Every day, there seems to be AI news: a new model, a promising startup, an NVIDIA chip reveal.
Now, a new report by Writer, a generative AI platform, and independent research firm Workplace Intelligence, examines how the AI race is affecting companies — and apparently, it’s creating a big rift between IT teams, executives, and employees.
The 2025 AI Survey: Generative AI Adoption in the Enterprise report surveyed 1,600 workers (800 C-suite executives and 800 employees) in various sectors (technology, financial services, retail and consumer goods, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences) across the U.S. and found that almost 72% of the companies are investing at least $1 million each year in generative AI technology.
However, despite the spending, only one-third of executives reported seeing a significant return on investment.
Meanwhile, two out of three executives surveyed said generative AI adoption has led to division between teams, while almost half (42%) reported that adopting AI “is tearing their company apart.”
“Generative AI holds transformative potential for the enterprise, but it can also create deep rifts within organizations that rely on a patchwork of point solutions or IT-built applications developed in a silo,” said May Habib, CEO and co-founder at Writer, in a statement.
Still, the survey also found that a majority of employees (at least 9 out of 10) were optimistic about their company’s approach to generative AI — and they’re even paying for it on their own. More than one-third of employees (35%) said they pay out-of-pocket for AI tools.
The majority of employees surveyed (81%) and almost all of the C-suite (97%) said if they were looking for a new position, finding a company that uses generative AI is important.
“The companies who will lead in the next era of AI adoption are the ones putting the right processes and systems in place today,” said Dan Schawbel, managing partner, at Workplace Intelligence. “They’re prioritizing their change management efforts, cultivating support for AI among their people, and ensuring they’re making the right investment in AI tools.”
To combat the divisions, Habib suggests adopting a clear, organization-wide approach to AI in the workplace and also choosing a vendor that can provide training to show the best use cases (and embolden employees to use it).
View the full report, here.