Senior leaders like their AI tools, but only 29% see them fully integrated
A Nielsen survey for monday.com finds software tool counts climbing as AI use grows, staff appraisals getting harder and most managers expecting to oversee more agents than people within a year
- Sample: 1,701 directors and senior managers at companies with at least 500 employees, surveyed by Nielsen in April 2026
- Spread: seven countries, with 200–350 respondents in each
- Mandates: 72% work at companies that require or strongly encourage AI use, according to the report page
- Training: 65% say their company has given them sufficient AI training, according to the report page
- Hours: 29% say AI has added to their working hours, according to the report page
The constraint on returns from AI in larger organizations is shifting from access to integration. Wider AI use has so far added software to buy, secure and support rather than consolidating it, which raises spend and supplier overlap. Agents also open an accountability gap that existing appraisal and approval processes were not designed to close.
“But real value from AI at work comes from the ability to make it an integral part of core business activities across the entire organization, and that's where many struggle.”Michal Miller Levi, head of market research and customer insights, monday.com
Only 29% of directors and senior managers at companies with at least 500 employees say AI is fully integrated into a central system with shared data and automated workflows between departments, according to research commissioned by monday.com, which sells work-management software with built-in AI agents. The company published the study, Squinting in the Sun, on 21 October.
Nielsen ran the survey in April 2026 among 1,701 respondents in seven countries, split roughly evenly between directors and senior managers and between IT and other departments. More than eight in 10 say they are satisfied using AI, and 94% find the chance to optimize work with it exciting.
Fifty-seven percent say their team uses more software tools than before AI use grew, and 51% work with a mix of company-approved and other AI tools. On its report page, monday.com adds that 59% say identifying and testing where AI adds value takes more effort than it saves.
Measuring staff has also become harder. Just over half (53%) say it is more difficult to judge employees’ original contributions, 78% have changed how they assess performance and 46% now run their own work and decisions past AI.
On agents, 58% expect the agents they oversee to outnumber their human staff within a year. Lack of human oversight is the primary concern for 46%, and 35% worry about being held accountable for a decision an agent made. monday.com’s answer is a set of principles it calls the three C’s – Context, Collaboration and Control – for building AI workflows.
Sources
- monday.com, “83% of Leaders Are Satisfied With Their AI Setup, but 7 in 10 Say Their Company Hasn’t Fully Integrated It, monday.com Research Reveals”, press release via Business Wire, 21 October 2026. https://www.financialcontent.com/article/bizwire-2026-10-21-83-of-leaders-are-satisfied-with-their-ai-setup-but-7-in-10-say-their-company-hasnt-fully-integrated-it-mondaycom-research-reveals
- monday.com, “AI at work 2026: Squinting in the Sun”, report page, October 2026. https://monday.com/gp/ai-report-2026
- TechCrunch, “AI promises productivity, but for managers, it’s mostly a headache for now, says new survey”, 21 October 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/ai-promises-productivity-but-for-managers-its-mostly-a-headache-for-now-says-new-survey/
