2024 Pew Research study

Summary

A 2024 Pew Research Center survey examining American public attitudes toward AI's impact on employment, including concerns about job displacement, worker monitoring, and the perceived benefits and risks of AI in the workplace. The study provides empirical data on how workers and the general public perceive AI's role in transforming labor markets.

Key Points

• •Majority of Americans express concern about AI's potential to eliminate jobs, with significant worry concentrated among lower-income and less-educated workers.
• •Public opinion is divided on whether AI will help or hurt workers overall, with skepticism more prevalent than optimism across most demographics.
• •Many respondents believe AI will affect white-collar and knowledge work more than previously anticipated, shifting earlier assumptions about automation's targets.
• •Survey highlights public desire for government regulation of AI in the workplace to protect workers from unfair monitoring and displacement.
• •Findings reflect broader societal anxieties about AI deployment speed outpacing worker preparation, retraining infrastructure, and policy responses.