As Meta continues to push its AI models into more elements, and X promotes its latest Grok 3 AI model, this new report from Pew Research comes at an interesting time in assessing the likely impact of AI on the workforce.
Pew Research surveyed 5,395 U.S. adults to find out how they feel about the potential impacts of AI, and whether they’re using AI tools in their day-to-day activities.
And the results show that the majority of workers are “worried” about AI’s impacts in the workplace, as opposed to seeing AI tools as a means to maximize productivity.
As you can see in this overview, 52% of respondents indicated that they have concerns about the future impact of AI use in the workplace. In addition to this, 32% believe that AI will lead to fewer job opportunities in future.
Which makes sense. Big businesses are looking at ways in which they can replace human labor with AI tools, while even the U.S. government is exploring AI tools to streamline its operations.
It seems inevitable that a portion of roles will be replaced, or reduced by AI systems, though in most cases, generative AI tools as they currently stand at least, are no replacement for human expertise and knowledge.
They can complement that expertise, and improve efficiency as a result. But in order to get the most out the current wave of AI tools, you need to have an understanding of the outputs, and the potential flaws and errors that AI systems can make. If you know these, then you refine and improve those outputs into a more functional, reliable working order, as opposed to relying on them blindly.
Though that’s unlikely to stop businesses from leaning into potential cost savings as a result of AI integrations, which is also reflected in this question related to future job opportunities.
As you can see, just 6% of people believe that workplace AI use will lead to more job opportunities for them in the long run. 32% believe that it will lead to fewer opportunities, while 31% believe it won’t make much difference.
You can see, too, that lower income workers believe they’re most likely to be impacted, as businesses look to use AI logic to eliminate more binary tasks.
And as you would expect, younger users are the ones most likely to be making use of AI tools already:
Workers aged 18 to 29 are the most likely to use AI chatbots at work, while those with higher education levels are also more likely to be using AI in their process.
The trends make sense, and it’ll be interesting to see how AI impacts the future of work as these younger, AI-native audiences filter into the workforce, and whether the use of AI chatbots increases efficiency, or decreases knowledge.
That’s a key concern, that while tools like ChatGPT can give you the answers, that doesn’t replace real understanding and experience. Which could lead to more people being able to get the right result, but not necessarily knowing why, nor how to improve or refine such.
And that may actually make real experience and knowledge even more valuable in future.
Either way, some interesting notes on the state of the AI shift.
You can check out Pew Research’s full AI in the workplace report here.
