Insights / Leadership · 5 min read

AI Adoption Is Held Back More at the Leadership Level

According to McKinsey, employees already use gen AI more than their leaders estimate. Governance of AI-assisted decisions is not ready either.

By the Nusva Advisory team · Published

Leadership meeting in a boardroom overlooking the city at night

Many companies see employees as the main obstacle to AI adoption. McKinsey and Deloitte surveys from 2025 to 2026 paint a different picture.

McKinsey's Superagency in the workplace, based on a survey of 3,613 employees and 238 C-level executives in October and November 2024, found that almost all companies invest in AI, but just 1% of leaders call their companies mature.1

1%

of leaders call their companies mature in AI deployment.

Source [1]
3x

employees are more likely to be using gen AI than their leaders expect.

Source [1]
5%

of executives say they manage AI in decision-making well, while 60% already use it.

Source [2]
86%

of leaders feel their organizations are not prepared to adopt AI in day-to-day operations.

Source [3]

Leaders underestimate how much AI is already used

C-suite leaders in that survey estimated that only 4% of employees use gen AI for at least 30% of their daily work. In reality, employees are three times more likely to be using it than their leaders expect. Meanwhile 92% of companies plan to increase AI investment over the next three years, and 47% of C-suite leaders say their organizations develop and release gen AI tools too slowly.1 McKinsey concludes the biggest barrier is leaders who are not steering fast enough, not employees.1

AI in decisions has outpaced governance

Deloitte finds 60% of executives use AI in decision-making, but only 5% say they manage it well.2 McKinsey's 2026 survey adds that 86% of leaders feel their organizations are not prepared to adopt AI in day-to-day operations.3

Nusva Advisory's view

In our view, the work lies in the decision architecture: who decides what, with which data, and who checks AI output before it is used. Authority, approval flows and accountability for AI-assisted decisions need to be set down in writing, like any other decision.

Respondents to the Superagency survey were mostly in the United States. Deloitte and McKinsey 2026 data come from global surveys.

Sources

  1. McKinsey & Company. Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI's full potential, 28 January 2025. Survey of 3,613 employees and 238 C-level executives, October to November 2024, mostly in the United States. Open source ↗
  2. Deloitte. 2026 Global Human Capital Trends, press release, 4 March 2026. Open source ↗
  3. McKinsey & Company. The State of Organizations 2026. Survey June to September 2025, 10,018 senior executives across 15 countries and 16 industries. Open source ↗

AI-generated illustrative photo.