State of AI Adoption: Most Workers Still Don’t Know How to Use AI

TL;DR
AI tools are everywhere, and usage rates are growing fast. But according to the latest AI Proficiency Report, only 10% of workers are actually skilled at using them. Most teams still don’t know how to prompt well, navigate hallucinations, or move beyond basic use cases. If your business is investing in AI without structured training, the ROI you’re expecting will never materialise.

What’s really going on inside your business?

You might have signed off on ChatGPT Enterprise. Maybe your team is dabbling with Claude, Microsoft Copilot, or other LLMs. That’s adoption.

But that’s not the same as skill.

The data from the latest Section State of AI Adoption Report is clear: 55% of knowledge workers now use AI at least weekly. LLM deployments are up. Excitement is up. Even formal training has grown by 80% in the last six months. This signals a shift from the early adopter crowd to a broader mainstream. But that wider uptake is masking a serious blind spot.

Most people still don’t know how to use AI well.

Just 10% of the workforce is AI-proficient

The latest Proficiency Report didn’t just ask if people are using AI. It tested them. Workers had to write prompts, describe their workflows, and apply AI to real business scenarios.

The result?

• Only 10% met the bar for proficiency.
• 54% thought they were proficient.
• 44% didn’t know what a hallucination was.

Most prompts looked like Google queries. Yes, querying like they have been using google for the past two decades. Even in high-tech sectors, the average proficiency score was just 47 out of 100. Customer support scored 33. Marketing barely reached 41. These aren’t just technical gaps they’re commercial and human capital risks.  What’s holding people back?

Three core issues stood out:

1. People still don’t know what to use AI for. A quarter of workers are stuck at surface-level tasks like meeting summaries or generic copy.
2. They’re not accessing the best tools. Most proficient users have paid access to enterprise-grade LLMs. Most others don’t.
3. They’re not being trained properly. Only 10% of AI sceptics say they’ve had structured training. Among experts, it’s 71%.

The result? AI is treated like a toy, not a business tool. And that’s a problem if you’re counting on productivity gains, headcount efficiency, or improved decision-making.

Most companies are under-investing in the skill gap

This isn’t something that fixes itself.

The speed of LLM releases is outpacing people’s ability to keep up. New models drop monthly. Even seasoned users aren’t exploring advanced use cases like deep research, chain-of-thought prompting, or custom workflows. I can barely keep up with each new tool released, never mind the capability in the models. It all seems a bit spinning plates from time to time - we are all a bit stuck beyond, wow that is a cool video or cool image.

Meanwhile, companies are assuming adoption equals progress.

It doesn’t.

If your managers aren’t encouraging smart AI use, if your policies are unclear, and if your team doesn’t understand how prompting works—you’re setting them (and yourself) up to fail.

So, what should you do next?

Give up. Just forget it and ban all AI. It will blow itself out and we well get on with business as usual....

No! Not really! If you’re responsible for delivery, capability, or team performance, this part’s for you. So listen carefully please:

You don’t need everyone to become a machine learning engineer or build vector databases, embeddings and chunk data. No need for KNN and Baysian statistics - this is general purpose technology so you need a general purpose plan.

You do however need them to:

• Understand what generative AI is doing (and what it’s not).
• Prompt with structure and intent.
• Navigate hallucinations and know when to trust vs check.
• Use AI for real business tasks, not just admin.

That’s why we run the AI Fundamentals Masterclass. It’s designed specifically for non-technical teams. We teach the core mechanics, expose the biggest myths, and help people build confidence fast—without jargon.

If your organisation is adopting AI, this is how you ensure it delivers.

Most people aren’t AI-proficient.

But they can be, if you start with the right foundation.

Learn more about the AI Fundamentals Masterclass