Table of contents
Is AI Killing Your Workplace Personality? (Survey)
Report Highlights
- Among workers who use AI for work messages, 1 in 4 (25%) say their writing now sounds less like them and more generic.
- Gen Z is the most skeptical generation: 44% think a coworker who uses AI "didn't care enough to write it themselves," double the 22% of Gen X who feel the same.
- Half of workers (51%) would rather receive a slightly messy message written by a coworker than a polished, AI-generated one, rising to 61% among Gen Z.
- About 52% of senior leaders and executives use AI for work communication multiple times a day, compared with 22% of individual contributors.
- Since adopting AI, 40% of workers have dropped small typos and imperfections from their messages.
- Nearly 1 in 3 (30%) catch themselves writing or talking in an "AI style" even when they aren’t using an AI tool.
AI now drafts, polishes, and rewrites a large share of workplace messages, and a quarter of the workers who use it say the results no longer sound like them.
This survey of 921 US workers measures how the technology is flattening individual voices at work, who notices the change in their coworkers, and why the most AI-native generation trusts it the least.
Most workers regularly reach for AI to write, rewrite, or polish their work communication.
Multiple times a day is the single most common answer at 30%, and another 24% use it a few times a week.
About 13% never use AI for work communication, while the rest fall somewhere in between, splitting evenly across about once a day, a few times a month, and less than once a month at 11% each.
Interestingly, senior leaders and executives are the heaviest users, with 52% reaching for AI multiple times a day, compared with 22% of individual contributors. Individual contributors are also the most likely to never use AI at work, at 21%, compared with 6% of managers and 7% of team leads.
AI changes how work messages sound, and not always toward authenticity.
About a third of workers (34%) say their messages sound about the same as before, and a quarter (25%) say they don't use AI for work messages.
Among the rest, more report a loss of voice than a gain: 22% say their messages sound less like them and more generic, while 17% say they sound more like the real them. Among only the workers who use AI for work messages, the share reporting a more generic voice rises to 1 in 4 (25%).
The shift is felt most by managers, 28% of whom say their messages sound more generic, compared with 17% of team leads. Individual contributors are the most likely to say they don't use AI for work messages, at 34%, compared with 15% of managers.
AI's influence can outlast the tool itself.
A majority of workers (61%) say they have never caught themselves writing or talking in an "AI style" when not using AI. Still, 27% notice it sometimes and 3% often, meaning 30% see the pattern bleed into their own unaided writing.
Have you noticed yourself writing or talking in an "AI style" even when you are NOT using an AI tool? | Overall | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Baby boomers | Individual contributor | Team lead | Manager | Senior leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No, never | 61% | 54% | 57% | 69% | 59% | 66% | 53% | 56% | 59% |
Yes, sometimes | 27% | 30% | 31% | 22% | 24% | 22% | 32% | 31% | 30% |
Not sure | 9% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 12% | 10% | 10% | 8% | 6% |
Yes, often | 3% | 7% | 3% | 1% | 5% | 2% | 5% | 5% | 4% |
Gen X is the most insulated, with 69% saying it never happens, compared with 54% of Gen Z. Individual contributors also report it least, at 66% never, versus 53% of team leads.
That bleed-through shows up as concrete new habits in workers' own writing.
Writing in shorter, cleaner sentences is the most common new habit, cited by 43%, just ahead of the 41% who report no such changes. Beyond that, 20% use bullet points or numbered lists more, 16% structure messages the same way every time, 13% add headers or bold labels, and 11% have picked up AI-favorite words or phrases such as "delve" or "moreover."
Baby boomers are the most likely to report no change, at 46%, compared with 34% of millennials. By role, managers and team leads use shorter, cleaner sentences at 51% and 49%, respectively, versus 35% among individual contributors.
Given the choice, workers favor authenticity over polish.
Half (51%) would rather receive a slightly messy message a coworker clearly wrote themselves than a flawless AI-written one. Only 25% prefer the polished AI version, and 24% have no preference.
The preference for human writing is strongest among Gen Z, at 61%, compared with 44% of Gen X.
It also tracks with seniority: 60% of individual contributors prefer a self-written message, compared with 42% each for team leads and managers, who are the most likely to favor a polished AI message (33% and 38%).
Most workers don't feel new pressure to polish their writing.
Asked whether AI's rise has made them feel more pressure to make work messages sound perfect, the largest group disagrees (32%), and another 14% strongly disagree. About 27% agree, and 5% strongly agree, while 21% neither agree nor disagree. Combined, 46% disagree, and 32% agree.
Baby boomers push back hardest, with 41% disagreeing, compared with 28% of millennials.