If you read the headlines, it sounds like everyone’s “doing AI at work or using it in their work.”
And in a sense, they are.
Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index, a survey of 31,000 people across 31 countries, finds that about three in four knowledge workers are already using AI tools at work.
Leaders say AI skills matter too:
- 66% of leaders wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills.
But here’s the plot twist:
- 45% of U.S. executives are not investing in AI tools or products for employees.
- Only 39% of people using AI at work have gotten any AI training from their company.
- And only 25% of companies plan to offer generative AI training this year.
So:
Leaders want AI skills.
Employees are already using AI.
But most companies are barely investing in how people learn and use it.
And yet, inside these same organizations, a distinct group shows up in the data:
AI power users – people who use AI deeply, daily, and productively.
They’re not a lucky accident. The Work Trend Index makes it clear:
they’re what happens when leadership gets serious about enablement and culture.
1. What the Data Actually Says About AI Power Users
Microsoft defines “AI power users” as people who use AI frequently, for many tasks, and have integrated it deeply into their work. In the 2024 and 2025 Work Trend Index data, power users stand out:
- 85% of power users start their day with AI, and 85% use it to get ready for the next day.
- They report saving 30+ minutes per day, feeling more focused and creative, and saying AI makes their workload more manageable.
- They don’t just write emails faster; they’re 66% more likely to redesign processes and workflows with AI, not just individual tasks.
Crucially, they’re not just naturally gifted nerds.
They look different because their organizations treat them differently.
Compared with average AI users, power users are:
- More likely to hear from leadership about AI:
- 61% more likely to hear directly from their CEO about the importance of using AI at work
- 40% more likely to hear from their department leader
- 42% more likely to hear from their manager’s manager
- More likely to get tailored training:
- 42% more likely to have received AI training at work
- 37% more likely to be trained on prompts
- 35% more likely to be trained on how to use AI in their specific role
- More likely to be in change-ready cultures:
- 53% more likely to say leadership encourages them to think about how AI can transform their function
- 18% more likely to say their company encourages innovation
That’s the headline:
AI power users are what you get when leadership, training, and culture line up, not when you just “make AI available.”
2. The Leadership & Enablement Gap (in One Brutal Picture)
Put the big numbers together:
- 75% of knowledge workers are already using AI in some way.
- 79% of leaders say their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive.
But then:
- 45% of U.S. executives aren’t investing in AI tools or products for employees.
- Only 39% of AI users have had company-sponsored AI training.
- Only 25% of companies plan to offer genAI training this year.
So employees do what humans always do when the org won’t help:
- They teach themselves
- They bring their own AI into work (78% of AI users use at least some tools not provided by their employer)
- They invent their own prompts and workflows in the shadows
That’s not a strategy.
That’s unmanaged change or do we dare say… Chaos.
And it shows up in the gap between:
- A small group of power users rewriting their work with AI
- A much larger group of dabblers doing ad hoc stuff in their browser and hoping it’s okay
The difference isn’t talent.
It’s what leadership chose to design, or chose to ignore.
3. What Power-User-Friendly Companies Actually Do Differently
The Work Trend Index hints at a very specific pattern. When you zoom in, three levers show up again and again.
1) They make AI a leadership message, not just a tool launch
At power-user-heavy companies, people don’t just hear about AI in an email from IT.
They hear it from:
- The CEO, clearly connecting AI to strategy
- Their department head, connecting AI to function-level priorities
- Their leaders’ leaders, connecting AI to career and expectations
That matters because:
- People use AI very differently when they think it:
- Helps them win in their role, and
- Has executive air cover
Leadership silence, by contrast, sends a signal:
“AI is optional. Use it if you want, but we’re not betting the business on it.”
Power-user cultures are built on the opposite signal.
2) They treat training as an operating system, not a one-off event
Globally, only 39% of AI-at-work users have received any training from their company.
Power users are 42% more likely to report they’ve gotten training, and not just generic “what is AI” content:
- How to write effective prompts
- How to use AI in their specific role
- How to apply AI to particular tasks (writing, analysis, research, etc.)
In other words:
- Training is:
- Role-specific
- Use-case-specific
- Ongoing
And it’s coupled with:
- Leadership messaging (“We expect you to use this”)
- Space to practice (office hours, cohorts, communities of practice)
Meanwhile, most companies are still at:
- One webinar
- Some PDFs
- A usage dashboard that no one can interpret behaviorally
You don’t get power users from that. You get polite confusion.
3) They incentivize workflow redesign, not just “tool usage.”
The Work Trend Index points out that power users are much more likely to:
- Use AI across many types of tasks (meetings, analysis, content, customer interactions, brainstorming)
- Redesign processes and workflows with AI, not just bolt it on
- Collaborate with coworkers on prompts and best practices
That doesn’t happen by accident. It usually means:
- Teams are given explicit permission to:
- Change how work is sequenced
- Remove redundant steps
- Build new AI-powered SOPs
- Managers are:
- Asking in 1:1s and standups how AI is changing work
- Recognizing and rewarding workflow improvements
- Reporting back up the chain on what’s working
When your KPI is “AI logins,” people play with tools.
When your KPI is “ticket handle time” or “time-to-resolution,” people rebuild workflows.
Power users emerge in environments where changing the system is part of the job, not a side hobby.
4. Quick Self-Check: Are You Creating Power Users or Dabblers?
Take your AI efforts and run this in five minutes.
1. Executive signal
- Have employees heard a clear message from the CEO and function leaders about why AI matters and how they’re expected to use it?
Yes – in plain language, multiple times.
No – mostly tool announcements and generic “AI is important” noise.
2. Training reality
- Can you point to role-specific AI training (not just awareness sessions) for your main functions?
Yes – people have learned how to use AI for their job, not just in the abstract.
No – everyone got the same generic session or a link to a learning hub.
3. Manager enablement
- Do managers have guidance on:
- Which workflows should use AI
- What good AI use looks like
- How to review AI-assisted work
- How to handle errors?
Yes – we’ve treated managers as the primary adoption engine.
No – they’re winging it and hoping they don’t say the wrong thing.
4. Incentives
- Are people explicitly recognized for:
- Redesigning processes with AI
- Sharing prompts and patterns that help the team
- Retiring old ways of working?
Yes – this shows up in conversations, reviews, and recognition.
No – we still only reward the same old metrics; AI is “extra.”
5. Adoption visibility
- Do you have a simple way to see:
- Who’s using AI
- Where it’s changing behavior
- How it affects productivity and risk
- How people feel about it?
Yes – we have an adoption view that mixes usage, impact, risk, and trust.
No – we’re flying blind on everything but license stats.
If you’re mostly in the second column, your org will keep producing:
- Lots of dabblers
- A few self-taught power users
- And very little systematic, scalable value
Where The Scale Crew Fits In
We care a lot less about “Do you have AI?”
And a lot more about “Are you designing an environment where AI power users can actually exist?”
At The Scale Crew, we work with US startups, SMBs, and mid-market firms that:
- Are done with AI theater
- Don’t want to rely on shadow BYO-AI and random hero users
- Need to figure out if AI belongs in their top KPIs, and if yes, how to turn usage into real behavior change
In our AI Readiness & Transformation work, this Microsoft research maps directly onto what we build:
- Leadership & manager-first enablement
- Crafting the messages and compacts leaders need to give
- Equipping managers to lead AI use, not just tolerate it
- Designed adoption with simple scoreboards
- Usage/impact/risk/trust, not just vanity metrics
- People-first workflow redesign
- Picking the workflows where AI can matter
- Co-designing “new ways of working” with the people doing the work
We’re not interested in sprinkling AI on top of broken processes.
We’re interested in helping you build the conditions where power users show up on purpose, and where that shows up in your P&L, not just in your anecdotes.
If You Want Power Users on Purpose, Not by Accident
We’ll look at:
- Your company size
- The #1 KPI you’re under pressure to move in the next 12 months
- One area where employees are already using AI informally, or where you think AI might help
We’ll help you think through:
- Whether AI belongs there at all
- What it would take, in leadership and enablement terms, to grow real power users
- And how to avoid becoming yet another company where AI is “everywhere in tools, nowhere in how the work actually gets done”
