To improve artificial intelligence tool adoption, HR needs to lean more on managers and their connection with their teams, rather than rely on employees to experiment on their own, according to an analysis published March 4 by Gartner.
Close to half of managers surveyed by Gartner in July 2025 said they are experimenting with AI to improve their work, while only 26% of employees said they are doing so. However, in a separate July 2025 survey, only 14% of nearly 2,000 managers said they don’t have any challenges in “driving effective use of AI across their team,” Gartner said.
That means HR has the opportunity to offer support to managers to improve integration of AI more broadly, Gartner said.
That support, according to the report, may look like:
- Tailoring AI training and support to the specific motivations and challenges of different teams
- Preparing managers to handle emotional resistance to AI changes
- Coaching managers on how to communicate the upward value of AI
While AI is only saving “small and fractured blocks of time” for workers at the moment, that will shift as the technology evolves, Carmen von Rohr, senior principal in the Gartner HR practice, said in a statement.
That saved time will then need to be redeployed — and managers will be key to ensuring that takes place, Gartner said.
A July 2025 Gartner survey of 114 HR leaders showed that only 7% of organizations provide any guidelines on what to do with time saved by AI use. And while 55% of HR leaders surveyed by the company said they’d want employees to use that time to work on special projects outside their core jobs, only 28% of managers said they would prioritize the same.
The opportunity for HR is to help managers “tie activities to impact,” the report said.
“Managers must find a balance — ensuring they don’t lose trust and confidence with their teams while also translating the benefits of AI they observe into the value narratives senior leaders and the business desire,” von Rohr said.
AI skills may now be as fundamental as the ability to write, a recent report from DataCamp said — but employees are also worried about job displacement as employers continue to adopt the technology, a Dexian report recently indicated. Much of that concern was tied to lack of confidence in AI adoption efforts.
