American workers assess AI impact
Washington DC, August 3, 2026 - A new Ipsos survey conducted on behalf of The Groundwork Collaborative explores how American workers are using AI and how they expect it to affect the workforce in the years ahead.
AI use is highly uneven across the workforce. Three in ten workers use AI at least weekly, but adoption is concentrated among higher-income, college-educated, and white-collar workers. Roughly half of workers earning $100,000 or more, workers with bachelor's degrees, and white-collar employees use AI tools at least a few times per month, compared to about one-quarter or fewer of workers earning less than $50,000, workers with a high school education or less, and blue-collar employees.
Two-thirds of workers expect AI to make the worker experience worse by eliminating jobs and putting greater pressure on workers, rather than improving the worker experience by freeing up time spent on repetitive tasks and assisting with more challenging work. This sentiment is consistent across race, gender, education, and income lines. When it comes to the impact of AI on their own jobs, workers' views differ by education level. Nearly half of workers with a college degree believe AI will help them with work and improve their job, compared to just one in five of those with a high school education or less. Sentiment around the present impact of AI on their line of work is worse among those without a job; unemployed workers are more likely to feel that AI is already having a negative impact on their line of work.
About the Study
This poll was conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Groundwork Collaborative from June 11 – June 16, 2026, using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,533 Americans aged 18 to 75 that are currently employed or marginally attached to the workforce.
The main survey was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, which is the original and most well-established online panel that is representative of the adult U.S. population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in these households are invited to join and participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®. For those potential panel members who do not already have internet access, Ipsos provides a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methods, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and provide fully representative online samples to the research community.
The study was conducted in both English and Spanish. The U.S. gen pop data (KnowledgePanel 18+) were weighted to adjust adjusted to align with the following geodemographic distributions of the aged 18+ U.S. population using an iterative proportional fitting (raking) procedure. The demographic benchmarks came from 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) from the US Census Bureau. The weighting categories for the national, general population sample were as follows:
Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18-34, 35-49, 50-64, 65+)
Age (18-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-75)
Race-Ethnicity (White/Non-Hispanic, Black/Non-Hispanic, Other/Non-Hispanic, Hispanic, 2+ Races/Non-Hispanic)
Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West) by Metropolitan Status (Metro, Non-Metro)
Education (Less than High School, High School, Some College, Bachelor or higher)
Household Income (under $25K, $25-$49,999, $50K-$74,999, $75K-$99,999, $100K-$149,999, $150K and over)
Language Dominance (English Dominant Hispanic, Bilingual Hispanic, Spanish Dominant Hispanic, Non-Hispanic)
Political Party Affiliation (Republican, Lean Republican, Not Lean/Refused, Lean Democrat, Democrat)
2024 Presidential Vote Choice (Voted for Harris, Voted for Trump, Voter for someone else, Did not Vote)
The resulting weights were scaled to sum up to the total number of screened respondents (2,022 cases). Qualified respondents were then separated out and their weights were further adjusted so that the proportion of employed and job seekers aligned with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ U-5 unemployment rate as per the seasonally adjusted estimate of May 2026. The final weights were scaled to sum up to the total number of qualified respondents (1,533 cases).
The margin of sampling error for the total sample of qualified respondents is 2.7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.16. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.
About Ipsos
Ipsos is one of the largest market research and polling companies globally, operating in 90 markets and employing nearly 20,000 people.
Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 business solutions are based on primary data from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques.
“Game Changers” – our tagline – summarizes our ambition to help our 5,000 clients navigate with confidence our rapidly changing world.
Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has been listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120, Mid-60 indices, and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).
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