Counter to the assumption that struggling or average performers would lean hardest on AI assistance, LinkedIn found its top talent was the fastest and most enthusiastic adopter of new AI tooling under its LinkedIn's Full-Stack Builder Model. Tomer Cohen attributes this to elite performers' innate drive to keep improving their craft — the same instinct that made them top performers pre-AI now directs itself at the new tools.
Cohen's estimate: only a 'cutting-edge ~5%' of staff adopt new AI tools and behaviors readily by disposition alone. The remaining ~95% won't move on tool access alone — they need deliberate incentive design, visible internal success stories (see the career-mobility anecdote in LinkedIn's Full-Stack Builder Model), and structural nudges like Grassroots AI Adoption via Opt-In FOMO. Cohen also names proactive AI exploration as a trait worth tracking — 'AI agency' — and is moving toward formalizing it in performance reviews (see Product-Area Leadership + 360 Review), turning the 5% from an observation about early adopters into a hiring and promotion signal.