BERLIN: Employee engagement is stagnating at work as US-based companies expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in offices, polling company Gallup says.
Describing the adoption of AI as "one of the most significant technological shifts in decades,” Gallup says that employees appear "substantially more likely to be engaged” if companies set out "clear expectations” and a "thoughtful implementation plan."
But overall worker engagement remains down, at 31%, the same as last year and five percentage points below 2020 when the world was being locked down and offices closed due to Covid pandemic regulations.
In other words, according to Gallup, there are 8 million fewer "engaged" employees in the US compared to six years ago.
And despite an AI-driven stock market boom, the resultant loss in productivity could be costing the country around US$2 trillion (RM8.18 trillion) a year, Gallup asserts, around the same as the gross domestic products of Spain or South Korea.
Gallup, whose survey covered the first half of 2026, defines engagement as "employees' involvement in and enthusiasm for their work and workplace.”
The Gallup report follows the July publication of a King’s College London-led survey, in which 42% of participants claimed to have started "limiting” their use of chatbots, citing privacy concerns. They also complained of a lack of opt-outs from the technology while at work. – dpa
