1 in 5 workers are misusing GenAI, according to a new survey
A new survey from ABBYY highlights the hurdles businesses face when adopting generative AI, revealing that many companies need additional AI tools to get the results they want. The report, State of Intelligent Automation: GenAI Disillusionment and AI Wishlist, points to training, integration and governance as major sticking points.
The research, carried out by Opinium, shows that 31 percent of business leaders find training models more difficult than expected. Another 28 percent say GenAI tools are hard to integrate, while 26 percent cite governance problems. Misuse by staff was flagged by 21 percent of respondents, suggesting that some deployments lack proper oversight.
To fill the gaps, businesses are relying on other AI systems. The survey found 35 percent turned to process intelligence, another 35 percent used document AI, and 25 percent added retrieval augmented generation.
According to ABBYY, those moves contributed to 98 percent of respondents reporting that they are satisfied with GenAI, citing more consistent outputs, better integration into workflows, improved accuracy and higher trust.
Even with positive results, future investment looks cautious. Most companies expect their AI budgets to grow by only 16–20 percent next year, and just 11 percent plan to increase spending by 50 percent or more.
“Businesses spent money on GenAI tools that promised more than they can provide. In some cases, they didn’t even need it,” said Maxime Vermeir, Senior Director of AI at ABBYY. “Before moving forward with GenAI tools for agentic automation, companies need to first evaluate their current processes and create a visibility map of their workflow with data analytics tools such as process intelligence.”
GenAI in the workplace
The ABBYY findings echo other research on workplace AI. A separate survey of more than 1,000 full-time professionals in the US by Howdy showed that 75 percent of workers are now expected, formally or informally, to use AI at their jobs. Yet 22 percent feel pressured to use it in ways that make them uncomfortable, and 16 percent admit they sometimes pretend to use AI when they are not.
These results suggest a gap between enthusiasm for AI at the corporate level and the support provided to staff who are expected to adopt it.
Shadow AI is also emerging as a concern. ABBYY’s report found that 20 percent of leaders say employees are using GenAI for personal productivity rather than official initiatives.
Forty-one percent admit one reason for adopting it was because staff were already bringing their own tools into work.
Employees report using AI to reduce workload, boost productivity, or even to “make them look smarter and more professional.”
Ulf Persson, CEO at ABBYY, said, “GenAI is creating remarkable opportunities to reimagine how work gets done, which is rightfully generating a great deal of excitement. However, shadow AI, when individuals use commonly available tools like ChatGPT, Grok, or Perplexity without oversight at work, potentially raises serious data privacy and compliance concerns. The corporate benefits of GenAI’s potential are truly unlocked when leaders drive secure, strategic adoption with risk management as a priority.”
The State of Intelligent Automation: GenAI Disillusionment and AI Wishlist report is based on research with 1,200 senior managers from companies of over 100 employees in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore, conducted between June 20 and July 8, 2025.
What do you think about the challenges businesses face with GenAI adoption? Let us know in the comments.
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