For the first time, half of employed American adults say they use artificial intelligence in their role at least a few times a year. Thirteen percent use it daily. Sixty-five percent of workers at AI-adopting organizations say it has improved their productivity.
But 23 percent of those same workers say their employer is letting people go.
That paradox — AI making work more efficient while simultaneously eliminating the people doing it — is the central finding of Gallup’s February 2026 survey of 23,717 US employees, released April 13. It is the most detailed portrait yet of how AI is reshaping the American workplace from the inside, and it reveals a growing gap between the technology’s promise and its human cost.
The Numbers: Adoption Accelerates, Anxiety Grows
The headline figure is a milestone: 50 percent of US employees now report using AI at work, up from 46 percent the previous quarter. Thirteen percent say they use it daily, and 28 percent use it at least a few times a week.
But adoption and enthusiasm are not the same thing. The poll found that:
- 18 percent of all US employees say it is likely their job will be eliminated within five years due to AI or automation
- That figure rises to 23 percent among workers at organizations that have adopted AI
- A separate Fox News poll found 59 percent of registered voters believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the next five years
- Among employees at AI-adopting companies, 27 percent say their workplace has changed in disruptive ways in the past year — compared with 17 percent at non-adopting organizations
The fear is not abstract. Workers at AI-adopting organizations are witnessing layoffs firsthand.
Hiring and Firing: Both Accelerate
Gallup’s data reveals a striking pattern: organizations that adopt AI are simultaneously more likely to be hiring and more likely to be letting people go.
Among employees at AI-adopting organizations:
- 34 percent say their organization is hiring and expanding its workforce
- 23 percent say their organization is letting people go and reducing its workforce
Among employees at organizations that have not adopted AI:
- 28 percent report expansion
- 16 percent report reductions
The net trend across both groups is toward expansion, but the AI-adopting group is experiencing significantly more turbulence in both directions. The workforce is not just shrinking or growing — it is churning.
The pattern is especially pronounced at large organizations. Among companies with 10,000 or more employees that have adopted AI, slightly more workers report workforce reductions (33 percent) than expansions (30 percent). At similarly sized non-adopting organizations, the opposite holds: 36 percent report hiring versus 23 percent reporting cuts.
Because these large employers account for a disproportionate share of the workforce and are among the most likely to adopt AI, their staffing patterns may shape public perceptions of AI’s impact on jobs — and those perceptions are not favorable.
The Productivity Paradox: Real Gains, Limited Transformation
While 65 percent of employees at AI-adopting organizations say AI has improved their productivity and efficiency, the benefits appear concentrated at the level of individual tasks rather than systemic workplace change.
Only about one in 10 employees strongly agree that AI has transformed how work gets done across their organization. This is consistent with empirical evidence from firm-level studies across the US, UK, Germany, and Australia, which show CEOs reporting minimal effect of AI on productivity over the past three years.
The gap between individual and organizational productivity suggests that while many employees have found useful personal applications for AI — drafting content, summarizing information, generating ideas — most organizations have not yet redesigned workflows, roles, or processes around the technology.
Who Benefits Most: Leaders and Technical Workers
The productivity gains are not evenly distributed. Gallup found that:
- 21 percent of leaders in AI-adopting organizations say AI has had an extremely positive impact on their productivity, compared with 13 percent of individual contributors
- Workers in technical and professional roles and healthcare report the strongest productivity gains
- Workers in service roles and office administrative support are more likely to say AI has had little, no, or a negative effect on their productivity
This pattern mirrors broader labor market trends: knowledge workers and those in leadership positions — the people most able to use AI as a force multiplier — are seeing the clearest benefits. Workers in routine, service, and administrative roles, whose tasks are most susceptible to automation, are seeing less upside and more risk.
Why Half of Workers Still Avoid AI
If AI is boosting productivity for most users, why hasn’t the other half joined in? The poll offers several explanations:
- Nearly half of non-users at AI-adopting companies say they prefer to keep doing things the way they already are
- About one-quarter say they tried AI at work but it was not helpful
- Two in 10 say they do not feel prepared to use AI effectively
The preparedness gap is particularly significant. It exists even at organizations that have already adopted AI, suggesting that companies are rolling out tools faster than they are training their people to use them. Workers who cannot or will not engage with AI risk falling further behind in a labor market that increasingly rewards AI literacy.
What This Means for the Workforce
The Gallup data paints a picture of a workforce in transition — not a sudden displacement event, but a slow, uneven churn. AI is boosting individual productivity for many, especially leaders and technical professionals. It is simultaneously driving organizational disruption, hiring shifts, and layoffs, particularly at large employers. And it is creating a growing divide between workers who embrace AI and those who cannot or will not.
For employees, the message is clear: AI proficiency is becoming a baseline expectation, and those who develop it are seeing real benefits. For employers, the challenge is harder — integrating AI in ways that genuinely transform work processes rather than simply layering tools on top of existing workflows, while managing the human consequences of the disruption that adoption brings.
The 23 percent of workers at AI-adopting companies who report their employer is letting people go are not a statistic. They are the human cost of a transition that Gallup’s data shows is accelerating, and that no one has yet figured out how to manage smoothly.
SOURCES
- Gallup — Rising AI Adoption Spurs Workforce Changes (April 13, 2026)
- Straight Arrow News — Half of Americans Are Using AI at Work. They’re Afraid It Will Replace Them
