Three-quarters of global business leaders say current AI tools are too focused on individual work, threatening business goals, according to a Miro study
Miro®, the AI Innovation Workspace for teams, today released findings from a commissioned Forrester Consulting study. The study, “Collaboration is AI's Biggest Opportunity”, found that enabling effective collaboration is a top priority for business leaders. But for many, their organization’s technology and tool choices are having a negative impact — complicating teamwork and hindering transformation.
Respondents — made up of 500+ global business leaders — agreed overwhelmingly that improving collaboration and teamwork is key to achieving their organizational goals (89%). They also agreed that AI has a critical role to play — 54% of leaders stated they are optimistic about the potential for AI to enhance teamwork and collaboration.
But many also expressed concern that AI implementations could contribute to an increasingly complex tech stack and act as a barrier to success. Three-quarters of leaders felt that most AI tools focus too much on supporting individual work, rather than team productivity. Critically, 39% said this individual emphasis negatively impacts returns on their organization’s AI investments.
Despite these challenges, leaders remain confident in AI's potential to positively impact business outcomes, and they're seeking solutions that embed AI where teamwork happens to augment collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
“There is tremendous potential for AI to support collaboration,” said Andrey Khusid, CEO and founder of Miro. “But in the AI revolution, teamwork has been left behind. To be truly effective, AI should operate where teams work: supporting collaboration in the flow of work, informing decisions with full team context, and driving towards results faster. Embedding AI where teamwork happens achieves more than just improving productivity, it enables team- and organization-wide collaboration, innovation, and transformation.”
Summary of key findings:
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Leaders say improving collaboration and teamwork is a top driver of future success
- 89% of respondents said that improving collaboration and teamwork is key to achieving their organizational goals; of those, 42% said it was critical.
- Canvas-based collaboration is already central to how many organizations innovate. 79% agree that visual collaboration tools have increased or significantly increased in their organization, and 43% say that these tools were critical to their organization’s workflows.
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But, the introduction of new technologies — including AI — is making collaboration more complex and less effective
- 69% agreed that switching between core work tools and AI tools creates friction and interrupts workflows.
- 75% felt that most AI tools focus too much on supporting individual work, rather than team productivity. To mitigate this, 81% are interested in AI solutions built on shared, canvas-based workspaces.
- Having the right AI skills continues to be a concern for many compounding complexity, 36% say they have difficulty keeping up with the pace of change.
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Despite these challenges, confidence still remains high in AI’s potential to enhance results and outcomes
- Leaders experience a range of benefits when they consider the impact of AI on their general business operations. These benefits include: improved customer experience (52%), increased revenue (49%), and increased efficiency (46%) and time to value (46%).
- This extends to improving the impact of employees and their daily work: 54% of leaders cite increased employee freedom to focus on strategic work, and 51% expect to see more automation of repetitive/manual tasks
- Applying AI to teamwork is critical in helping organizations achieve their collaboration priorities. 82% of respondents stated that they were interested in AI solutions that drive teamwork and collaboration. In particular, they are seeking AI tools that enable context-rich prompting that make it easy for teams to collectively utilize all available project materials (82%).
About the Research
Miro commissioned Forrester Consulting to explore the current state, challenges, and future state of AI in workflows across engineering, product, design, IT, and other lines of business. The study surveyed 518 director-level and above cross-industry leaders in organizations based in North America, EMEA, and APAC. Respondents were decision-makers for their organization's SaaS solutions and were from organizations currently integrating or planning to integrate AI into at least one department's workflow. The survey was conducted in Q3 2025.
About Miro
Miro is the AI Innovation Workspace that brings teams and AI together to plan, co-create, and build the next big thing, faster. Serving more than 100 million users across 250,000 customers, Miro empowers cross-functional teams to flow from early discovery through final delivery on a shared, AI-first canvas. With the canvas as the prompt, Miro’s AI capabilities keep teams in the flow of work, scale shifts in ways of working, and drive organization-wide transformation. Founded in 2011, Miro currently employs more than 1,600 people in 14 hubs around the world. To learn more, visit https://miro.com.
Miro and the Miro logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealtimeBoard, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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Leaders remain confident in AI's potential to positively impact business outcomes, and they're seeking solutions that embed AI where teamwork happens to augment collaboration, creativity, and innovation.