Survey finds one in five US workers now hands some tasks to AI

A representative survey by Epoch AI and Ipsos found that 20 percent of employed US adults now delegate at least one work task to AI that previously went to a coworker or outside contractor.

The survey covered 1,106 employed adults between July 10 and 19, 2026, and asked about ten common knowledge-work tasks drawn from US Department of Labor data. AI use was highest in computer systems and software development, at 57 percent among workers doing that task, followed by data analysis at 46 percent and reading work documents at 39 percent.

Most workers still describe AI as partial support rather than a full replacement. Full or near-full completion by AI reached 10 percent only in software development and stayed below 7 percent for the other tasks.

The productivity picture is mixed. When AI handles most of a task, workers report saving time in 53 percent of cases, but about one in six AI-assisted tasks takes longer than before. The data shows growing task substitution, not necessarily whole-job displacement.