According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 report, 65% of workers in U.S. organizations that have implemented AI say the technology has had some degree of positive impact on their individual productivity. That’s an encouraging sign, until you consider that only 12% strongly agree that AI has transformed how work gets done.

That gap points to the next challenge for leaders. Many of AI’s early gains have centered on helping individuals complete existing work faster. The bigger opportunity is figuring out how what one employee learns can change how an entire team, function, or organization works.

Today, two employees sitting directly across from each other can have dramatically different experiences with the same AI tool. While one might use the technology to write an email, the other may have discovered a way to redesign a process that saves significant time and resources. If those use cases stay with the individuals, the organization never captures their full value.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded across organizations, access to the technology itself is less likely to create sustainable advantage. The real differentiator will be how quickly organizations can turn what employees learn into shared knowledge, redesigned workflows, and better ways of working.

Because employees are closest to day-to-day work, they’re often uncovering the most practical ways AI can improve work or solve problems differently. They understand where existing processes create friction and where AI might enable a better approach.

Walmart provides one useful example. Rather than treating employees only as end users of AI, the company has involved them in shaping AI applications.

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