The Organizational Transmission of AI: The Role of Managers on AI Adoption and Impact

Using longitudinal data from the Gallup Panel with roughly 10,000 U.S. respondents, surveyed annually between 2023 and 2025, we document new patterns in the heterogeneous adoption of generative AI and its "organizational transmission" within firms. We show that trust in leadership and clear managerial communication are the strongest predictors of employee uptake, even after accounting for income, occupation, and sector. Exploiting within-person variation and managerial exposure, we demonstrate that the complementarity between AI adoption and workplace culture significantly shapes employee outcomes. Specifically, employees who adopt AI in environments characterized by high managerial trust and clear communication exhibit markedly higher engagement relative to peers adopting AI under weaker managerial conditions. These results highlight the central role of managers in mediating technology diffusion and underscore that the productivity gains from AI hinge not only on the technology itself, but also on the organizational context in which it is deployed.