The majority or 84% of workers are eager to adopt agentic AI in their current role, however, most or 56% are concerned about their own job security working alongside AI agents, highlighting a seemingly urgent “disconnect.” Employees are prepared and keen to leverage agentic AI, but organizations are now said to be “fumbling” the fundamentals of strategy, training and communication, according to research from Ernst & Young LLP (EY US).
The EY Agentic AI in the Workplace Survey reveals a paradox: while agentic AI optimism is high, confusion and anxiety “threaten to stall this transformative period in the future of work.” The research also uncovered “how generational differences are creating a wide managerial divide on how to lead these new hybrid human-AI teams.”
The survey, which polled more than “1,100 desk workers across six industries at companies with $1B+ in revenue in the U.S., found that 84% of employees are eager to embrace agentic AI in their roles, anticipating positive impacts on productivity, efficiency and work experience.”
But more than half (56%) simultaneously worry “about their own job security working alongside AI agents, and 51% worry that agentic AI will make their job obsolete.”
This excitement-anxiety contradiction is compounded by a lack of guidance from leadership, and that tension is “sharper among non-people managers, 65% of whom worry about their own job security working alongside agentic AI compared to 48% of people managers.”
Amid a lack of adequate training, “85% of desk workers are learning about how to work alongside AI agents outside of work, and 83% say most of what they know about working with agentic AI is self-taught.”
Agentic AI is delivering value, with 86% of employees reporting that working with AI agents has had a “positive impact on their team’s productivity.” This breeds confidence across the workforce: a majority (90%) of desk workers already “using agentic AI are confident in their abilities to use AI agents today.”
Despite these real-world gains, EY US research highlights persistent internal obstacles:
- Skills gap anxiety: Despite widespread enthusiasm, 54% of employees feel like they are falling behind their peers in agentic AI use at work. This feeling of being outpaced is amplified among non-people managers, where 61% feel they are falling behind their peers, compared to 48% of people managers.
- Information influx: Most desk workers feel overwhelmed by the constant influx of new agentic AI information (61%). Those who use agentic AI are overwhelmed by the amount of new agentic AI tools being introduced at their workplace (64%).
- Managerial confidence crisis: Lack of clarity from top leaders is impacting workers of all levels, with 53% of people managers concerned they may not be good at supervising AI-augmented teams, and 82% believing managing AI agents will make their experience as a people manager more challenging. Additionally, 63% of non-people managers are hesitant to pursue people manager roles due to concerns about managing AI-augmented teams.
The new EY US survey reveals how the challenges of leading hybrid human-AI teams are perceived “differently across generations and worker experience levels, heightened by a generational divide among people managers on sentiment and perception” surrounding agentic AI:
- Gen Z: Gen Z people managers display a mix of optimism and anxiety, as they (88%) are more likely than millennial people managers (77%) to believe their role at their organization will change entirely with the introduction of agentic AI. While 88% of Gen Z people managers also believe that agentic AI will have a positive impact on attracting top talent to their organization, 55% of those using agentic AI show greater hesitancy to use agentic AI tools introduced at their organization compared to baby boomer people managers (33%).
- Millennials: Millennial people managers express the highest level of worry, with 72% concerned about the challenges of managing an increasingly agentic AI-reliant workforce, a higher percentage than all other generations. However, millennial people managers are eager to learn, with a notable 88% stating that most of their knowledge of working with agentic AI is self-taught.
- Gen X: Gen X people managers demonstrate high confidence in collaborative models, with 93% agreeing that supervising an AI-augmented team will incorporate “the best of both worlds.” They also prioritize encouraging collaboration between humans and AI agents as a necessary step for entry-level success in a future with full-scale agentic AI integration.
Methodology
Ernst & Young LLP (EY US), in collaboration with a third-party vendor, conducted an online survey among “1,148 US desk workers across six industries at companies with an annual revenue of $1b or more: banking and capital markets (n=188); wealth and asset management (n=172); consumer products (n=178); manufacturing, chemicals and industrial products (n=186); oil and gas (n=237); and technology (n=187).”
The survey was reportedly fielded between August 8 and September 3, 2025. The margin of error for the total sample at “a 95% confidence interval is ±3 percentage points.”