A vast majority (71%) expect AI to eliminate more jobs than It creates.
This past week, SmarterX released its annual State of AI for Business report,
More than 2,100 professionals across roles, functions,and industries responded to 34 questions about AI understanding, adoption, and organizational readiness between February and April 2026.
Here are the key findings:
1. The workforce expects AI to eliminate more jobs than it creates.
Seventy-one percent of respondents believe more jobs will be eliminated by AI than created, compared to just 13% who expect net job creation. This belief is remarkably consistent across every role and seniority level.
2. AI is now essential to business success, with near-universal agreement.
Seventy-four percent of respondents say AI is "critically important" (39%) or "very important" (35%) to their success in the next twelve months.
3. The biggest barriers to AI adoption aren't technical, they're human.
Top adoption barriers share a common thread: the pace of change is outrunning people's capacity to absorb it. A lack of education and training (38%) and a lack of awareness or understanding (35%) remain the most-cited barriers to AI adoption.
4. More than half of professionals have moved past experimentation.
Fifty-three percent of respondents say they're in the Integration (27%) or Transformation (26%) phases of AI adoption, meaning they've moved past testing tools into embedding AI in their workflows or reimagining how they work entirely.
5. Organizations are falling behind their own employees.
While individuals race ahead, only 25% of organizations have reached the Scaling AI phase. The largest share (47%) is still in Piloting, and 28% remain in Understanding.
6. Nearly half the workforce is not yet sold on AI.
Fifty-two percent of respondents describe their overall sentiment toward AI as positive. But 48% are neutral, negative, or unsure how they feel.
7. Only 13% of organizations have the governance foundations to scale AI.
Only 29% have an AI roadmap. Thirty-nine percent have an AI council. Forty-eight percent have generative AI policies. Forty-eight percent have an AI ethics policy. And just 13% have all four governance foundations in place. A third of respondents (32%) report their organization has none of these.
8. AI training is up sharply, and still isn't reaching the majority.
The majority of respondents still functionally lack training: 32% say no training exists, 18% say it's in development, and 3% aren't sure.
9. ChatGPT dominates small firms. Copilot dominates enterprise.
Overall, 59% of respondents say their organization provides ChatGPT. But platform preference depends on company size: Seventy-three percent use ChatGPT at small firms (up to $1M) while the same percentage use Microsoft Copilot at large enterprises ($1B+). Claude (37%) and Gemini (42%) are significant but still trail the leaders.
10. CEOs and founders report being dramatically ahead of everyone else in AI adoption.
Sixty-five percent of CEOs/Founders/Presidents are in the Integration or Transformation phases, compared to 53% of Directors and 48% of Managers.
You can download the full 49-page report at stateofbusiness.ai.
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