The Five Types of AI Personas You’ll Find at Work

How do corporate workers feel about artificial intelligence? While studies have shown that developers embrace the technology, companies are slow to adopt it; what about full-time desk workers? Research published by Slack looks at employee sentiment regarding AI and reveals five types of personalities companies need to be aware of when looking to adopt AI in the workplace.

The survey was commissioned by Slack’s Workforce Lab, a group that evaluated how to improve work. It targeted 5,000 people across the U.S., Australia, India, Singapore, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Its release is notable as it comes more than a week before parent company Salesforce holds its annual Dreamforce customer conference, where it’ll announce its Agentforce product and other AI innovations.

Disclosure: I will attend Dreamforce as a Salesforce guest, and the company will cover all expenses. Salesforce in no way dictated the content of this post. These are my words.

“The AI-powered future of work isn’t just about enterprises, it’s also about employees—and it’s redefining everything from careers to workplace culture,” Christina Janzer, Slack’s senior vice president of research and analytics, says in a statement. “But to realize the promise of AI, companies need to make AI work for workers and bring everyone on board ‘The AI Team.’”

Five Levels of AI Enthusiasm

What is “The AI Team”? According to Slack, it’s a workplace where humans and AI agents successfully collaborate. However, companies cannot magically create this team, and before you get there, it’s essential to recognize employees’ different attitudes toward artificial intelligence. To help, Slack has identified multiple personas that might exist in an organization:

• The Maximalist: Those workers who use AI multiple times per week to improve the work and are shouting from the rooftops about it
• The Underground: “Maximalists in disguise” who use AI often but are hesitant to share with their coworkers that they’re using it
• The Rebel: Workers who don’t subscribe to the AI hype and avoid using it, considering it unfair when their coworkers opt to use them
• The Superfan: Excited about the tech and admire the advances made in AI, but haven’t made the most use out of it at work
• The Observer: The people who haven’t yet integrated AI into their workflow and are watching with interest and caution

According to Slack’s research, a plurality of workers are using AI, though only 46 percent are willing to be enthusiastic about it. One-third of those polled say they use AI multiple times a week. Thirty-five percent of respondents say they watch from the sideline (16 percent) or don’t believe in AI (19 percent).

This research highlights that for companies, incorporating AI doesn’t mean that workers will follow suit and embrace it. There is no hive mind regarding tech adoption and for multiple reasons. For example, workers who are reluctant to be open about AI usage or refuse to use it cite safety and trust factors and a lack of encouragement from their employer.

On that point, when closely examined, 44 percent of Maximalists, 38 percent of Observers, 41 percent of Rebels, 51 percent of Superfans, and 57 percent of Undergrounders reported they knew their company’s stance on AI or were encouraged to use it.

Suffice it to say that assembling “The AI Team” will require more than understanding how employees feel about AI; companies will need to come to terms with the technology and take a stance.

“As leaders, it’s important that we tailor our approach and help set every employee up for success in the AI-powered workplace,” Janzer remarks. “These personas create a powerful roadmap for leaders to understand where their employees are in their AI journey and help them unlock AI’s benefits.”

It isn’t easy to understand how your company and workers stack up. Slack doesn’t suggest that every organization will have the exact breakdown of Maximalists, Observers, Rebels, Superfans, and Undergrounders like everyone else. But, it provides an industry snapshot of how full-time desk workers, in general, feel about AI, which could lead companies to survey their teams as they adopt AI.

What AI Persona Are You?

If you’re curious about which persona category you fall into, Slack has developed a short quiz (very BuzzFeed-like). As the company explains, “conducting an AI personas exercise with your team is a fun and inviting way to encourage discussion, clarify guidelines and expectations, and identify any blockers holding people back from trying AI.”

After completing the assessment, Slack advises companies to encourage AI adoption by instituting the permission, education, and training plan, or PET. Data from its Workforce Index research released this summer reveals workers feel their organizations need to encourage them to experiment and embrace AI and provide the necessary training to succeed with these tools. Being granted permission without education will only lead to failure.

“Workers across industries must learn how to work with AI or risk getting left behind,” Salesforce Executive Vice President of Talent Growth and Development Lori Castillo Martinez shares.