Recruiter Hays says 60% of employees use AI regularly at work but only 22% have received any training or support from their employer.

Asia-Pacific CEO Matthew Dickason says there is an opportunity for employers to use AI training as a competitive advantage.

“Adoption is running ahead of enablement, and the organisations that close that gap fastest will gain the most ground,” he said.

Hays says more employees use AI than employers expect or formally enable.

“With only a small proportion of organisations providing structured AI support, most workplaces remain stuck in ad hoc usage rather than real transformation.”

About half of employees report “no training or support offered” in a Hays survey of more than 7000 Australians and New Zealanders.

Others have received only informal help from colleagues, limited resources with no hands-on training, or their AI use is mostly self-led.

Hays says as AI adoption is accelerating, rules, training and governance are lagging “the tools that are already on the desk.

“Usage is already widespread, with around 60% of employees using AI at work, yet most report little to no training or support.

“Organisations are betting on AI for productivity gains while leaving the workforce to figure it out unsupported.”

Hays says no agreed standard exists for showing AI capability when hiring new employees and the “competency question is open, and that ambiguity is itself an opportunity to bring structure”.

While AI skills are in demand, 43% of employers say there is no clear way to prove them.

Hays adds that the workers least likely to use AI are also least likely to be helped to start, creating a “compounding gap that will widen without deliberate action”.

See the survey results here.

---

From the latest Insurance News magazine: Why Anthropic's Mythos model seems to be inspiring equal amounts of consternation and confidence in cybersecurity circles

---