhelmed About AI’s Potential

According to two different surveys, employers must go beyond just providing access to AI and do more to train their employees.

Even with widespread eagerness about the potential for artificial intelligence to have a positive impact on workers’ productivity, most employees believe “they were overpromised on its potential,” according to a new report from cloud communications and IT company GoTo.

“The Pulse of Work in 2025: Trends, Truths, and the Practicality of AI”, completed in partnership with research firm Workplace Intelligence, found that 62% of workers believe there has been too much hype around AI. The report examined the findings of a survey of 2,500 global employees and IT leaders about AI use and sentiment.

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Employees’ feelings about the “overhype” around AI is likely because they are not prepared for “making the most of what these tools have to offer,” according to the report. Most of the respondents (86%) admitted to not using AI tools to their full potential and not being very familiar with how they can deploy them in their daily tasks (82%).

Employees also said they estimate spending 2.6 hours per day (13 hours per week) on tasks that AI could do. This means that in the U.S. alone, businesses are potentially not taking advantage of more than $2.9 trillion annually in efficiency, according to the report.

Although many workers recognize AI’s value, they still feel underwhelmed by “the revolutionary change they were promised,” said Rich Veldran, GoTo’s CEO, in a statement.

“The solution is clear: companies must go beyond just providing access to AI by ensuring employees have both the right tools and the right education,” said Veldran in the statement, noting that in practice, this means teams should be equipped with effective training and clear guidelines.

Use and Misuse

According to the report, employees are already using AI for some tasks, just not the ones for which their managers believe they are using. Instead of using the tool as a time-saver, 54% of employees reported that they’ve used it for “sensitive tasks” or “high-stakes decision-making.”

These tasks include ones that require emotional intelligence (29%), tasks impacting safety (26%) and ethical or sensitive personnel actions (16%). When prompted if they regret using AI for these tasks, 77% of workers said they did not.

The survey also found mistrust of the tools among employees: 86% of workers said they are not confident in its accuracy and reliability, and 76% reported that AI often produces outputs that need to be revised by users.

Predictably, when it comes to who is at the forefront of AI use, smaller companies are already behind. At the smallest companies (50 employees or fewer), just 59% of workers use AI and 46% said they do not know how to use it to save time or improve their work, according to the report.

‘Proficiency Has Flatlined’

Although enterprises are investing in AI, Section Inc.—a company dedicated to AI transformation and upskilling—found that workforce proficiency “is still in neutral,” raising reservations about return on investment.

According to the report, since September 2024, employees’ general AI proficiency has “flatlined,” with only 10% of the workforce scoring as AI-proficient.

The report’s survey examined 5,013 knowledge workers across the U.S., U.K. and Canada, including individual contributors and C-suite executives, measuring workers’ knowledge, usage and skill with generative AI tools.

A key reason for the lack of proficiency in enterprise organizations is because there is a lack of “wide-spread deployment,” according to Greg Shove, Section’s CEO.

“Our research echoes what we hear from enterprise organizations: they’ve rolled out ChatGPT to leadership or a few groups and stopped there,” Shove said in a statement. “Without widespread deployment, AI vendors will start seeing churn, CEOs will get frustrated by lack of ROI and workers will be left to figure it out for themselves.”

Massive Tax and Policy Bill Signed Into Law

President Trump signed the measure that preserves tax deferral for retirement savings, raises taxes on certain endowments, makes cuts to federal benefits and much more.

President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes various retirement and savings benefits, new taxes on some institutional investors and other tax and policy changes.

The bill sped through Congress passing the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday afternoon, by a 218-214 vote, two days after the Senate approved its version of the bill 51-50, for which Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

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The 870-page H.R. 1 renews several expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and includes other provisions advocated for by the Trump administration. The bill also authorizes a $5 trillion increase in the national debt limit. 

The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that H.R. 1, as passed by the Senate on July 1, 2025, when compared with CBO’s January 2025 baseline budget projections, would increase deficits over the next decade by $3.4 trillion.

The bill does also raise some taxes. Notably, the anticipated excise taxes on investment income from endowments will increase to 8% for the largest, wealthiest colleges with at least 3,000 students, while institutions with fewer assets per student will be taxed at 4% or 1.4%. It appears that the final bill omitted a provision, that would have taxed qualified litigation proceeds received by third-party investors in litigation financing arrangements, that had been in the version of the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee.

Other key provisions included in the bill include:

  • Section 71306, Permanent extension of safe harbor for telehealth services: codifies the safe harbor provision allowing high-deductible health plans to cover telehealth services without a deductible;
  • Section 71307, Allowance of bronze and catastrophic health plans from the Affordable Care Act exchanges to be used plans in connection with health savings accounts;
  • Section 71308, Treatment of direct primary care service arrangement: allows patients enrolled in high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts to participate in direct primary care benefits, and to pay direct primary care fees from their HSAs;
  • Section 71401, exclusion for employer payments of student loans: makes permanent the exclusion for qualifying student loan payments made by employers. This provision would also adjust for inflation the maximum exclusion for taxable years beginning after 2026;
  • Section 70204, Trump accounts and contribution pilot program: This provision was changed by the Senate and now creates Trump accounts as individual retirement accounts under IRC 408(a), but distributions before until age 18 are prohibited, while other distribution restrictions have been eliminated, according to an analysis of the bill by Kendra Isaacson, principal of consulting firm Mindset. Trump account investments are restricted to mutual funds or exchange traded funds that track the returns of a qualified index, do not use leverage, do not have annual fees and expenses of more than 0.1% of the balance of the investment among other criteria. Because of the classification of the accounts as IRAs, rollovers and employer contributions are now permitted. The accounts have an annual $5,000 cap on contributions. A pilot program is established, to provide $1,000 to U.S. children who are citizens, have a Social Security number and were born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028; and,
  • Section 70116, Extension and enhancement of savers credit allowed for ABLE contributions: The provision would expand the Saver’s Credit to include ABLE accounts, also known as 529 ABLE or 529A accounts. 

The Senate also removed from the bill any changes the House had initially proposed to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System; and despite President Trump’s pledge to not tax Social Security, the bill provides for a temporary expanded deduction of up to $6,000 for individuals aged 65 and over, phased out for individuals making more than $75,000 and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Industry Reactions

Several investment and retirement industry groups praised the bill’s passage.

The Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association supported the bill for extending expiring individual and business tax provisions, saying it “avoids dramatic tax increases that would negatively impact economic growth,” said SIFMA President and CEO Kenneth Bentsen, Jr., in a statement. 

Leader of the capital markets advocacy group also praised omission of Section 899 or the “revenge tax,” provision that had been intended to raise taxes on foreign investments in the U.S. 

“SIFMA appreciates that lawmakers chose to reject certain provisions that could have negatively impacted foreign direct investment in U.S. capital markets and financial assets which would have resulted in negative economic consequences for the markets and the nation,” Bentsen’s statement continued. 

“Preserving the tax deferral of retirement savings is a win for retirement savers,” said Wayne Chopus, president CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute, in a statement.  “Congress’ action ensures that a vital incentive to save for retirement remains intact—an outcome we’ve strongly advocated for on behalf of workers and retirees.”

The Investment Company Institute likewise praised the act’s anticipated effect on American investors.

“We are pleased to see Congress protect the tax treatment of voluntary retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs, ensuring that more than 120 million Americans can continue building long-term financial security through tax-advantaged savings,” said ICI president and CEO Eric Pan, in a statement.

Still, Pan encouraged continued progress.

“[M]ore needs to be done. We encourage the administration and Congress to continue to prioritize policies that strengthen the retirement system and ensure U.S. capital markets remain attractive, accessible, and resilient,” Pan said in a statement. “Legislation introduced this session that would continue this momentum for American investors includes the GROWTH ACT, Increasing Investor Opportunities Act, Retirement Fairness for Charities and Educational Institutions Act, and Improving Disclosure for Investors Act.”

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