How Employee Resource Groups Drive AI Adoption at Work

Key Takeaways:

Here is what the data says about employee resource groups and their role in innovation.

Your employee resource groups might be one of the most overlooked assets you have for driving AI adoption across the organisation.

Great Place To Work research shows that people who take part in employee resource groups are more likely than their peers at typical workplaces to say they use AI at least once a month. That pattern points to a role these groups play in speeding up AI adoption that many leaders have yet to recognise.

The gap matters because Canadian workplaces are still early in their AI journey. Statistics Canada reports that 12.2 percent of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the second quarter of 2025, double the 6.1 percent recorded a year earlier. Adoption is accelerating, and the organisations that help employees build comfort with these tools now will be the ones that pull ahead.

So what explains why members of employee resource groups adopt AI faster?

“ERGs are often engines of innovation because of how they cut across departments and job roles,” says Matt Bush, senior principal at Great Place To Work. “Research shows that increasing the number of people who can contribute new ideas and try new things enables organisations to generate better ideas more quickly.”

The same research shows that members of these groups report fewer obstacles when they want to innovate. Across surveys of nearly 12,000 members spanning 83 different groups, the ratio of employees who said they could innovate easily was 10 for every two who said they could not. Among non-members at the same companies, that ratio fell to six easy innovators for every two who struggled.

This measure, the ratio of innovators to non-innovators, is known as the Innovation Velocity Ratio (IVR). It is a leading indicator of how quickly new behaviours, tools and ways of working spread through an organisation. Transformation efforts only gather momentum once the champions of change begin to outnumber the sceptics.

Great Place To Work research also shows that the barriers to innovation rarely sit with the individual. More often they come from environmental factors. When more employees trust their organisation, more of them are willing to experiment and take the calculated risks that move work forward.

That is why affinity groups and other employee resource groups are so well placed to accelerate change. They cut across silos and help socialise new ways of working across the whole organisation.

 

Understanding the impact of the Innovation Velocity Ratio

Innovation sits at the heart of the Great Place To Work Effect, which demonstrates how a high-trust culture shapes business results.

When employees trust their leaders and their organisation, they are far more likely to try new ways of working or develop new ideas. At Great Place To Work Certified organisations, for every two employees who hit friction when they try to innovate, four report having plenty of opportunities to try new things. That is twice the level seen at typical workplaces, where the ratio sits at just two to two.

The effect compounds as a company grows. At an organisation of 1,000 employees or more, being a great workplace can mean thousands of additional people who are open to experimenting and embracing new tools.

This helps explain why the most trusted, top workplaces see 8.5 times higher revenue per employee and 3.5 times higher stock market returns than their peers.

“A high number of employees innovating is a crucial health indicator for the organisation in a rapidly changing, AI-fuelled business environment,” Bush says.

 

What ERG leaders should do to support AI at work

How can employee resource groups start to embrace AI to advance their work and their mission? Three practical strategies stand out.

• Accelerate learning: “Many ERGs have talent retention as a key metric for success,” Bush says. “Training employees on AI both improves their confidence in the organisation and prepares them to take on new roles.” Where teams are already piloting AI tools, group leaders can partner with IT and learning and development colleagues to run AI skills training labs, build peer mentoring networks and curate role-specific learning. Employees who can demonstrate new skills are far better positioned to move into a different role if their current one is eliminated.
• Scale coaching and feedback: AI tools can help extend coaching and feedback to every employee rather than a select few. One ambitious goal for a group leader might be to ensure that every member receives a genuinely useful conversation about their annual performance review.
• Ask AI to challenge you: “Instead of always thinking about how AI is going to make your life easier, ask how AI can challenge you more,” Bush recommends. “If ChatGPT is too affirming, you are not really learning.” Because AI is a general-purpose technology, it can act as a one-to-one tutor that helps you learn something new, or it can simply hand you the answers. Without a little friction, people using AI at work do not actually absorb new information. For leaders focused on developing their members, the goal is to add just enough friction to prioritise real growth.

 

Turning employee resource groups into engines of workplace innovation

The organisations that adapt fastest to AI are the ones building trust and widening the circle of people who feel free to experiment. Employee resource groups already do this work every day. By pairing that reach with deliberate AI skills training and a culture that rewards curiosity, you can turn these groups into a genuine driver of workplace innovation and faster AI adoption.

Want to understand how your employees really experience your workplace, and how ready they are to innovate? A Great Place To Work employee survey gives you the data to find out. To see how a high-trust culture translates into stronger business results, explore the Great Place To Work Effect.

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This article is an adaptation of the original Great Place To Work®, written by Ted Kitterman, Content Manager. 

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People Also Asked

What is the difference between an ERG and an affinity group?
The terms are often used interchangeably. Both describe employee-led communities, though “affinity group” tends to emphasise a shared identity while “ERG” often carries a more formal link to business goals.

How many Canadian businesses are using AI?
Statistics Canada found that 12.2 percent of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the second quarter of 2025, double the share reported a year earlier.

Do employee resource groups improve retention?
Many groups track retention as a core success metric, and helping members build new skills, including AI skills, strengthens their confidence and career mobility.

How can AI be used for coaching at work?
AI tools can extend coaching and feedback beyond a select few, helping more employees get useful input on their performance and development.

Can AI actually help people learn?
Yes, when it is used as a tutor that adds productive challenge rather than simply supplying answers, which is where real learning happens.

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