Findings from our annual survey reveal workers are moving past the basics with AI.
Asked to choose up to three AI topics they most wanted more training on, respondents gave their top three answers as:
Only 15% of professionals said they want more training on prompting.
This data comes from the SmarterX 2026 State of AI for Business report, released in May, which surveyed more than 2,100 professionals across industries, company sizes, and roles.
Prompting has been the centerpiece of most corporate AI training in recent years, but when professionals were asked what they actually want to learn next, it barely made the list.
Here's what makes the responses especially meaningful: Respondents could only choose up to three topics, not "check everything that applies." That constraint forced people to name their real priorities. When 58% of people list workflow integration, it’s an indication of what they actually want to learn.
It’s important to note that many of the respondents engage with SmarterX, indicating an existing interest in AI. These are not folks being dragged into the technology. They are proactive in learning about it.
So a clear pattern emerges from their responses: The top three requested topics are all operational and intermediate-to-advanced. These aren't beginners asking for an introduction to AI. They're practitioners who've already used it and want to go deeper into applying it. They've absorbed the basics. Now they want to build with them.
One topic worth watching in particular: 51% want training on AI agents. In the same dataset, agents are also the #1 AI trend professionals say they're following most closely. What people most want to learn and what they're most curious about are the same thing, that’s a strong signal for where training energy should go next.
To read the full report, visit https://smarterx.ai/reports/2026-state-of-ai-for-business