Workday analysis: 75% of staff will work with synthetic intelligence, however not for it

Synthetic intelligence (AI) brokers are gaining floor within the office, however human employees are cagily resisting their incursions, in response to Workday-commissioned analysis.

The survey-based report, AI brokers are right here – however don’t name them boss, discovered 30% of respondents discomfited with being managed by an AI agent, although three-quarters stated they’re relaxed working with them.

Hanover Analysis carried out the research in Might and June 2025, commissioned by Workday. It was based mostly on a world survey of two,950 full-time enterprise IT decision-makers and software program implementation leaders throughout North America (706), APAC (1,031), and EMEA (1,213).

The analysis discovered that moral, safety and governance considerations are impeding AI agent deployment. Some 44% cited ethics and governance considerations, together with bias, knowledge privateness, and authorized issues, and 39% cited safety and privateness challenges. Furthermore, 30% stated they had been very to extraordinarily involved about AI misuse, essentially.

The researchers elected to concentrate on agentic AI, not AI extra broadly. “For the aim of this report, ‘AI brokers’ refers to synthetic intelligence techniques able to performing duties, making selections, and interacting autonomously or semi-autonomously inside an outlined scope, usually studying and adapting over time to attain particular targets,” the report says. “Not like broader AI, which might embody a variety of clever applied sciences, AI brokers are characterised by their capacity to behave on behalf of a person or system with a level of independence. Our analysis particularly focuses on the adoption and impression of those AI brokers within the office.”

For the commissioning provider, Kathy Pham, vice-president of AI at Workday, stated: “We’re coming into a brand new period of labor the place AI could be an unimaginable accomplice, and a complement to human judgement, management and empathy. “Constructing belief means being intentional in how AI is used and conserving individuals on the centre of each determination.”

Within the report, she says: “Optimism in agentic AI is cast by clear boundaries. These boundaries, outlined by our selections, are important for purposeful and accountable deployment, releasing us to discover AI’s full potential with out concern of misuse. Leaders should prioritise coaching that empowers staff to grasp when and how you can use AI, whereas know-how suppliers construct these boundaries straight into their options, giving prospects the arrogance to innovate – particularly in high-stakes areas like HR and finance.”

The analysis discovered that 82% of the organisations surveyed are increasing their use of brokers, and whereas 36% of these exploring AI brokers belief their organisation to make use of them responsibly, the analysis discovered that quantity growing to 95% amongst these with extra expertise of brokers, on the stage of seeking to scale up utilization. Equally, 90% of these seeking to scale up noticed belief that AI agentic utilization may have a constructive social impression.

Nevertheless, solely a small minority (24%) of respondents say they’re snug with AI brokers working within the background with out human data. An analogous quantity stated brokers are being overhyped.

Practically 90% of respondents consider AI brokers will assist them get extra performed, however many are additionally involved these productiveness positive aspects will result in elevated stress (48%), a decline in important considering (48%) and fewer human interplay (36%).

Most noticed brokers as essential teammates, however not full members of the workforce. Belief in AI was highest for IT help and expertise growth, and lowest for areas like hiring, finance and authorized issues.

Finance professionals particularly appear liable to seeing an upside in agentic AI utilization.

Greater than three-quarters (76%) of finance employees consider AI brokers will assist with personnel and expertise shortages, whereas a seemingly low 12% are fearful about job loss. The highest makes use of for AI brokers in finance are forecasting and budgeting (32%), monetary reporting (32%), and fraud detection (30%).

The report concludes, balancing IT and HR as features, “ethics, a key concern for 33% of respondents, mandates multidisciplinary oversight. IT management should have interaction past its conventional scope for accountable AI. That is the place HR assumes an indispensable strategic position.”