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The 44% of workers use AI, but as an operational tool. HR Directorates are lagging behind in adoption
May 13, 2026
Alveriapress
The 44% of workers use AI, but as an operational tool. HR Directorates are lagging behind in adoption
Milan, 12 May 2026 - According to research by the’Politecnico HR Innovation Observatory of Milan, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly popular among workers. Today, almost half (44%) of the total use it, up 12 points from a year ago, although predominantly only as a standard operating tool or as an assistant for repetitive tasks, rather than a strategic tool to perform new tasks. On average, workers save 30 minutes per day, but only 9% of organisations manage this gained time in a structured and coordinated way, with the risk of wasting it on marginal tasks instead of investing it in high-value activities such as training or developing new lines of business. Two signs that innovation is running faster than the organisational capacity to absorb it. Spontaneous use of AI is also on the rise: 34% of employees use tools not promoted by their own organisation and as many as 51% support corporate solutions with external tools, with data security and privacy risks (the employee survey was conducted in cooperation with Ipsos Doxa).
In Italy, there are still no reported cases of a “hybrid workforce”, composed of people and AI agents, and most companies are not yet investing in new organisational models to integrate artificial intelligence in a strategic manner: in 20% of companies alone, AI has already changed the business and, of these, only a marginal share enabled new services or revenues. Barely 1 in 4 organisations have started to redesign processes with this technology.
At present in Italy there is no evidence of a systemic increase in unemployment among workers most exposed to IV. But there is a trend of growth of entry-level profiles (increasing in 12% of companies and decreasing in 5%) and a decrease of over-50s (decreasing in 6%, with no signs of growth), in contrast to the US market, where the advancement of AI is instead causing a reduction of junior roles, with easily automated tasks, in favour of an increase of seniors. In Italy only 49% of companies know that they will have to redeploy or retrain at least 5% of their workforce in the short to medium term and only 15% claim to have the appropriate skills to evolve roles and competencies.
They are the search results of theObservatory HR Innovation, presented yesterday at the conference "Don't Look Up: We are preparing for the future of work?”. One of more than 50 different research strands of the Digital Innovation Observatories of the POLIMI School of Management that address all the key issues of Digital Innovation in companies and Public Administration.
“Although the adoption of AI is already showing potentially significant effects, especially in terms of time saved in performing work, its actual adoption is still superficial and above all poorly governed by organisations. At the moment, the benefits on productivity are still modest and no system-wide impact on employment is measured, not even on the potentially most exposed groups of workers. In order not to miss the opportunities arising from this transformation and to consciously drive its effects, it is urgent that organisations, and in particular HR Directorates, finally make a step change in terms of awareness and governance capacity - affirms Mariano Corso, Scientific Head of the HR Innovation Observatory -. The change taking place will require all workers to update their skills and approach to work. It will be necessary to learn how to use the new solutions, but above all to understand how to interact with machines, which will increasingly be colleagues or even bosses. In fact, Italian companies today seem to invest little in this transformation, almost as if they underestimated the depth of AI's impact. More than the replacement of the human and the impact on employment, the real risk is the inability to evolve the operating model of organisations, remaining anchored to a vision of AI as a mere operational tool, without preparing for the future of work”.
"Technological developments, together with profound demographic, social and geopolitical transformations, raise questions about the future of the world of work and HR Management - says Martina Mauri, Director of the HR Innovation Observatory -. One of the big challenges today is to rethink the tasks of workers entering the labour market and their pathway to growth and experience acquisition. Organisations are also called upon to develop new learning models to continuously and agilely update skills and continue to train people's cognitive and decision-making abilities, against the risk of a loss of individual and organisational know-how due to AI. Technologies must be used to create alternative organisational models that work differently. Reducing AI to a cost-efficiency tool and human capital contraction would be a short-sighted view, which ignores the real benefit of integration: the redesign of projects around a symbiotic collaboration between human and machine”.
The use of AI among workers
Worker adoption of AI increases from 32% to 44% in one year. The sectors with the highest penetration are ICT, Media & Telco (65%), the one with the lowest is Retail (31%). Most employees, however, consider artificial intelligence only as a standard operating tool (50%) or at most as an assistant for repetitive and boring tasks (44%). The use of AI is concentrated in cross-cutting activities such as content creation (64%), knowledge management (56%) and to a lesser extent analysis and problem solving (37%).
Italian workers have a positive opinion of AI, of which they perceive concrete benefits in their daily work: 44% notes improvements in speed and volume, 42% in output quality and 41% in workload management. There are benefits in the development of new skills (45%) and idea generation (41%). And overall they achieve an average saving of 30 minutes per day, rising to 40 minutes for those who use these tools every day. Despite the increased frequency of AI use and the enhancement of solutions over the past year, the time savings are essentially unchanged from last year.
Structural integration between human and machine is still at an embryonic stage. The prevailing approach is one in which quality control and output validation remain the manual responsibility of the operator (83%). An attitude of cautious experimentation allows the tool to be tested, but may entail the risk of underestimating the extent of structural changes.
Impact on roles and competencies
The main concern of workers about the use of AI is the increase in dependence on technology (16%), which could cause an erosion of skills. However, data from those who use it do not yet show this drift: the impact on learning ability is positive and future prospects show opportunities for professional and career development (29% in positive, compared to 19% in negative).
From an organisational point of view, the transformation of the skills required for AI today translates mainly into a growth in demand for IT specialists, reported by the 43% of companies, but is predominantly negative balance of creative and content production profiles (down in 12% of organisations).
The adoption of AI is not homogeneous among workers, but proportional to the level of education and mainly driven by large companies. Those who do not use it or have low skills to do so show greater concern about its impacts (+8 percentage points). But companies still do little to support them: 57% of workers complain about the absence of company initiatives to accompany AI, with interventions often limited to simple guidelines rather than structured learning paths.
Well-being and purpose
Engagement and well-being levels are further down compared to last year. In particular, the percentage of fully engaged people drops to 15%, while the percentage of people who feel good at work on all three dimensions of well-being investigated (physical, relational and psychological) stops at 8%. The number of voluntary resignations remains highAbout two out of five workers in Italy have changed jobs or intend to do so soon. Among the determinants of well-being is “purpose”.”, the sense and meaning of work: in companies capable of conveying a clear purpose, the number of people employed reaches 83%, it drops dramatically where this is lacking (9%). Purpose represents one of the key values for attracting Generation Z.
The manager's crisis
In a scenario where “smart” solutions are potentially capable of autonomously managing entire operational and decision-making processes, it is the figure of the manager that is in crisis. Organisations increasingly operate with flat“ organisational models, few hierarchical levels, decentralised decision-making processes, and increasingly autonomous and empowered workers. Generation Z is also less interested in managerial positions, which are often associated with excessive responsibility, stress and a negative work-life balance.. In the coming years, it is likely that many managers will no longer be hierarchical superiors, but specialised figures in the management and harmonisation of intelligent people and systems.
Although Italian managers are more optimistic than the average worker about new technologies, they are not ready to lead this transition. One in five managers do not know the ethical implications of using AI, and 22% lack the skills to understand which tasks to delegate to the machine and which to a human being. And, for this reason, according to Italian HR managers The evolution of management figures is one of the main challenges in the coming years.
Talent Shortage and Longevity
75% of Italian organisations have difficulties in recruiting new staff. And the talent shortage is closely linked to the skill mismatch: the greatest difficulties in finding the right skills are concentrated on technical profiles, with a strong incidence in the digital area and among skilled workers. But demographic projections indicate that in the long run the problem could evolve from a shortage of specific skills (talent shortage) to general labour shortages (labour shortage). At current birth rates (1.2 children per woman), in 2040 there will be 3 million fewer Italians and in 2080 the population will fall below 46 million.
To take action, companies must build a working model that favours longer working lives and generational change. Companies do little about this today. Most efforts are directed at attracting, retaining and supporting younger workers, only 12% of companies have specific projects for older generations.
Organisations then need to improve attractiveness. On this, they are relying less and less on salaries to attract new staff (-12 percentage points compared to last year) and more and more on enhancing welfare services (+2 points). Organisational well-being is the main reason for changing jobs (20%).
But for the labour market to remain sustainable, human capital will have to be complemented by technological capital. Today, an average of 12% of work activities have been automated, with peaks of 40% in the media sector. For 45% of companies, the adoption of these technologies is a direct response to staff shortages or the difficulty of finding specific skills on the market.
The HR Innovation Award
The Observatory awarded the HR Innovation Awards 2026 to organisations that have introduced innovative solutions, significantly improving human resources management and development. The winners are Intesa Sanpaolo Group in the “AI potential in HR” category, La Piadineria in that “Talent Attraction aimed at GenZ”, SEA in “Skills at the heart of career and development” and Quiris in the category “Data-Driven and Proactive HR Direction”.
In the category “AI potential in HR”, Intesa Sanpaolo Group won for its "HR 2030" programme, which initiated a structural transformation of the HR function through the introduction of AI-enabled digital solutions, including a multi-agent virtual assistant and advanced analytics tools, to automate administrative processes and revitalise the strategic role of the HR Department. The other finalists are 24hassistance with a single platform that centralises the management of HR processes and integrates AI functionalities to support recruitment, with CV analysis tools and automatic profile synthesis, and Chiesi with the “Road to Agentic AI” project, which led to the creation of "Aidee", an AI agent that provides reliable and contextualised answers on HR processes and policies, reducing the load of recurring questions and bringing the organisation closer to a HR Agent model.
In the “Talent Attraction aimed at GenZ” category”, La Piadineria won for introducing "La Giovanna", an AI agent on WhatsApp to provide organisational support for pre-screening (availability, experience, interest). The solution manages all applications and coordinates meetings quickly, making the process scalable and keeping the human face-to-face in the candidate interview phase central. The other finalists are Fastweb+Vodafone with the project "StaGen of Tomorrow | Power ON your career with Fastweb + Vodafone", which introduced a digital platform specialised in finding job opportunities for GenZ, with AI tools for screening applications and an in-person assessment day, Leonardo with “O.P.E.N.”, an immersive virtual environment that brings students, and young people in general, closer to STEM careers through avatars, interactive challenges and gamified content.
In the category “Skills at the heart of career and development”, SEA won with its "Mapping to Mobility" project, which introduced a digital platform for competence mapping, enabling horizontal and vertical growth paths for people, laying the foundations for an integrated model for talent management, as well as training and performance management processes. Also finalist Cigierre with the Cigierre Academy, an in-house training facility, which promotes structured learning paths, on-demand digital content and coaching sessions to strengthen managerial skills.
In the category “Data-Driven and Proactive HR Direction”.” Quiris is the winner with the project “Beyond Pay Transparency", which introduced a platform for the objective classification of roles and monitoring of pay gaps, with the aim of enabling increasingly data-driven people management. The finalists are also Coop Alliance 3.0 with a structured path of digitisation and centralisation of HR processes on a single platform, building an integrated database to support decision-making processes and future AI applications, and Wamgroup, with the “Wamgroup Global Payroll: from local operations to global intelligence” project, which centralises the management of payroll and workforce data from 40 countries in a single digital infrastructure, making globally comparable analyses available.
The HR Innovation IMPACT Award 2026 went to SKY Italy for the "Sky4You" project, which helped develop a digital infrastructure that centralises and personalises access to corporate welfare and wellbeing services. Using profile and navigation data, the platform proposes targeted services to each employee, improving satisfaction and decision support for the HR.
Data can be taken from the HR Innovation Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano as a source and including the relevant link.
A free infographic with key research data is now available, which can be shared through this link.
Source: HR Innovation Observatory
CONSULTANCY, TRAINING, HR DIGITALIZATION AND CORPORATE SOLUTIONS, DISCOVER THE ALVERIA METHOD. GET READY FOR CHANGE.
Milan, 12 May 2026 - According to research by the’Politecnico HR Innovation Observatory of Milan, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly popular among workers. Today, almost half (44%) of the total use it, up 12 points from a year ago, although predominantly only as a standard operating tool or as an assistant for repetitive tasks, rather than a strategic tool to perform new tasks. On average, workers save 30 minutes per day, but only 9% of organisations manage this gained time in a structured and coordinated way, with the risk of wasting it on marginal tasks instead of investing it in high-value activities such as training or developing new lines of business. Two signs that innovation is running faster than the organisational capacity to absorb it. Spontaneous use of AI is also on the rise: 34% of employees use tools not promoted by their own organisation and as many as 51% support corporate solutions with external tools, with data security and privacy risks (the employee survey was conducted in cooperation with Ipsos Doxa).
In Italy, there are still no reported cases of a “hybrid workforce”, composed of people and AI agents, and most companies are not yet investing in new organisational models to integrate artificial intelligence in a strategic manner: in 20% of companies alone, AI has already changed the business and, of these, only a marginal share enabled new services or revenues. Barely 1 in 4 organisations have started to redesign processes with this technology.
At present in Italy there is no evidence of a systemic increase in unemployment among workers most exposed to IV. But there is a trend of growth of entry-level profiles (increasing in 12% of companies and decreasing in 5%) and of decline of over-50s (decreasing in 6%, with no signs of growth), in contrast with the US market, where the advancement of AI is instead leading to a reduction of junior roles, with easily automated tasks, in favour of an increase of seniors. In Italy only 49% of companies know that they will have to redeploy or retrain at least 5% of their workforce in the short to medium term and only 15% claim to have the appropriate skills to evolve roles and competencies.
They are the search results of theObservatory HR Innovation, presented yesterday at the conference "Don't Look Up: We are preparing for the future of work?”. One of more than 50 different research strands of the Digital Innovation Observatories of the POLIMI School of Management that address all the key issues of Digital Innovation in companies and Public Administration.
“Although the adoption of AI is already showing potentially significant effects, especially in terms of time saved in performing work, its actual adoption is still superficial and above all poorly governed by organisations. At the moment, the benefits on productivity are still modest and no system-wide impact on employment is measured, not even on the potentially most exposed groups of workers. In order not to miss the opportunities arising from this transformation and to consciously drive its effects, it is urgent that organisations, and in particular HR Directorates, finally make a step change in terms of awareness and governance capacity - affirms Mariano Corso, Scientific Head of the HR Innovation Observatory -. The change taking place will require all workers to update their skills and approach to work. It will be necessary to learn how to use the new solutions, but above all to understand how to interact with machines, which will increasingly be colleagues or even bosses. In fact, Italian companies today seem to invest little in this transformation, almost as if they underestimated the depth of AI's impact. More than the replacement of the human and the impact on employment, the real risk is the inability to evolve the operating model of organisations, remaining anchored to a vision of AI as a mere operational tool, without preparing for the future of work”.
"Technological developments, together with profound demographic, social and geopolitical transformations, raise questions about the future of the world of work and HR Management - says Martina Mauri, Director of the HR Innovation Observatory -. One of the big challenges today is to rethink the tasks of workers entering the labour market and their pathway to growth and experience acquisition. Organisations are also called upon to develop new learning models to continuously and agilely update skills and continue to train people's cognitive and decision-making abilities, against the risk of a loss of individual and organisational know-how due to AI. Technologies must be used to create alternative organisational models that work differently. Reducing AI to a cost-efficiency tool and human capital contraction would be a short-sighted view, which ignores the real benefit of integration: the redesign of projects around a symbiotic collaboration between human and machine”.
The use of AI among workers
Worker adoption of AI increases from 32% to 44% in one year. The sectors with the highest penetration are ICT, Media & Telco (65%), the one with the lowest is Retail (31%). Most employees, however, consider artificial intelligence only as a standard operating tool (50%) or at most as an assistant for repetitive and boring tasks (44%). The use of AI is concentrated in cross-cutting activities such as content creation (64%), knowledge management (56%) and to a lesser extent analysis and problem solving (37%).
Italian workers have a positive opinion of AI, of which they perceive concrete benefits in their daily work: 44% notes improvements in speed and volume, 42% in output quality and 41% in workload management. There are benefits in the development of new skills (45%) and idea generation (41%). And overall they achieve an average saving of 30 minutes per day, rising to 40 minutes for those who use these tools every day. Despite the increased frequency of AI use and the enhancement of solutions over the past year, the time savings are essentially unchanged from last year.
Structural integration between human and machine is still at an embryonic stage. The prevailing approach is one in which quality control and output validation remain the manual responsibility of the operator (83%). An attitude of cautious experimentation allows the tool to be tested, but may entail the risk of underestimating the extent of structural changes.
Impact on roles and competencies
The main concern of workers about the use of AI is the increase in dependence on technology (16%), which could cause an erosion of skills. However, data from those who use it do not yet show this drift: the impact on learning ability is positive and future prospects show opportunities for professional and career development (29% in positive, compared to 19% in negative).
From an organisational point of view, the transformation of the skills required for AI today translates mainly into a growth in demand for IT specialists, reported by the 43% of companies, but is predominantly negative balance of creative and content production profiles (down in 12% of organisations).
The adoption of AI is not homogeneous among workers, but proportional to the level of education and mainly driven by large companies. Those who do not use it or have low skills to do so show greater concern about its impacts (+8 percentage points). But companies still do little to support them: 57% of workers complain about the absence of company initiatives to accompany AI, with interventions often limited to simple guidelines rather than structured learning paths.
Well-being and purpose
Engagement and well-being levels are further down compared to last year. In particular, the percentage of fully engaged people drops to 15%, while the percentage of people who feel good at work on all three dimensions of well-being investigated (physical, relational and psychological) stops at 8%. The number of voluntary resignations remains highAbout two out of five workers in Italy have changed jobs or intend to do so soon. Among the determinants of well-being is “purpose”.”, the sense and meaning of work: in companies capable of conveying a clear purpose, the number of people employed reaches 83%, it drops dramatically where this is lacking (9%). Purpose represents one of the key values for attracting Generation Z.
The manager's crisis
In a scenario where “smart” solutions are potentially capable of autonomously managing entire operational and decision-making processes, it is the figure of the manager that is in crisis. Organisations increasingly operate with flat“ organisational models, few hierarchical levels, decentralised decision-making processes, and increasingly autonomous and empowered workers. Generation Z is also less interested in managerial positions, which are often associated with excessive responsibility, stress and a negative work-life balance.. In the coming years, it is likely that many managers will no longer be hierarchical superiors, but specialised figures in the management and harmonisation of intelligent people and systems.
Although Italian managers are more optimistic than the average worker about new technologies, they are not ready to lead this transition. One in five managers do not know the ethical implications of using AI, and 22% lack the skills to understand which tasks to delegate to the machine and which to a human being. And, for this reason, according to Italian HR managers The evolution of management figures is one of the main challenges in the coming years.
Talent Shortage and Longevity
75% of Italian organisations have difficulties in recruiting new staff. And the talent shortage is closely linked to the skill mismatch: the greatest difficulties in finding the right skills are concentrated on technical profiles, with a strong incidence in the digital area and among skilled workers. But demographic projections indicate that in the long run the problem could evolve from a shortage of specific skills (talent shortage) to general labour shortages (labour shortage). At current birth rates (1.2 children per woman), in 2040 there will be 3 million fewer Italians and in 2080 the population will fall below 46 million.
To take action, companies must build a working model that favours longer working lives and generational change. Companies do little about this today. Most efforts are directed at attracting, retaining and supporting younger workers, only 12% of companies have specific projects for older generations.
Organisations then need to improve attractiveness. On this, they are relying less and less on salaries to attract new staff (-12 percentage points compared to last year) and more and more on enhancing welfare services (+2 points). Organisational well-being is the main reason for changing jobs (20%).
But for the labour market to remain sustainable, human capital will have to be complemented by technological capital. Today, an average of 12% of work activities have been automated, with peaks of 40% in the media sector. For 45% of companies, the adoption of these technologies is a direct response to staff shortages or the difficulty of finding specific skills on the market.
The HR Innovation Award
The Observatory awarded the HR Innovation Awards 2026 to organisations that have introduced innovative solutions, significantly improving human resources management and development. The winners are Intesa Sanpaolo Group in the “AI potential in HR” category, La Piadineria in that “Talent Attraction aimed at GenZ”, SEA in “Skills at the heart of career and development” and Quiris in the category “Data-Driven and Proactive HR Direction”.
In the category “AI potential in HR”, Intesa Sanpaolo Group won for its “HR 2030” programme, which initiated a structural transformation of the HR function through the introduction of AI-enabled digital solutions, including a multi-agent virtual assistant and advanced analytics tools, to automate administrative processes and revitalise the strategic role of the HR Department. The other finalists are 24hassistance with a single platform that centralises the management of HR processes and integrates AI functionalities to support recruitment, with CV analysis tools and automatic profile synthesis, and Chiesi with the “Road to Agentic AI” project, which led to the creation of “Aidee”, an AI agent that provides reliable and contextualised answers on HR processes and policies, reducing the load of recurring questions and bringing the organisation closer to a HR Agent model.
In the “Talent Attraction aimed at GenZ” category”, La Piadineria won for introducing “La Giovanna”, an AI agent on WhatsApp to provide organisational support for pre-screening (availability, experience, interest). The solution manages all applications and coordinates meetings quickly, making the process scalable and keeping the human face-to-face in the candidate interview phase central. The other finalists are Fastweb+Vodafone with the “StaGen of Tomorrow | Power ON your career with Fastweb + Vodafone” project, which introduced a digital platform specialised in finding job opportunities for GenZ, with AI tools for screening applications and an in-person assessment day, Leonardo with “O.P.E.N.”, an immersive virtual environment that brings students, and young people in general, closer to STEM careers through avatars, interactive challenges and gamified content.
In the category “Skills at the heart of career and development”, SEA won with the “Mapping to Mobility” project, which introduced a digital platform for competence mapping, enabling horizontal and vertical growth paths for people, laying the foundations for an integrated model for talent management, as well as training and performance management processes. Also finalist Cigierre with the Cigierre Academy, an in-house training facility, which promotes structured learning paths, on-demand digital content and coaching sessions to strengthen managerial skills.
In the category “Data-Driven and Proactive HR Direction”.” Quiris is the winner with the project “Beyond Pay Transparency”, which introduced a platform for the objective classification of roles and monitoring of pay gaps, with the aim of enabling increasingly data-driven people management. The finalists are also Coop Alliance 3.0 with a structured path of digitisation and centralisation of HR processes on a single platform, building an integrated database to support decision-making processes and future AI applications, and Wamgroup, with the “Wamgroup Global Payroll: from local operations to global intelligence” project, which centralises the management of payroll and workforce data from 40 countries in a single digital infrastructure, making globally comparable analyses available.
The HR Innovation IMPACT Award 2026 went to SKY Italy for the “Sky4You” project, which helped develop a digital infrastructure that centralises and personalises access to corporate welfare and wellbeing services. Using profile and navigation data, the platform proposes targeted services to each employee, improving satisfaction and decision support for the HR.
Data can be taken from the HR Innovation Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano as a source and including the relevant link.
A free infographic with key research data is now available, which can be shared through this link.
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