AI Use Rises at Work as Upskilling Time, Hiring Support and ROI Proof Lag

The Workera survey, conducted in July 2026 with 1,000 salaried professionals at U.S. organizations with 5,000 or more employees, also found that 80% of companies feel they are more likely to be on track for an AI-enabled future in 2026, up from 67% last year. But nearly 43% of employees cited a lack of relevant learning materials as a major obstacle, and 84.3% spend five hours or less per week on training. Kian Katanforoosh, founder and CEO of Workera, told ZDNET that leaders should give employees time and psychological safety to experiment with AI. "Don't think that they will just figure it out without you actually carving out time," he said.

Workera said nearly six in 10 employees have been offered AI-specific training in the past 12 months, up from last year. Still, 46.5% of employees said they have used tools not provided by their employer for skill development; of those, 74.6% used mainstream AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Katanforoosh said organizations can close the gap by defining what "AI-ready" means, measuring employees against that standard and adding incentives.

A separate SoFi survey of more than 4,000 U.S. adults, fielded in July and published Sept. 23, found that 72% of Americans would make slower progress on financial goals to show up for family, take vacations and prioritize meaningful memories. The margin of error was plus or minus 1.53 percentage points. Brian Walsh, a certified financial planner and head of advice and planning at SoFi, said the idea comes down to prioritization: "You can have anything you want. You just can't have everything you want."

SoFi found that just one in three U.S. adults has taken on debt to host or attend a social, family or milestone event. Walsh said carrying a credit card balance can compound and make repayment harder, but he added that planning for a payoff in six months and reducing discretionary spending is more realistic than telling people to save ahead for every expense. The survey also found that 59% of Americans define financial progress as enjoying life, compared with 27% who cite owning a home. Among Gen Zers and millennials, 62% want to retire comfortably but only 46% are confident they will; 63% want to be debt-free but only 55% are confident; and 67% want to own a home compared with 62% who are confident.

In the job market, a ZipRecruiter survey of more than 1,500 job seekers between July 25 and Aug. 12 found that 55% say employers have the upper hand and 67% feel pressured to accept the first offer. A CNBC and SurveyMonkey Quarterly AI and Jobs Survey of 1,686 workers in July found that 47% have used AI to apply for jobs, with resume writing among the most common uses. Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, told CNBC Make It that "the success of job search strategies is lower right now across the board."

Career advisers said generic AI-generated applications are hurting candidates. Sam DeMase, career expert at ZipRecruiter, said job seekers should "never use AI to write your entire resume" and instead use AI to identify missing skills or experience. Bonnie Dilber, a recruiting leader at Zapier, said a response that sounds human stands out among copy-paste applications. Julia Stiglitz, chief education and workforce officer at Handshake, said showing intent matters more as applying becomes easier. Zhao added that cover letters are less important unless a candidate needs to bridge an unexpected background. DeMase also recommended applying within 48 hours to targeted roles, reaching out to contacts and searching by skillset rather than title; Bureau of Labor Statistics data show about one in four job seekers has been out of work for six months or more.

Flux Cyber Inc., a code-first engineering intelligence startup, expanded its platform on Sept. 23 with five capabilities designed to show whether investments in AI for software development are paying off. The capabilities—verified velocity, trusted review, auditable work, continuous quality and defensible spend—run on code analysis the platform already performs and are generally available now. Ted Julian, founder and CEO of Flux, said AI is "the biggest bet most engineering organizations have ever made" and that "tickets and adoption rates describe intent. The code itself shows what the team actually built and delivered." Flux cited Google Cloud's DORA 2025 report, which found 90% of software professionals using AI at work and said AI "doesn't fix a team; it amplifies what's already there." The company is backed by Calibrate Ventures, which led a $5 million round in June, with True Ventures and Glasswing Ventures also investing.