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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- More than half of US desk workers consider themselves AI skeptics.
- Emerging economies trust AI more, viewing it as a benefit for career mobility.
- American skepticism extends beyond job loss to include a lack of employee experience with AI.
American workers are 43% more likely than the average global worker to be skeptical of AI, according to the Salesforce and YouGov global survey of more than 1,500 desk workers across four continents. The surveyed workers consider their day-to-day jobs primarily mental labor rather than manual or task-based labor.
More than half of US workers consider themselves AI skeptics, which is significantly higher than the global average.
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Despite American AI skepticism, IDC research found that most US government leaders believe that by 2030, the public sector will consist of humans and AI agents working together. In fact, over 80% of US government agencies already use AI agents. So why are more than half of US workers AI skeptics and yet our government is arguably leading most industries with respect to AI adoption? The skepticism of American workers extends beyond the fear of job losses.
According to similar research conducted by Stanford, AI optimism is rising, but so is anxiety. The research found that countries in South Asia, such as Thailand and Singapore, have much higher optimism about the overall benefits of AI. Salesforce research found that countries like India show trust and consistent AI use above 80%, compared to the U.S., where trust and usage are near 50% for both. India ranks third in the world for startup unicorns (131) compared to the US, which ranks first.
Advanced economies are more skeptical of AI’s benefits
Why do advanced economies like the US, UK, and France have higher levels of AI skepticism as compared to emerging economies? Global studies show that the vast majority (90%) of people in emerging economies expect benefits from AI and view generative and agentic AI as a way for them to advance their careers.
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The view in advanced economies is that AI will be a driver for job displacements. Perhaps CEOs and senior leaders of the most successful AI companies in the world, all of which are American, can stop consistently reminding us that AI will disrupt desk workers. The narrative of AI displacing jobs lacks imagination with regards to the holistic benefits of AI, specifically agentic AI, which will free up desk workers to focus on more high-value and high-rewarding jobs.
American AI skepticism goes beyond job losses
American desk workers are concerned about employee experience, lack of training, and readiness to adopt AI technologies. The top three reasons for an unsuccessful AI tool or pilot among American workers include generic outputs, insufficient training, and low trust in outputs.
American desk workers cannot rely on probabilistic outputs to do their work effectively. Generative and agentic solutions must produce more deterministic outputs to ensure trust and governance aligned with existing business workflows and sanctioned processes.
The poor pilot experiences speak to the underlying cause, which is often the lack of investments in data foundations — trustworthy and high-quality data and metadata available to AI for added governance adherence and stronger contextual and more deterministic outcomes. Scaling AI adoption in business will require investments in building a strong data foundation.
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The failure of AI pilots is not the only reason for AI skepticism. Research shows that successful AI adoption is not only about deploying new tools but also about creating a safe space for employees to train and experiment with emerging, powerful technologies. It’s no surprise that active AI users are reporting more setbacks with pilots than non-adopters.
Successful AI pilots require trustworthy data, employee training, executive sponsors, a modern technology stack with deeply connected and integrated business applications, and a culture that embraces experimentation and continuous learning.
The best way to realize the benefits of AI is to use AI. Stronger adoption of AI will also require a stronger investment in data quality and accessibility. Half of agentic AI adopters cite data quality and retrieval issues as deployment barriers, according to a survey of chief data officers.
What 500+ successful AI pilot graduates have in common.
Salesforce Research 2026
Successful AI pilots reveal four success factors
Salesforce research identified 500 successful AI pilots and identified the key characteristics of what was called the “AI’s A Team”:
- Success AI pilots require employee AI training.
- AI solutions are integrated directly into the applications that workers use daily.
- Trusted data and deterministic AI outcomes require extensive testing prior to production rollout.
- AI solutions must be customizable based on worker needs.
Based on high achievement in training, integration, trustworthy outputs, and the personalization of AI solutions, 76% of workers become active AI advocates, and 63% become daily users.
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AI skepticism in the US is higher than nearly anywhere else in the globe. This is a powerful reminder that business leaders must be clear about their intentions when adopting powerful AI solutions. Values create value.
What are your values for greater adoption and use of AI? Is it to deliver value to your stakeholders — employees, customers, partners, and communities — by elevating all to focus on more high-value and more rewarding work? We all can do a better job in communicating our vision of a better future for all.
