Pew Study Shows Workers Worried About AI

A new Pew Research Center Study presents an opportunity to talk with students about their hopes and fears about AI. The report title, “U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the Workplace,” puts the main point squarely up front.

Of the American workers surveyed in October 2024, 81% were considered “non-AI users.” Seventeen percent hadn’t heard of AI use in the workplace.

In addition, “about one-in-ten workers say they use AI chatbots—such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot—at work every day or a few times a week; 7% use them a few times a month.” Chatbot is a limited term; more accurately, this and other questions seem to be about generative and other AI, with functionality beyond simple chatbots. What do people—particularly those who don’t use or haven’t heard of how to use AI—think AI means? Also, a lot could change in a few months, so it will be interesting to see similar surveys as they emerge.

Given these low usage rates, it tracks that people are worried about AI. Without experience, people may be more fearful—and perhaps fear keeps them away. When we use AI more, we can understand the possibilities as well as the limitations and see how we need to maintain authority over our work.

Scott Galloway (Prof. G) answered a wealth manager’s question about whether AI could take his job. His recommendation was for the young professional to learn how to use AI—that the differentiator is how well he can use AI tools to improve his work in ways that the competition hasn’t yet learned. We might teach the same to our business communication students: use AI to your advantage, but don’t let it replace you, or your writing.