Do artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT eliminate jobs, create new ones, or both? There’s a lot of speculation regarding this question, but little solid data in the U.S. to answer it.
I’m a sociologist who researches AI, among other topics. Seeking answers to that question and others, I commissioned an online survey by YouGov, a market research agency, to ask 1,250 U.S. workers between July 30 and August 4, 2026, about their experiences with AI and their attitudes toward the technology.
The survey covered workers’ current use of AI, their perceptions of how it will affect their future job opportunities, and how they believe it has affected their job opportunities up until now. It is the basis of my study in progress, the results of which have not been peer-reviewed.
The findings show that four years after ChatGPT’s debut in November 2022, AI has not yet resulted in substantial job losses or gains for these workers, contrary to what some AI pessimists and optimists might have predicted.
Only about 3% of workers said they had lost a job due to AI since 2023, while roughly 6% indicated they landed a job that didn’t exist before AI. Approximately 9% said they’ve earned a promotion or advancement related to AI.
For AI pessimists like me, it’s surprising that so few of the surveyed workers said they had lost jobs due to AI. And it might raise a few eyebrows to see how uncommon it was for workers to indicate any AI-related job changes since 2023.
Limited impact so far
YouGov surveyed a sample of employed U.S. adults intended to reflect the nation’s employed population in terms of age, gender, race, education, and other characteristics.
My 25-question survey included the following three questions concerning AI’s role in job changes since 2023:
1) Since 2023, have you lost a job due to AI, such as AI’s automation of your previous job’s tasks?
2) Since 2023, have you landed a new job that did not previously exist before the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), such as an AI data labeler or AI compliance specialist?
3) Since 2023, have you received a promotion or advancement that you believe was related to AI, such as your AI skills?
Approximately 95% of surveyed workers said no to the first question; 90% said no to the second; and 88% said no to the last. Between 3% and 4% were “not sure” they experienced any of these AI-related job changes. The numbers for each question may add up to more than 100% due to rounding.
What this means
These results square with what some other researchers in the U.S. and elsewhere have found: AI is not having widespread effects on the labor market today. At the same time, job changes in the U.S. are a rarity, so the small percentages of surveyed workers who report AI-related job changes must be viewed in this general context.
The most important way AI appears to be affecting job opportunities so far, according to workers in my survey, is by affording some of them chances for promotion and advancement. These workers’ AI skills may very well be helping them move up the career ladder, but it is still too early to know whether any such advantage will last.
Agentic AI, a newer form of AI that can act autonomously and automate jobs to a greater extent, may render some current AI expertise and skills less valuable in the future.
Surveys like this one offer a snapshot of the reported experiences of a group of people at one point in time. It is difficult for workers to know for sure whether AI is to blame or credit for their job changes. Also, the survey began in July 2026 when the official unemployment rate was 4.1%, but the workforce was shrinking and AI was reportedly a leading reason for many layoffs.
Those who took the survey are like average U.S. workers in important ways, but that doesn’t necessarily mean their AI experiences and attitudes are typical. They chose to participate in YouGov’s online panel, which means their responses may differ from randomly selected workers. And none were jobless, whether due to AI or another reason.
That said, my study moves beyond many predictions made by economists and analyses produced by AI companies of this technology’s impact on the labor market by asking workers themselves how they are experiencing AI. And unlike some research and an AI unemployment tracker in California, my study doesn’t focus just on job loss; it also examines job gains and promotions.
There are remaining questions about how workers are experiencing AI. For example, who is getting promoted? Are workers using AI on the job in ways that may advance their careers? And how do workers think AI will affect their opportunities in the future? These are among the other questions that my survey data can speak to and that I’m currently working to answer.
Jeffrey C. Dixon is a professor of sociology at the College of the Holy Cross.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.