6 min read AI People

Why Managers Adopt AI at Twice the Rate

Why managers adopt AI at twice the rate of individual contributors, and what this reveals about the structural isolation of leadership.

Learning AI has reminded me how much fun it is to be a do-er: building MCPs on my Home Assistant (running on a Raspberry Pi), putting together webapps for PoCs and even as replacements to PowerPoint presentations (try it, it’s a fun way to mix up information sharing and presentation). The collaboration. The shared learnings. The ability to think out loud without watching my words land on someone whose future career I influence.

That last part is a quiet truth few talk about. Management is lonely. And the data could suggest this loneliness might explain something we’ve been misreading about AI adoption.

The Adoption Gap – An Alternative Explanation

Managers and executives use AI tools at roughly twice the rate of individual contributors. 33% of managers report regular AI use, compared to 16% of frontline employees. The standard explanation points to productivity pressures and decision complexity (yes, those matter).

But productivity tools have existed for decades. Middle managers aren’t adopting spreadsheets at twice the rate of their teams. They’re not gravitating toward project management software with this kind of enthusiasm.

Something else is happening.

And it becomes visible when you look at the other data point that rarely gets connected to AI adoption: managers experience higher levels of stress, anger, sadness, and loneliness compared to non-managers. At senior levels, 50% of CEOs report feelings of loneliness, with 61% believing it impacts their performance.

The Reality of the Role

The nature of leadership roles naturally limits peer-level interaction. This isn’t about personality or poor relationship skills. It’s baked into the role. When you’re promoted from among your peers, those relationships shift. You’re no longer one of the gang. You can’t be. And now your peers are probably in different departments and you no longer share the same type of work (if you were even friends with them to start with) to build common ground on.

Think about what becomes structurally impossible once you manage someone:

You can’t think out loud about half-formed strategies without those words becoming signals about organisational direction. Your tentative exploration becomes their concrete expectation.

You can’t admit uncertainty without potentially undermining confidence in your leadership. Your honest reflection becomes their anxiety trigger.

You can’t test provocative ideas without those ideas landing on people whose careers you influence. Your intellectual exploration becomes their performance context.

This isn’t about your direct reports’ capabilities. It’s about power dynamics. The same conversation has fundamentally different implications depending on which side of the reporting line you’re standing on.

Remote and hybrid work has amplified this dynamic. Fully remote employees report loneliness at 25%, compared to 16% for those on-site. For individual contributors, this created a new problem. For managers, it amplified an existing one while simultaneously removing the workarounds. The informal peer conversations that once provided partial relief (the coffee catch-up, the corridor debrief, even shared off-loading about semi-ridiculous work situations) now require scheduled video calls that feel weighted and formal. The isolation that was always structural has become logistical as well.

What AI Provides

Now consider what a (well prompted) AI conversation offers. Not as a replacement for human connection, but as something that fills a gap your direct reports structurally cannot fill, regardless of their talent.

A space to articulate half-formed ideas without those ideas becoming organisational signals. You can explore “what if we completely restructured the team?” without anyone preparing their CV.

A thinking partner that pushes back on your reasoning without navigating the politics of challenging their boss. The feedback is unfiltered by career considerations.

A sounding board for the genuinely uncertain questions. “Am I seeing this situation clearly?” becomes a productive exploration rather than a moment of leadership vulnerability.

I used to stand in front of a whiteboard, drawing mind maps, staring at them until connections revealed themselves. Thinking made visible, but still a monologue. The whiteboard doesn’t ask “what if you’re wrong about that link?” Now the mind map talks back (although I do still whiteboard from time to time).

This isn’t about AI being smarter than your team. It’s about the conversation happening in a space where power dynamics don’t contaminate the exchange. The intellectual peer relationship that management structurally removes from your working day.

And unlike the peer who now requires a calendar invitation, AI is available the moment the thought forms. No scheduling friction. No wondering whether this question merits taking up someone else’s time. The barrier to thinking out loud has dropped to zero.

The Contrarian Read

While analysts debate whether AI will eliminate middle management, middle managers are quietly embracing AI precisely because the role is isolating. They’re not being replaced. They’re finding something that’s been missing.

This has implications for how we think about AI adoption more broadly. The productivity narrative misses something fundamental. Yes, AI accelerates task completion. And, for managers, it might be filling a need that’s been structurally unmet since the invention of the org chart (and exacerbated since Covid and remote/hybrid working became the norm).

A thinking partner who isn’t navigating their own career through every interaction with you.

The Honest Caveat

A word of balance. AI is not a substitute for human relationships. It cannot provide the genuine connection that comes from shared history, mutual vulnerability, and real stakes. Managers still need peer networks, mentors, and the occasional honest conversation with someone who knows them well.

But it can provide something that was simply unavailable before: a space for intellectual exploration that doesn’t carry organisational freight. And for many managers navigating the daily reality of being structurally isolated from true peer-level thinking, that’s worth something. The risk, though, is that this adoption quietly displaces the human development relationships that teams depend on.

The adoption gap might tell us less about productivity and more about what’s been missing: a thinking partner without career stakes. Management promotion took that off the table. AI puts it back.

Although, if you’d like a totally informal virtual coffee to discuss ideas, reach out!

Sources

  • AI adoption by management level: Aristek Systems, AI Statistics 2025
  • Manager stress and loneliness data: Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2024, via Workplace Insight
  • CEO loneliness statistics: Harvard Business Review study, via Arcqus Group
  • Remote work and loneliness: Gallup 2024, via FlexOS
  • Middle managers and AI transformation: BearingPoint, April 2025