While many organisations are still discussing AI strategies, the reality in offices has long since moved on: employees are already using generative AI as a matter of course in their daily work – often every day, often on their own initiative and frequently without clear organisational guidelines.
A recent survey conducted by IMC Krems among more than 1,000 employees in small and medium-sized enterprises across the DACH region paints a remarkable picture: individual usage levels are high, as are the perceived productivity gains. At the same time, many organisations lack clear guidelines, structured training programmes or defined governance frameworks. The result: AI is widely used – but not strategically managed.
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When Employees Move Faster Than Management
The Quiet Momentum Within Teams
The data clearly show that employees use AI tools for drafting texts, structuring content, analysis and summarising information. They report time savings, quality improvements and more efficient preparation of complex tasks.
Crucially, this adoption is largely bottom-up. Not because it was mandated, but because it works and makes everyday work easier.
From the perspective of technology acceptance research, this is hardly surprising: when technology is perceived as enhancing performance and being easy to use, adoption increases significantly. These very factors received high approval ratings in the study. What is striking, however, is that organisational embedding is failing to keep pace with this dynamic.
The Leadership Gap
While employees experiment productively, many respondents report a lack of clear guidelines, unclear rules regarding the handling of sensitive data, insufficient training opportunities and the absence of a defined AI strategy. The issue, therefore, is not technology. It is the lack of organisational structure.
A new leadership challenge is emerging: operational reality is evolving faster than strategic steering. Many managers appear to underestimate how deeply AI has already been integrated into work processes. Yet without transparency regarding actual usage patterns, there is no sound basis for effective governance.
“AI has long since arrived in everyday working life – yet many organisations still lack a clear strategy. If you do not know how AI is actually being used, you cannot steer it responsibly,” says Prof (FH) Mag. Dr Doris Berger-Grabner, MA, CSE, Head of the degree programme in Corporate Management and Digital Management at IMC Krems.
Bottom-Up Transformation Instead of Top-Down Implementation
Previous waves of digitalisation were largely investment-driven: ERP systems, CRM solutions or cloud migrations were centrally decided and implemented. Generative AI follows a different logic. It is easily accessible, cost-effective and immediately deployable. This creates a new dynamic: innovation diffuses informally – through individual teams, projects and personal initiatives.
On the one hand, this represents a significant opportunity: organisations benefit from a spontaneous productivity boost. On the other hand, it creates structural risks: without clear guidelines, scalability, quality assurance and risk management remain limited.
From Experimentation to Strategy
The central management question is therefore no longer: “Should we implement AI?”
But rather: “How do we organise usage that is already a reality?”
In this context, leadership means:
1. Creating transparency about actual usage
2. Defining clear guidelines
3. Systematising training and capability development
4. Establishing clear responsibilities
Those who act now can strategically harness the existing momentum. Those who wait risk losing control over a transformation that is already underway.
A New Leadership Mandate
The findings reveal a structural tension: high levels of individual usage alongside comparatively low organisational maturity. It is precisely this asymmetry that makes the current phase so critical. The AI transformation in SMEs is not being slowed down – it is simply not yet being orchestrated. As a result, the role of leadership is shifting: no longer primarily the initiator of innovation, but the integrator of a development that is already in motion. This will be the central management task of the coming years.
The research project is being conducted at IMC Krems by an interdisciplinary project team consisting of Michael Bartz, Doris Berger-Grabner, Ruben Ruiz Torrubiano and Denise Kleiss.