Rewiring the future of work

Workers are weighing in on the hotly debated question of AI’s impact on productivity, growth, and jobs. PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025 indicates AI’s impact is growing and that optimism about its potential greatly outweighs anxiety. But our study—one of the world’s largest, with nearly 50,000 respondents spanning 28 sectors in 48 major economies—also shows daily usage is still relatively low and that leaders have big opportunities to unleash motivation and accelerate reinvention and growth.

Across our sample, which extends from senior management to the front line, 54% of workers say they’ve used AI for their jobs in the past year. Most of these users are already seeing the benefits: about three-quarters say AI is increasing productivity and enhancing the quality of their work. Those who turn to generative AI (GenAI) daily are the most bullish: nine in 10 of these power users say they’ve not only experienced such improvements, but they also expect to see further advantages. Across our entire sample, workers are twice as likely to be curious or excited about AI’s impact on their work as they are to be worried or confused. 

But this is no time for complacency. Despite the growing awareness of AI’s potential, only 14% of workers say they use GenAI daily. Usage varies according to work type: 19% of office employees report using GenAI daily, compared to 5% among manual workers. But the average shows only a small increase on the 12% we reported in 2024 and is significantly lower than estimates we often hear from global executives.

An even smaller group—just 6%—report daily use of agentic AI, the next phase of GenAI in which intelligent systems can autonomously take on distinct tasks, including decision-making. Across the workforce, fewer than half expect technology change will significantly impact their jobs over the next three years, seeing it as no more disruptive than shifts in customer preferences or government regulations. By contrast, 70% of daily GenAI users expect major job impacts from the technology. 

For employers, these findings are a stark reminder that they can and should do more to help workers understand, adopt, and embrace AI’s transformative power. Employers may need to pay special attention to entry-level workers, nearly a third of whom say they’re worried to a large or very large extent about AI’s impact on their future, even as they’re also curious (47%) and optimistic (38%) about its long-term societal effects.

Uncertainty about AI’s effects is exacerbating the stark reality that many employees are feeling overwhelmed. While 70% of our survey respondents say they feel satisfied with their work at least once a week (including 22% who feel satisfied daily), there are also signs of stress. More than half are dealing with financial strain, and nearly as many say they’re fatigued. This heightens the need for employers to cultivate trust, alignment, and a sense of safety in the workforce. We’ve said this before, and this year’s survey only reinforces the message: these aren’t passing concerns but are ongoing priorities employers can’t afford to ignore.

New to our survey this year: the use of advanced statistical methods to explore motivation—the fuel for innovation, reinvention, and growth. We find there are big payoffs in motivation when workplaces build trust, nurture skills, and offer meaningful work, strategic alignment, and psychological safety. Taken together, these findings suggest leaders should try to co-create the future with their people. They also highlight six key actions that can help leaders get started.

Trust in management is critical for motivation, but it’s uneven across the workforce. When employees doubt their leaders, energy and focus drain away. And as organisations race to integrate AI and other new technologies, anxiety and uncertainty among workers is spiking. In a turbulent job market, where churn is high and employees may feel vulnerable, trust in leadership can become a critical stabiliser. 

Where to focus

When it comes to AI and the workforce, there’s a great deal of anxiety and, of course, a barrage of information for employees to parse. It’s also important to recognise that what executives see as reallocating skills, employees experience as a threat to their jobs and expertise. Management transparency can go a long way towards reducing fear and building trust.

Employees are more motivated when they understand their organisation’s goals and believe they’re attainable. The implications for leaders trying to take their workforce into the future: create a vivid picture of what the company will look like a few years from now and describe how those outcomes relate to employees’ day-to-day work and longer-term career development.

If leaders articulate a consistent vision and link it to achievable milestones, they can build confidence and credibility—and avoid leaving a vacuum for fear or hype to fill.

Where to focus

The AI story of the insurer we described above points to broader opportunities—and challenges—for leadership alignment. The opportunity is to set your company’s AI story in the context of a clear management narrative about long-term corporate goals and how they’ll create a better future for the company and its employees.

Too few leaders are disciplined about this, sometimes due to a lack of strategic clarity or, in other cases, because they haven’t fully translated corporate priorities into a bigger purpose and the difference it will make for employees. AI raises the ante and the difficulty of creating a clear narrative.

Workers who believe all of their skills will remain relevant over the next three years are almost twice as motivated as those who think their skills will have no relevance. And workers who feel supported to upskill are 73% more motivated than those who report the least support—which makes access to learning one of the strongest predictors of motivation.

Yet our survey shows employers’ upskilling efforts are uneven. Again, the technology sector leads the way: 71% of tech workers say they learned new skills at work that are helping their career, compared to just 56% of all survey respondents. In our global sample, just 51% of non-managers feel they have the resources they need for learning and development, versus 72% among senior executives. And while 75% of daily users of GenAI at work feel they have the resources they need for learning and development, only 59% of infrequent users feel the same.

Where to focus

Given the rapid evolution of relevant skills as AI takes hold in the workplace, creating meaningful upskilling pathways is mission critical for leaders who want to keep their workforce motivated. Some companies are starting to take this seriously. Walmart, for example, has publicly rolled out AI solutions for its associates—including a translation tool covering 44 languages—and presents them as a key way of building employee skills and increasing effectiveness. 

Motivation thrives where employees feel safe and find meaning in their work. These cultural drivers are as critical as technology or skills to sustaining performance and driving innovation—especially in an environment of uncertainty and rapid change.

Our survey finds employees with the highest levels of psychological safety are 72% more motivated than those who feel the least safe. To reinvent their companies as AI accelerates and value pools shift, leaders need to ensure their teams feel safe speaking up, experimenting, and learning from failure. But this is far from the norm in today’s workplace: only 56% of workers feel it’s safe to try new approaches in their workplace, and just 54% say their team treats failures as opportunities to learn and improve. 

Where to focus

To mobilise the workforce behind reinvention, there are several steps leaders can take. One is to actively reallocate staff—which is not only associated with higher profitability but also energises your people if done well. A skills-first approach can help allocate talent where you need it—and boost employee motivation.  

High-performing HR functions can play a significant role, and today’s leaders need to demand that they do. Consider psychological safety: its importance as a motivator suggests leaders should be doubling down on it at a time when technological disruption is creating uncertainty about the future. But several HR leaders have told us the terminology has created confusion, with some employees couching demands for limits on hours or feedback in their need for psychological safety.

Another tactical step for leaders is to make experimentation safer. Innovation depends on leaders showing that failure isn’t the end point but part of the process as they look to build a culture where employees feel comfortable trying new things. Model the behaviours you want to see by openly sharing examples of experiments that didn’t work and the lessons learned.

Security, including job stability and financial well-being, is critical to motivation. Workers who are highly optimistic about the future of their role within their organisation are about twice as motivated as those who are not. Similarly, workers who are highly confident about their job security are 51% more motivated than peers lacking such confidence.

Pay is an important piece of the puzzle. Fewer than half of employees in our survey received a raise in the past year, and those who didn’t see a pay boost are markedly less likely to feel satisfied, inspired, or excited at work. For employers, that’s potentially a barrier to readiness for change.

Where to focus

In addition to motivating workers with money and seeking to avoid demotivation through insecurity, executives can link employees’ financial goals to a drive for AI adoption and value creation.

Beyond helping employees boost their value by building their AI skills, employers can take some simple steps to bolster financial wellness—and demonstrate care for their teams on this key topic. For example, employers can provide objective, trustworthy resources such as coaching, workshops, webinars, and online tools—which previous PwC research shows workers increasingly value.

The leadership challenge is not only to deploy AI—it’s to ensure workers feel prepared, motivated, and aligned to embrace it. Our survey shows motivation is strongest when employees see a future for themselves and have access to learning; believe in management and its priorities; experience meaning, psychological safety, and positive emotions at work; and feel financially rewarded. These aren’t new priorities, but they’re even more important as leaders seek to energise their employees for the future of work. With trust, clarity, and cultural support, today’s uncertainty can become tomorrow’s AI readiness.