Half of workers say they rely on AI too much: GoTo
MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES — Half of all employees say they over-rely on artificial intelligence (AI) at work, while 30% report they can no longer function without it, according to GoTo’s Pulse of Work 2026.
The line between augmentation and dependency
Dan Schawbel, workplace researcher and managing partner at Workplace Intelligence, said AI dependency has become a measurable professional risk. ‘If you can’t explain, defend, or redo the work AI produced without the tool, you’ve crossed from augmentation into dependency,’ Schawbel said.
GoTo‘s Pulse of Work 2026, a survey of employees and information technology (IT) leaders published in July 2026, found 39% of workers believe excessive AI use diminishes their intelligence.
These figures point to a workforce at risk of outsourcing judgment rather than using AI to sharpen it. A separate Pulse of Work 2026 finding showed 87% of IT leaders report that AI-generated work requires revisions before it can be used. Schawbel identifies the highest-risk workers as those who accept AI outputs without checking for accuracy or bias, treating them as finished work rather than a starting point for human review.
As AI adoption accelerates, the gap between workers who use it strategically and those who outsource judgment to it is becoming the defining professional divide.
Employers bet on human skills over AI fluency
“Our data shows the capabilities employees and employers rank as most critical going forward are human ones, such as creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and leadership, alongside the judgment to know when to trust an AI output and when to override it,” said Schawbel.
Thirty percent of employees say they feel unable to function without AI at work, signaling skill erosion that has moved beyond comfort into operational dependency.
The findings align with broader employer demand: organizations are increasingly prioritizing workers who can validate, correct, and contextualize AI outputs — not just generate them.
With 87% of IT leaders reporting AI-generated work requires revisions, demand for professionals who can review and refine those outputs is rising fastest.
For business process outsourcing (BPO) providers and offshore staffing firms, the Pulse of Work 2026 data carries direct workforce implications. Offshore professionals who treat AI as a tool to accelerate judgment rather than replace it will be far more valuable to clients than those who cannot verify or explain their outputs.
BPO firms that build AI literacy programs centered on human oversight are best positioned to differentiate their talent in a market where revision rates for AI-generated work remain as high as 87%.
