Lenovo finds most IT leaders see AI-ready workplaces as critical

AI priorities are outpacing workplace change

Lenovo based The AI-ready workplace on an August 2026 survey of 1,200 IT leaders at organizations with at least 1,000 employees across 12 countries. The study found that 76% rank AI-led transformation among their organization’s top IT priorities, while only 27% have scaled AI across business functions.

The report distinguishes AI deployment from fundamental workplace redesign. According to Lenovo, redesign requires changes to workflows, employee roles, IT support and governance, allowing people and AI agents to work together across the organization. When AI remains limited to individual functions, the company says, its value can remain trapped in silos.

Lenovo frames workplace readiness as a connected system covering people, workflows, technology, support and governance. Its AI Workplace Readiness Index assesses five dimensions: Architecture, Operations, Trust, Workforce and Value, each scored on a 1, 5 scale.

Readiness tracks with reported AI progress

Organizations with AI embedded across core business functions averaged 4.1 out of 5 on Lenovo’s index. Organizations still evaluating AI opportunities averaged 2.7. Lenovo describes the relationship between workplace readiness and reported AI progress as correlational, meaning the findings do not establish causation.

The report also highlights a measurement gap. Only one in ten organizations reports continuously connecting AI use to workflow outcomes and using that evidence to guide investment. Lenovo says measures such as cycle time, repeat incidents and outcome quality can help leaders assess whether an end-to-end process is improving.

That approach differs from relying only on individual productivity measures. Workflow-level key performance indicators can give organizations a basis for deciding which AI use cases to expand, revise or stop, according to the report.

“Every company we’re talking to is asking the same thing: what value are we actually getting from AI? That’s where workflow-level measurement matters. Are cycle times down? Are repeat incidents falling? Is the outcome better? That’s how you show where AI is creating value,” said Rakshit Ghura, vice president and general manager of Lenovo Digital Workplace Solutions.

Human and AI roles remain a design challenge

The study found that 70% of organizations have an AI adoption program, but only 12% measure adoption and effectiveness at the individual or team level and use the results to refine training, employee personas and technology decisions.

Lenovo says organizations are exploring how AI agents may change responsibilities more often than they are formalizing human-plus-agent workforce models. Its report recommends defining which routine tasks agents can perform and where human judgment, creativity, accountability and oversight remain necessary.

The company also identifies infrastructure, proactive IT support, and governance for AI tools, agents and data as connected parts of the workplace operating model. Rather than prescribe one sequence of changes, the report recommends assessing all five readiness dimensions and prioritizing the gaps most likely to hold back immediate AI objectives.

“AI cannot deliver its full value in a workplace designed for the pre-AI era. The opportunity is to redesign how people and AI work together, with the technology, support and governance around them built for how work is changing,” Ghura said.

For organizations considering broader AI deployment, Lenovo’s findings position workplace redesign and continuous workflow measurement as prerequisites for connecting AI initiatives with business outcomes. Lenovo’s Digital Workplace Solutions brings together devices, digital employee experience, support and services, security and governance around the results it expects AI to deliver.