19% of executives report that AI is significantly transforming their business. Only 2% of the workforce agrees. That’s a massive disconnect, and it exists for three reasons.
Table of Contents
Leadership Optics
Leadership is over-indexing on AI’s impact. It’s about optics. They want to maintain the image of being innovative and forward-leaning. They need to show they’re ahead of the curve.
Workers Underreport
Workers are wary of job impact, so they underreport AI’s capabilities. “AI can’t do what I do” becomes the defensive position.
Performative Innovation
Everyone’s caught in the middle doing performative innovation. Companies are building workflows to make menial tasks roughly 20% more efficient, forgetting the 40 to 100+ hours spent trying to build, test, and iterate.
The Real Gap
The disconnect between executives and workers comes down to three core problems:
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Leaders over-index on AI’s impact to protect their image as innovators
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Workers underreport AI’s capabilities to protect their jobs
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Companies chase small efficiency gains while ignoring the true cost of getting there
This isn’t an AI problem. It’s a perception problem. Until leadership and workers are honest about what AI actually does and doesn’t do, the gap will keep growing. Start with the truth, not the optics.