Asana, in collaboration with Nikkei BP, announced “The Current State of AI and Ways of Working 2026,” which identifies the state of AI adoption and organizational management challenges at Japanese companies. The survey was conducted among 451 people working in Japan and summarizes the use of generative AI and barriers to adoption.
The results of “The Current State of AI and Ways of Working 2026,” a survey conducted jointly by Asana and Nikkei BP, have been released. The survey was conducted among 451 people working in Japan and examines the use of generative AI and challenges in the workplace.
The key findings show that 82.1% of companies use generative AI, but its primary applications are limited to individual-level tasks such as information searches and summarization. Only 13.3% of companies have fully implemented AI agents across multiple business processes.
The survey indicates that “work about work” continues to consume a significant amount of time, with activities such as meetings and information sharing taking up substantial time even after the introduction of AI. Barriers cited include a shortage of people to drive the use of AI tools (52.1%), business processes that are not designed on the assumption that AI will be used (46.9%), and concerns about information leaks (43.8%).
The survey also points to insufficient goal alignment despite progress in cross-departmental collaboration: 89.4% work with multiple departments, but only 27.7% say their goals are understood. The concentration of information in the hands of specific individuals (81.6%) and insufficient record-keeping (79.8%) were also identified as factors hindering the use of AI.
As an organization-wide work management platform, Asana proposes visualizing information sharing through its “Work Graph” and enabling collaboration between people and AI agents through “Agentic Work Management.” The full survey is available for download and includes an overview of the Nikkei BP × Asana survey and an analysis of its findings.