New WalkMe Survey Shows Shadow AI Is Rampant; Training Gaps Undermine AI ROI

WalkMe survey finds 78% use unapproved AI and only 7.5% receive extensive training, elevating governance and productivity risks for enterprises.

The AI revolution is transforming the workplace, but a new survey from WalkMe, an SAP company, reveals that employees are largely left to navigate it on their own.

While workers are eager to use AI, most lack the support and training needed to use it responsibly and effectively, fueling security risks, wasted productivity, and lost return on investment (ROI).

For enterprises, this problem is compounded by complex digital landscapes, where poor adoption of new tools can erode the value of strategic technology investments.

What the survey found

The second annual “AI in the Workplace Survey” polled 1,000 working U.S. adults who use AI in their jobs to understand the reality of AI adoption. The findings highlight a significant gap between employee eagerness and organizational readiness:

• Shadow AI is everywhere: 78% of employees admit to using AI tools that were not approved by their employer. More than half (51%) report receiving conflicting guidance on when and how to use AI at work.
• Productivity paradox: Despite 80% of employees believing AI improves productivity, nearly 60% admit it often takes longer to figure out how to use an AI tool than to complete the task without it.
• Training gap: The number of daily AI users increased by 16 points since last year’s survey, but only 7.5% of employees have received extensive AI training, an increase of only 0.5% since last year’s survey. Another 23% have received no training at all. 
• Cultural confusion: Almost half (45%) of workers admit to pretending to know how to use an AI tool in a meeting to avoid scrutiny, while 49% have hidden their use of AI to avoid judgment. This trend is even more pronounced among Gen Z, with 55.5% pretending to understand AI tools and 62% hiding their use.

The survey’s findings underscore a critical challenge for large organizations across industries. As AI capabilities are integrated into enterprise applications, ensuring employees can effectively and securely use these tools is paramount to realizing their full business value. Unmanaged AI adoption creates a governance crisis, where security and compliance risks can increase, and valuable productivity gains are lost.

WalkMe helps customers navigate this challenge. Our Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) acts as an essential guidance and governance layer, enabling employees to harness the full power of the technology tools at their disposal. The right digital adoption strategy can help businesses manage the risks of shadow AI while unlocking the full potential of their AI investments across complex landscapes.

WalkMe leadership and analyst commentary

“Beyond the productivity paradox, we’re facing a full-blown governance crisis,” said Dan Adika, CEO and co-founder of WalkMe. “When nearly 80% of employees are using shadow AI tools, organizations are not just losing money – they’re losing control. Businesses are missing a massive opportunity to strategically empower their people and realize the full potential of AI.”

“AI has become an essential enterprise skill. But without training and guardrails, shadow AI creates risk and undermines ROI,” said Gina Smith, PhD, research director of IT Skills for Digital Business at IDC. “The companies that build AI‑ready skills and digital adoption strategies now can avoid such loss. They are the organizations who will lead the next era of work.”

Methodology

Propeller Insights conducted the survey for WalkMe from July 16-23, 2025, polling 1,000 working U.S. adults who use AI on the job. The sample was balanced across age, gender, industry, company size, and seniority, with a ±3 percentage point margin of error. Because respondents were screened for AI use at work, the 100% adoption rate reflects the study design, not the broader U.S. workforce.

Learn more

• Learn more about WalkMe
• Read the 2025 State of Digital Adoption Report
• See last year’s AI in the Workplace Survey

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Adriel Sanchez is chief marketing officer of WalkMe.