Two New AI Reports, One Big Message for HR

Hello H.A.I.R. Community,

It is a rare thing to get a clear, data-driven look behind the curtain of AI adoption. This week we got two.

On the same day, both OpenAI (creators of ChatGPT) and Anthropic (creators of Claude) released major reports on how their tools are being used. With ChatGPT adoption hitting around 10% of the world's adult population, these insights are not academic; they are a snapshot of a major workplace shift already in progress.

At first glance, the reports might seem to paint different pictures. But for HR and Talent leaders, they tell one single, cohesive story. They reveal a critical split screen for every organisation: the reality of how your employees are actually using AI right now versus the strategy of how leading companies are intentionally deploying it for business impact.

Understanding this gap is the key to building a realistic and defensible AI playbook.

The Reality: How Your People Are Actually Using AI

The OpenAI report, "How People Use ChatGPT," analyses a huge sample of conversations to see what people do with the world's most popular chatbot. The findings dismantle much of the hype.

1. It’s Overwhelmingly a Personal Tool The single biggest takeaway is that AI use is predominantly personal. Non-work-related messages have grown from 53% to over 70% of all ChatGPT usage in the past year. People use it for "Practical Guidance," "Seeking Information," and "Writing," which collectively account for nearly 80% of all conversations.

• What this means for HR: Your employees are AI-literate but they are using it as a consumer product. This creates a significant "shadow AI" challenge. Without clear guardrails people will inevitably use consumer tools for work tasks, potentially exposing sensitive company data. Your first priority must be establishing a clear governance framework and acceptable use policy.

2. Work Use is Practical Not Science Fiction When employees do use ChatGPT for work, the tasks are pragmatic and familiar. Writing is by far the most common use case, accounting for 40% of all work-related messages. But the nature of that writing is key: about two-thirds of these requests involve asking the AI to modify existing user text (editing, critiquing, summarising) rather than creating new text from scratch. Meanwhile, tasks like computer programming represent a relatively small share of consumer use at just 4.2%.

• What this means for HR: Forget the narrative of job replacement. The reality of current AI use is less about autonomous creation and more about augmentation and refinement. Think of it as a digital multi-tool for knowledge workers, a supercharged research assistant or a first-draft-generator. This de-risks the conversation and allows you to focus on a more immediate goal: teaching employees how to use these tools safely to enhance their existing skills.

The Strategy: How Leading Organisations Deploy AI

Anthropic’s "Economic Index" report provides the other half of the picture. It analyses how businesses are deploying AI programmatically through an API, a much better indicator of intentional, strategic adoption.

1. It’s About Deliberate Automation While overall business adoption is still in its early stages, with just under 10% of US firms reporting AI use, those that do are highly focused. The Anthropic report shows that a massive 77% of business uses involve automation usage patterns. This trend towards delegation is even visible on the consumer side where "Directive" conversations (delegating a complete task) have jumped from 27% to 39%. Businesses are simply taking this behaviour and applying it systematically.

• What this means for HR: Strategic AI adoption isn’t about giving everyone a chatbot and hoping for the best. It’s about identifying specific, high-value tasks within workflows and targeting them for automation. This is where HR can partner with business units to analyse roles and pinpoint opportunities for focused AI deployment.

2. Your Biggest Bottleneck Isn't the AI It's Your Data This is perhaps the most crucial finding for any leader planning an AI initiative. Anthropic’s analysis suggests that deploying AI for complex tasks "might be constrained more by access to information than on underlying model capabilities". Successfully using AI for sophisticated work may require firms to make costly investments in data modernisation and organisational restructuring to centralise information for the model to access.

• What this means for HR: Giving an AI a complex task without the right data is like asking a new hire to write a strategic plan without access to past reports or company data. They will fail. The biggest hurdle to enterprise AI is not the technology itself, but the organisation’s ability to provide it with the right internal context.

3. A Global Talent Perspective The Anthropic report also reveals a stark geographic divide. AI usage is strongly correlated with income across countries, with technologically advanced economies showing much higher adoption rates. This pattern suggests that the benefits of AI may concentrate in already-rich regions, potentially increasing global economic inequality.

• What this means for HR: For global organisations, this highlights a potential widening of the digital skills gap across different talent markets. A global AI readiness strategy cannot be one-size-fits-all and must account for these regional differences in adoption and infrastructure.

Bridging the Gap: Your Mandate as an HR Leader

These two reports are not contradictory. They are two sides of the same coin and they define your agenda for the next 12 months.

• The Reality: Your people are using AI now. You need a governance plan to manage the risk and provide the necessary training. This is your immediate priority.

• The Strategy: Your organisation needs to move beyond casual use to find targeted automation opportunities. You need a workforce readiness plan that identifies the right use cases and prepares the organisation by getting its data and knowledge in order.

Navigating the gap between casual employee use and strategic organisational deployment is the central challenge for leaders today. It requires a pragmatic approach grounded in governance, risk, and a clear-eyed view of how work actually gets done.

Eunomia HR Relaunch

I’ve relaunched Eunomia HR with a sharper focus:
1️⃣ AI in HR Risk & Compliance Assessments
2️⃣ Fractional AI Governance

To mark it, I’m also sharing free resources, including the Universal Framework for AI in HR, a practical model to help HR leaders adopt AI responsibly and legally.

You can find my free resources here.

Here's how H.A.I.R. can help you put the AI in HR:

1. H.A.I.R. Newsletter: get authoritative, pragmatic, and highly valuable insights on AI in HR directly to your inbox. Subscribe now.

2. AI Governance QuickScore Assessment: understand your organisation's EU AI Act readiness in minutes and identify key areas for improvement. Take your QuickScore here.

3. H.A.I.R. Training Courses: enhance your team's AI literacy and readiness with our practical training programmes. Explore courses.

4. Measure Your Team's AI Readiness with genAssess: stop guessing and start measuring your team's practical AI application skills. Discover genAssess.

The gap between casual employee use and strategic organisational deployment is what my advisory services help leaders navigate, from building your first AI playbook to assessing your team's readiness. If you are ready to move from theory to action, let's have a conversation.

Until next time,

Martyn

H.A.I.R. (AI in HR) 

Putting the AI in HR. Safely.