The Performance Crisis:
What’s driving the decline,
and how leaders can reverse it
In the last five years, a staggering $2.2 trillion in GDP has evaporated because of a silent performance crisis unfolding across our workforce.

While AI capabilities surge ahead, human performance is quietly slipping. AI isn’t replacing human excellence; it’s demanding more of it. To keep up, organizations must fuel their people with meaning, agency, and the agility to shift gears in real time. The crisis is here. So is the opportunity—for those ready to adapt and lead with precision.
The new performance equation
BetterUp Labs analyzed behavioral data from 410,000+ employees (2019–2025), linking real-world performance with organizational outcomes and psychological drivers.

Our research revealed that performance now isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about shifting fluidly between three performance modes—basic, collaborative, and adaptive—powered by the right human fuel: motivation, optimism, and agency.
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The most resilient organizations can shift gears on demand; executing when needed, aligning teams fast, and innovating ahead of change.
ERA
ERA
Why AI is forcing a new performance model
Success with GenAI depends on activating all three performance gears—basic, collaborative, and adaptive. With 60% of employees collaborating and coaching AI as a teammate, skills like context, feedback, and alignment are now essential for everyone, not just managers.
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF YOU WERE
MANAGING AN AI AGENT?
61%
71%
LOW
APPRECIATIVE
EXCITED
NERVOUS
FRUSTRATED
66%
57%
HIGH
% of people who endorse high vs. low values of each feelings with respect
to managing an AI agent to do [your] work tasks for you
Collaborative performance:
The rise of AI-powered agents reshaping teamwork
The Performance
Crisis
Our data scientists uncovered that across industries performance has declined by 2–6% since 2019. That may sound small, but in business terms, it’s massive: half of today’s workforce would land in a lower performance tier by 2019 standards.
What’s fueling this performance decline?
The fuel behind performance—motivation, optimism, and agency—is running dry.
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Without it, even the best strategy falls flat. Focus, alignment, and creativity are all down, especially adaptive performance, just when we need it most.
The new model for performance
Top-performing organizations are not just training more. They’re building precision development engines: scalable systems that adapt to each employee and evolve with the business.
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And it’s working.
Companies that invest in adaptive performance see
up to 37% higher innovation.
What performance systems look like now
Modern organizations are replacing static training with dynamic, real-time systems that drive growth:
Personalized, on-demand development at scale
Real-time data on engagement, skills, and readiness
Tools to drive alignment, coaching, and recognition
Micro-learning in the flow of work, not the classroom