Permission to Bloom
Team Energy Barometer

AI, Teamwork & Collective Capacity

AI Is Changing How We Work. What Is Happening to How We Work Together?

AI offers extraordinary potential to expand individual productivity and organizational capability.

Yet the experience of teamwork is also changing. Emerging research raises concerns about trust, coordination, reliance on colleagues, and the shared understanding that makes teams effective.

Individual gains do not automatically translate into stronger teams.

Understanding collective capacity—how ready, focused, and energized people feel to engage in shared work—offers leaders and teams another important perspective as they navigate AI adoption.

The Team Energy Barometer℠ provides a simple, anonymous way to make that capacity visible and begin a constructive conversation about what might strengthen it.

Research and Emerging Evidence

AI and Team Trust

Team Dynamics Weaken When Employees Turn to AI Instead of Colleagues

Harvard Business Review

Kate Niederhoffer, Kristina Rapuano, Alex Liebscher, Alexi Robichaux, and Jeffrey T. Hancock

Research Summary

The article introduces research into how AI is changing teams' shared understanding of who knows what and whom to turn to. Its accessible introduction explains why relying on colleagues' expertise is important to coordination.

Permission to Bloom Perspective

Alongside individual AI use, pay attention to how people seek help, share knowledge, and rely on one another in collective work.

Review note: Title, date, authors, and introduction verified. Full findings require review of the complete article; the proposed ‘relationslipping’ claim is not included here because it could not be verified in the accessible text.

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Manager Support and Leadership

AI's Effect on Workplace Culture

Gallup

Morgan Meinen and Megan Mulherin

Research Summary

Gallup reports mixed employee perceptions of workplace culture as AI is adopted. Its research also identifies CHRO concerns about managers' readiness to guide AI use and an association between active manager support and more positive employee experiences.

Permission to Bloom Perspective

Manager support, communication, and attention to team experience deserve a place in AI adoption efforts—not just access to tools.

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Human Capacity and Productivity

AI and Workplace Productivity: What Leaders Need to Know

Gallup

Updated

Research Summary

Gallup examines employee-reported AI productivity benefits and their uneven reach across organizations. Reported gains are associated with a wider range of AI uses, workflow integration, and manager support; benefits appear concentrated in individual tasks rather than broader workplace systems.

Permission to Bloom Perspective

Individual task efficiency is only part of the picture. Explore how workflows and coordination help translate individual gains into collective results.

Read Original Source

Research summaries reflect the accessible original sources. Permission to Bloom perspectives are interpretations for leaders and teams, not findings that the Barometer has been validated to measure AI's effects on trust, coordination, or productivity.

What Should Leaders Pay Attention to?

Individual Capacity Isn't the Whole Story.

AI can help people accomplish more individually without necessarily improving how teams coordinate and execute together.

Team Relationships Matter.

Trust, shared knowledge, communication, and collaboration remain essential as people and AI systems take on new responsibilities.

Make Collective Capacity Part of the Conversation.

Give teams a way to express how ready and energized they feel for shared work, and use that awareness to explore what might help.

Make Team Capacity Visible as Work Changes.

The Team Energy Barometer℠ does not diagnose why a team is experiencing strain, uncertainty, or energy. It provides a shared reading that can open a conversation about the conditions influencing collective capacity.

Used during an AI initiative, organizational transition, or regular team meeting, it can help participants explore whether they feel ready to engage with the work ahead, what might be limiting that readiness, and what could strengthen it.

Take a Team Reading