(© Paul Bradbury/KOTO - stock.adobe.com)
In A Nutshell
- 1 in 5 American workers are secretly using AI at work, even when their employers haven’t formally approved it.
- AI users report major gains, including an average of 13 hours saved per week and nearly $5,000 in monthly cost savings.
- Marketing, design, and analytics are the most common (and most effective) departments for AI adoption.
- Despite concerns about job security and output quality, 90% of workers have used AI personally or professionally, often starting at home.
NEW YORK — That coworker who always seems ahead of the game might have a hidden advantage after all. While you’re still sorting through your inbox, they’ve already streamlined their workflow — and artificial intelligence may be the reason why.
New research shows that one in five American workers are secretly using AI tools on the job, even though their employers haven’t officially approved it. These quiet adopters aren’t necessarily breaking rules, but they are moving ahead, saving an average of 13 hours each week and nearly $5,000 a month in operational costs.
AI Users Report Boosted Confidence and Competitive Advantage
The Talker Research survey of 1,000 American business owners, marketers, and salespeople found that 77% feel more confident in the quality of their work when they use AI tools. Additionally, 75% say AI helps their business better compete with larger, more established companies.
Despite those benefits, 20% of respondents said they’ve had to “sneak” AI into their jobs because there’s no formal guidance or approval. Overall, 48% of respondents use AI daily at work, while 17% use it less than once per month and 9% said they never use it in any official work capacity.
Marketing leads the way in AI adoption: 82% of those using AI at work apply it in marketing tasks. This includes “imagination” (52%), “activation” (48%), and “validation” (44%), terms used by the survey to describe idea generation, campaign execution, and results analysis.
Other popular use cases include customer support (31%), operations and people management (28%), and product development tasks (25%).
Job Security and Output Concerns Still Linger
Employees expressed real concerns about AI’s growing role in the workplace. One in five respondents worried about poor output quality, while 21% of employees specifically feared AI could replace their jobs. Nearly one-fifth (19%) said they believed customers might lose trust if they found out AI was being used. Another 17% reported hearing negative opinions about AI from others.
More than half (57%) of respondents said they had either held negative opinions about AI themselves or had heard such views from peers. One in five admitted being their own harshest critics. Others said they encountered negative comments on social media (20%) or direct customer complaints (18%).
“While some businesses are still figuring out how to integrate AI into their core operations, many have moved beyond experimentation to strategic implementation, focusing not just on what AI can do for them, but on how it creates measurably better outcomes for their customers,” said Jason VandeBoom, Founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign, which commissioned the survey. “We’re seeing people discover AI’s impact on their bottom line in real time… which then naturally evolves into professional adoption and business transformation.”
Many Start with Personal Use—Then Bring AI to Work
According to the survey, 90% of respondents have used AI for both personal and work-related tasks. Two-thirds said they started using it in their personal lives first, taking an average of six weeks to fully understand its potential uses. The same timeline held true for workplace adoption — roughly six weeks to get the hang of it — though respondents said the benefits became apparent soon after.
Many users said incorporating AI made them feel more efficient in completing tasks and allocating resources (39%), more confident about the quality of their work (29%), and more creative in their marketing strategies (37%).
AI was found to be especially effective in certain departments, including marketing (82%), design and creative work (78%), and data analytics (75%).
“Marketing is where AI really shines because it amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it,” said Amy Kilpatrick, Chief Marketing Officer of ActiveCampaign. “Our survey shows 82% find AI especially effective for marketing because it handles the time-consuming tasks — like data analysis and content ideation — so marketers can focus on strategy and building genuine connections with their audience. The result is better work delivered faster, which ultimately benefits both the business and the customer.”
The Bottom Line: AI Brings Big Time and Cost Savings
The productivity gains from AI are translating into measurable returns. Across all users, AI saves an average of 13 hours per week. Daily users see even more —around 14 hours saved weekly — while infrequent users still gain back about six hours.
On the financial side, AI users report an average of $4,739 in monthly operational cost savings. Daily users save even more: $5,038 per month on average, while occasional users still save around $2,237.
Survey Methodology:
ActiveCampaign commissioned this research, conducted by Talker Research between May 21 and June 12, 2025. The online survey included 1,000 American business owners, marketers, and salespeople. Researchers used quality control measures including screening for incomplete responses, digital fingerprinting to prevent duplicate submissions, and statistical significance calculated at the 95% level. Analysis was limited to groups of at least 80 respondents.
