• 2 min read
Managers Feel the Heat on AI Adoption
A Salesforce survey of 500-plus middle managers shows 78% feel responsible for team AI adoption, even as 51% say the pace of change makes them anxious.
Image: ZDNET
Middle managers are emerging as a key pressure point in corporate AI rollouts. In a Salesforce survey of more than 500 middle managers, 78% said they feel responsible for making sure their teams successfully adopt AI tools, while 77% reported saving more than three hours per week with those tools.
The survey found that two-thirds of managers are optimistic about AI’s role in the future of work. At the same time, the job is getting harder: 51% said they feel anxious about AI use cases and the pace of change, and nearly 1 in 2 said leadership is pressuring them to demonstrate adoption. Despite that, only 32% work at companies that formally track AI adoption.
The article argues that becoming an autonomous or agentic business is less a pure technology shift than a management and organizational one. It points to a framework of seven Rs of relational transformation:
- Redesign of processes
- Re-skilling of employees
- Redeployment of talent into new roles
- Restructure of organizations and finances
- Reclamation of previously ignored stakeholder value
- Recalibration of new AI-centric metric
- Re-mandate for leadership focused on mission control rather than operational control
Training and trust remain the bottlenecks
Managers are also expected to prove AI’s value quickly, with the piece saying many can show tangible benefits within 60 days of deploying AI agents. But skepticism remains a major barrier. A global survey of more than 1,500 desk workers across four continents found that American workers are 43% more likely than the average global worker to be skeptical of AI, while 90% of people in emerging economies expect benefits from AI and see generative and agentic AI as a path to career growth.
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Among US desk workers, the biggest reasons AI pilots fail are generic outputs, insufficient training, and low trust in outputs. That helps explain what managers say they need most next: 37% want hands-on AI training, 35% want a clearer organizational AI strategy, and 34% need better IT and technical support.
The picture that emerges is straightforward: companies may be investing in tools, but managers are the ones being asked to make adoption real — often without clear metrics, enough training, or broad employee trust.
Enterprise Editor
Marcus follows the money. He covers enterprise software, cloud architecture, and the tectonic shifts in Big Tech strategy. He translates dense earnings calls and complex M&A activity into actionable insights about where the industry is actually heading. If a tech giant makes a silent pivot, Marcus is usually the first to notice.
via ZDNET
