Artificial intelligence has moved firmly beyond hype. According to PwC’s 2025 Global Workforce Survey, 54% of employees globally say they used AI for their role at least once in the past 12 months – a clear signal that AI tools are beginning to permeate and influence everyday work.
Yet, the same research reports that only a small fraction, namely 14%, uses generative-AI (GenAI) tools daily. This gap underscores a key issue: while many workers have entered in contact with AI, far fewer have embedded it into regular workflows. In terms of experience, it makes a huge difference.
Productivity, skills and labour market impacts
For those who do use GenAI every day, the rewards appear substantial. Among daily users, 92% say their productivity improved over the last year, compared to 58% among those who use AI only occasionally. Similarly, daily users are significantly more likely to report increases in job security (58% vs 36%) and salary (52% vs 32%) than infrequent users. And such good premises make them have great hopes for the future, mostly in terms in productivity, creativity, and work quality.
These individual-level gains mirror broader trends at the industry level. In sectors most exposed to AI, revenue per employee has grown 3 times faster than in less exposed ones, and productivity growth has nearly quadrupled (rising to 27% over the period 2018–2024, compared with 7% in the prior period).
With a focus on the relation between AI-related skills and of job demand, workers with familiarity with enabling technologies are now subject of a high request: according to the PwC 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, those skills earn an average wage premium of 56% – which represents a sharp jump from 25% just a year earlier.
These figures suggest that AI is not simply replacing human work, it is rather reshaping it, elevating roles where human judgment, creativity, and digital competence combine. This, in fact, is confirmed by the tendency for workers to feel way more curiosity and excitement than fear and concern with respects to AI and its implementation.
Despite such enthusiasm, the pace of change is accelerating, mostly in AI-exposed jobs, whereby the set of skills employers demand is evolving 66% faster than in less exposed roles.
But the transformation remains uneven. Many workers – especially non-managers – still feel they lack adequate access to training and development resources: only around 51% of non-manager respondents said they had sufficient opportunity to upskill, compared with 72% of senior executives. This raises the risk that the benefits of AI may concentrate among those already advantaged, leaving others behind.
Towards an inclusive European AI transition
For Europe and its mix of large companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and diverse labour markets, this represents a critical moment. Too many businesses and workers currently stand at the margins of AI adoption, mostly in the case of SMEs that have tighter margins of expenditure and investment in highly capital intensive – as research and IT are.
In this context, European-level efforts such as the SMART project provide valuable support, helping bridge the gap between AI’s promise and its realisation across SMEs. By facilitating awareness, offering accessible training and guidance, and encouraging practical adoption strategies, SMART can help ensure that AI-driven change does not deepen inequalities, thus representing a lever for inclusion, growth, and resilience.
The data from 2025 make it clear: AI is not just a technological trend. It is already reshaping work. In this context, the winners will be those who adapt, learn, and build inclusive strategies. With coordinated effort, Europe can steer this transformation so that AI augments human potential rather than replaces it.
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