Lever Talent, Inc. Today, they released the "Collaborative Intelligent Workforce Report: 2026 Baseline" (The Co - Intelligent Workforce Report: 2026 Baseline). This report is based on a survey of 484 leaders at the director level and above in companies with 100 to 999 employees in the United States and Canada, tracking the gap between AI adoption and AI value, and attributing it to two decisions that most companies have not yet made: who will be responsible for human interaction with AI and how this relationship should be intentionally designed.

Lever Talent, the founder and CEO, stated: "Every company is using AI. The really important question now is what will happen after chatbots, and whether there is anyone in the company responsible for that answer. Most companies have never decided on the purpose of AI, who is responsible for it, and how the work should be distributed among the workforce composed of humans and AI."

The five main findings of the report include:

• No one is in charge of this matter: 45% of medium-sized enterprises do not have a single person responsible for coordinating collaboration between humans and AI. Only 21% of companies have someone whose main responsibility is this.
• Imagination at Work: 97% of companies have already adopted AI, and 92% are still increasing related expenditures, but only 28% of companies consider AI to be "extremely valuable".
• Coordinator's Bonus: Companies that have a primary person in charge coordinating collaboration between humans and AI consider the possibility that AI is “extremely valuable” to be 2.5 times higher than that of other companies; compared to companies with “no one in charge,” this figure is 5.5 times higher.
• Investing solely in technology is not the endgame: only 6% of companies that invest in AI technology achieve “extremely high value”; whereas for those companies that invest in technology, projects, and personnel simultaneously, this proportion rises to 50%, representing an 8.3-fold difference.
• Design determines outcomes: In companies where the division of labor between humans and AI is clear, and there is someone responsible for correcting the mistakes of AI, the likelihood of reporting “extremely high value” is 5.7 times higher. Half of the companies have not yet completed this task.

The report introduces the role of Workforce Orchestrator ™, which is designated as the person responsible for coordinating and ensuring that humans and AI work together to fulfill their responsibilities. At the end, it provides specific action recommendations for the CEO and the head of human resources. Lever Talent indicates that this survey will be conducted annually to measure which companies have made progress in narrowing these gaps.

The full report is available for free download. Journalists who require the report, dataset, chart files, or interviews can contact us at Lever Talent, select “Press & Media Inquiries”, or send an email to [email protected]. No registration is required.

Method

This research was commissioned by Lever Talent. Port Research designed the research strategy, and Researchscape conducted the survey from August 17 to September 14, 2026, using third-party online samples. The research findings describe correlations, rather than causal relationships.

About Lever Talent

Lever Talent, Inc. Help enterprises coordinate technology, projects, and personnel to drive the transformation of human labor with AI. Through labor force orchestration, software and agent-based workflows, talent strategy consulting, part-time HR, and AI literacy programs, Lever Talent helps organizations clarify who is responsible for the collaboration between humans and AI, and designs the way humans work with AI. For more information, see levertalent.com.

Media Contact

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