Three in four knowledge workers already use AI, and most bring their own

75% of knowledge workers surveyed use AI at work, a share that roughly doubled over six months.

78% of AI users bring their own tools to work rather than wait for their employer to provide them.

79% of leaders agree AI is needed to stay competitive, yet about 60% worry their organization lacks a plan to put it to use.

Users most often say AI saves time and helps them focus on their most important work.

Bring your own AI is shadow AI by another name. The capability is already inside the company, it is just invisible, ungoverned, and unrecorded.

Leaders know AI matters and admit they have no plan. That gap between urgency and a plan is precisely what a capability system fills.

Do not try to stop bring your own AI. Surface it, support it, and turn it into recorded capability instead.

Close the leaders' plan gap with a concrete cadence and a record, not another all hands announcement.

Invite people to share the AI tools and prompts they already use, and make the good ones reusable across the team.

Give managers one simple view of who is building capability, so the plan is visible rather than aspirational.

Self reported use overstates depth. Using AI often is not the same as using it well.

Bring your own AI carries real data and security exposure. The answer is to bring it into the light and govern it, not to ignore or ban it.