Is AI turning you right into a “frontrunner” or are you working within the “engine room?”
An enormous survey carried out by consulting big PwC discovered that AI is permitting a small team of workers to drag away from the remainder of the workforce and dividing staff into 4 distinct classes.
The Big Four firm printed its “2026 World Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey” on Tuesday. It surveyed nearly 50,000 employees throughout 48 international locations and 29 sectors between Could and June 2026.
AI use is rising, the survey discovered. 64% of employees mentioned that they had used AI at work up to now 12 months, up 10 proportion factors from a 12 months earlier, and the share utilizing generative AI daily rose from 14% to 22%.
However the survey revealed a widening divide in how employees are getting the instruments and alternatives to profit from AI.
Primarily based on the responses, PwC recognized a bunch it referred to as “front-runners,” which make up 14% of these surveyed.
The front-runners have in-demand abilities and reported getting robust advantages from AI of their work. Simply over half the group use generative AI daily, whereas almost 80% mentioned they’ve entry to studying and improvement sources.
Then there’s what PwC calls the “engine room” employees — 56% of employees who PwC characterizes because the core of organizations’ day-to-day supply.
Only a small variety of these employees say they use generative AI each day, and fewer than 40% say they’ve entry to studying and improvement sources.
“They don’t seem to be getting the identical entry to studying. They don’t seem to be getting the chance to innovate. They don’t seem to be getting to make use of AI in a significant approach,” mentioned Peter Brown, PwC’s international workforce chief.
PwC’s third class is “AI insurgents,” who make up round a fifth of employees. Their abilities are much less in demand than these of front-runners, however they’re formidable in how they use AI.
Lastly, there are the “indispensables,” who’ve scarce abilities which might be extremely valued by employers.
The end result of this divergence confirmed up in findings on job safety, workers’ confidence in asking for a promotion, belief in managers, and abilities improvement — all of which have been decrease for the engine room cohort.
The divergence between the teams is making a “two-speed” workforce, mentioned Brown.
PwC
The survey doesn’t set up the explanations behind employees’ experiences, and PwC’s employee classes are partly primarily based on respondents’ reported experiences with AI and on how in demand they consider their abilities are.
Nonetheless, the findings level to a sensible problem for employers spending closely on the know-how and looking for ROI: shopping for instruments shouldn’t be the identical as altering work throughout a company.
Ignoring the divide between staff dangers lacking out on productiveness, income per worker, job safety, and satisfaction, Brown mentioned: “The hazard is that you simply truly might render a giant chunk of your workforce largely irrelevant on this planet of labor.”
PwC, one of many Large 4 accounting and consulting companies, itself employs over 360,000 folks globally and has raced to construct inside chatbots, upskill employees, and check AI in consumer work.
The agency pitches itself as “client zero” for AI transformation whereas advising corporations on tips on how to make the same shift. Whereas the agency has made some errors alongside the best way, Brown mentioned PwC has embraced AI, which has introduced optimistic adjustments to the work and the instruments staff have entry to.
The adjustments have included rewriting PwC’s training agenda round 30 core abilities: 15 AI-centric and 15 human-centric, a change launched in February 2026. The agency has additionally reduced the number of offices its entry-level US consultants can be part of, in a bid to enhance neighborhood and studying alternatives.
Brown mentioned corporations must be clear about why they’re utilizing AI and the outcomes they hope to attain. “Employees aren’t anticipating leaders to, I feel, sugarcoat every little thing,” he mentioned. “They simply need to perceive what’s happening.”
“Leaders who show these type of traits and others are usually those that appear to be bringing the workforce together with them,” he added.
For employers, Brown mentioned, widening entry to AI shouldn’t be an either-or alternative between backing the front-runners and investing in everybody else.
The outcomes present that “there’s an infinite quantity of worth there that may be tapped” if leaders can get extra of the workforce to lean in, he mentioned.