A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows that AI is gradually becoming part of everyday work life in the United States. According to Pew, “21% of U.S. workers say at least some of their work is done with AI,” a notable rise from 16% last year.
Despite the growing buzz around AI, most employees are still keeping their distance from it. Pew notes that “65% of American workers say they don’t use AI much or at all in their job.”
The findings come from Pew’s nationally representative survey of 8,750 U.S. adults conducted between September 2 and 8, 2025. The analysis focused on 5,010 employed adults, both full- and part-time, who identified one primary job.
While the overall number of AI users is rising, the people most likely to embrace the technology are younger and more educated workers. Pew found that those “younger than 50 and workers with a bachelor’s degree or more education are among the most likely to use AI in their job.”
The increase over the past year was especially driven by college-educated employees. The share of workers with at least a bachelor’s degree who use AI rose from 20% in 2024 to 28% in 2025. For those with some college or less, the growth was smaller, from 13% to 16%.
Awareness and potential use are rising too
Interestingly, even among workers who don’t currently use AI, more people now see how it could fit into their work. Pew reported that 36% of these non-AI users “say that at least some of their work can be done with AI,” up from 31% a year earlier.
Meanwhile, fewer people are unaware of AI’s growing workplace role. Pew found that “the share of workers who say they have not heard or read about AI use in the workplace decreased from 17% to 12%.”
Still, the overall pace of change remains moderate. Only a small portion of workers — about 2% — say that “all or most” of their work is done with AI, a figure unchanged from 2024.
With awareness increasing and more industries exploring AI-powered solutions, this upward trend in usage could become the new normal for U.S. workers in the years ahead.
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