Culture Amp, the world’s leading employee experience platform, has released its mid-year 2025 benchmark data, revealing a workplace landscape in profound transition in the face of AI-driven disruption. While employee engagement continues on a downward trajectory with notable declines in energy and motivation, organizations are simultaneously seeing improvements in goal-setting processes and employees' ability to disconnect from work, creating a complex picture of contradictions that demands leadership attention.

The latest research, drawing from over 3.3 million employees surveyed at 4,600 global companies, shows that regional nuances, industry shifts, and the rise of AI are creating significant risks and unprecedented opportunities for leaders committed to shaping exceptional employee experiences.

"We're witnessing a fundamental recalibration of the employee-employer relationship," said Didier Elzinga, CEO and Co-Founder of Culture Amp. “The data tells us that while employees are becoming more skilled at managing boundaries and achieving goals, they're simultaneously experiencing declining trust in leadership and reduced motivation. This is a signal that organizations must reimagine how they engage, develop, and inspire their people in an era of unprecedented change.”

Key Findings from Culture Amp's Mid-Year 2025 Benchmark Data:

• Engagement remains on a downward slope: Employee pride has dropped 4 percentage points since 2022, while motivation to go above and beyond also continues falling. Only 55% of employees say they rarely think about leaving, meaning nearly half are actively considering their options.
• Boundaries or detachment?: Energy and sentiment decline while boundaries improve: Employees report concerning drops in energy levels, overall workplace positivity, and feeling valued by managers. The number of employees who found the pace of work energizing dropped from 71% in 2022 to 65% by mid-year 2025. Paradoxically, more employees agree they can successfully switch off from work—signaling either healthier boundaries or growing detachment.
• Goal-setting shows positive momentum: Since 2023, managers and teams demonstrate more consistency in tracking goal progress (at the manager level from 79% in 2021 to 83% in 2025), though peer-to-peer feedback is trending downward (from 72% in 2021 to 67% in 2025).
• Regional trust gaps are widening: While companies improve at discussing survey results (jumping 5% points in just the last two years), belief in follow-through action has dropped across nearly all regions (by -3% points globally in the same time frame). Company confidence, energy, and productivity have declined regionally, pointing to eroding trust and organizational momentum.
• Leadership and growth remain universal engagement drivers: Confidence in leaders, leaders demonstrating that people matter, and development opportunities continue as the top three global drivers of engagement, with regional variations in emphasis but consistent core themes.
• Top-performing companies show the way: Highly engaged organizations outperform on optimism and confidence, scoring 13 percentage points higher on confidence in leaders, 11% points higher on career development, and 9% points higher on encouraging innovation.

AI and the Future of Work

The research reveals that AI disruption is fundamentally challenging the traditional employee-employer psychological contract. Leaders and employees face the same uncertainties from AI disruption and a shifting macroeconomic landscape, causing both sides to reassess their relationship. The declining commitment, motivation, and pride tracked in the data reflect this broader uncertainty, with confidence in company leaders dropping 6% points since 2021.

Together, organizations and their employees must navigate beyond the previous "performance in exchange for employability" model to create compelling visions that connect individual contributions to company futures.

"The world we're navigating right now is undeniably challenging, but our data shows companies maintaining high engagement during this transition share two critical characteristics," said Fresia Jackson, Director of People Science Research at Culture Amp. "They've created compelling visions for weathering current challenges, and they've made it crystal clear that employees are essential for turning those visions into reality. This is about consistent, visible actions that build trust through small but powerful demonstrations of leadership commitment."