As Companies Clamor to Adopt AI, Culture and Trust Dictates Success, Says New “AI for All Index™” from UKG’s Great Place To Work
New research underscores importance of HR and IT working together to drive AI adoption and avoid costly missteps.
Oakland, Calif., Oct. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At a time when AI is transforming every industry, most organizations are pouring significant resources into AI. Yet widespread adoption often stalls and successes have been limited, leaving leaders to wonder: “Is my company truly ready for AI?”
Surveys from McKinsey, Deloitte, and Gallup show the gap between executive perception around AI and employees' trust, readiness, and adoption. Nearly 7 in 10 employees say they never use AI, which is essentially unchanged from 2023 to 2024, Gallup says.
Specifically for frontline workers — those who must be present to do their jobs — 2 in 3 fear that AI might replace their job according to a recent 10-country global study of 8,200 frontline employees by UKG. However, in the same study, there’s one major bright spot: frontline workers who use AI the most are burned out the least.
Against this backdrop, Great Place To Work (in partnership with Cadence Design Systems) developed the AI For All Index™, a data-backed, 12-question assessment that measures AI readiness and alignment within organizations. Great Place To Work collected responses from over 70,000 employees across 8 of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For® list, including 9,000 employees at Cadence, and found key insights for companies looking to drive AI adoption.
A survey of Cadence’s employees found:
- HR involvement is essential: Involving HR in the early stages of piloting AI is crucial to making rollouts more effective and fostering trust and engagement across the organization. Without early HR engagement, fear and resistance can stall adoption before it ever reaches scale.
- Leadership accountability drives adoption: Employees are 3x more likely to embrace AI when leaders communicate clearly, and 7x more likely when leaders are approachable. Visible leadership commitment — making AI a regular part of executive focus and ensuring managers share important information with their people — signals its importance and helps break through the barriers that keep organizations seeing meaningful adoption.
- Trust and innovation go hand in hand: Departments with strong communication and training see significantly higher innovation and trust in AI, with Cadence employees reporting 3x higher innovation. Over 80% of employees are optimistic about AI’s impact on their career, excited about what AI will bring to their work, and the new growth opportunities it will create for the company.
- Early feedback and job security matter: The report reveals that job security is the No. 1 concern for employees, while transparent communication about security and job impact helps address fears and build confidence in AI’s role. The AI for All Index and Cadence found that while instincts may be not to survey too early, if you wait until everything's perfect, organization miss an important opportunity to learn what could have worked better in the process over the next year of implementation.
Cadence CEO and President Anirudh Devgan shared about the impact of the AI for All Index™ at Cadence:
“Implementing AI within the company is much more than rolling out tools to employees. The AI Index told us that culture is just as important as the technology itself for employees to fully realize the transformational opportunities. We know we can’t be successful without a culture of trust that allows employees to experiment, collaborate, and innovate. The Index told us how our employees feel about AI so we can address their concerns, increase adoption, and accelerate the business opportunities. By aligning culture with technology, AI is unlocking significant gains in productivity and efficiency for our employees and customers, while enabling us to accelerate innovation across semiconductors, systems and life sciences.”
For media inquiries or interview requests, contact:
Kim Peters
kpeters@greatplacetowork.com
415.844.2574
About Great Place To Work®
As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work, a UKG company, brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Its proprietary platform and For All™ Model help companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified™ or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces™ list.
Using Great Place To Work®, companies gain insight with benchmarked metrics for employee trust, innovation velocity and agility, critical tools that forecast how resilient they will be to market challenges, and how quickly they can take advantage of new business opportunities. This is the “Great Place To Work Effect,” where better outcomes for employees also drive stronger results for your business.
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About UKG
UKG is a leading global AI platform for HR, pay, and workforce management. Unifying award-winning solutions with the world’s largest collection of workforce data and people-first AI, UKG delivers unrivaled insights into today’s workforce, helping organizations in every industry turn data into decisions that elevate productivity, culture, and the customer experience. Trusted by more than 80,000 organizations across 150 countries, tens of millions of employees — from small businesses to global enterprises — use UKG every day. To learn more, visit ukg.com.
Kim Peters Great Place To Work (415) 844-2574 kpeters@greatplacetowork.com
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