New survey data from Pew Research Center shows only one-sixth (16%) of US workers are using AI in their jobs, and most of them worry about the impact the technology will have in the workplace.
The survey of 5,273 employed US adults taken last October suggests that workers have a lot of ambivalence about the future role AI will play in their jobs, with more than half (52%) more worried than hopeful about AI’s impact. Almost a third, 32%, believe AI will lead to fewer job opportunities. That figure increases to 37% for those in lower-income jobs.
Surprisingly, given the attention they generate, AI chatbots are not as popular as some might think. A majority, 55%, say they don’t use AI chatbots at all or use them rarely. Only one in 10 workers use AI chatbots every day or a few times a week.
The Pew data seems counter to businesses’ vast investments in AI, with some estimates putting the figure at $1 trillion across industries. Companies including Apple, Google, OpenAI and Meta have rushed to position themselves as leaders in the AI space, debuting large-language AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini that they hope people will adopt for work and everyday tasks. The investments AI-focused companies have made and the energy and data requirements for AI have recently been called into question with the emergence of cheaper, more efficient models such as China’s DeepSeek.
