Employees who use artificial intelligence (AI) regularly at work report far larger benefits than occasional users, and they are more likely to already hold good jobs, according to survey results published by Gallup on October 6. The polling organization said the gains from workplace AI are unevenly distributed, concentrating among managers, college graduates and higher earners.

The figures are the first year-two results from the American Job Quality Study, which Gallup runs with Jobs for the Future and The Families & Workers Fund. Gallup surveyed 17,874 U.S. adults aged 18 to 75 who had worked for pay in the previous seven days, using self-administered web and mail surveys between January 26 and March 24, 2026. The employee sample was 15,482 workers, of whom 7,845 had used AI in their job at least a few times in the past year. Gallup puts the margin of error at plus or minus one percentage point for all employees and two points for AI users.

Who uses AI, and what they get from it

Overall, 28% of employees said they use AI at least weekly, while 54% said they had not used it in their role. About half of employees in professional and business services, financial activities, and information and media use AI regularly. In healthcare support, manufacturing production and retail sales, between 70% and more than 80% of workers have never used it in their role.

College graduates were more likely than non-graduates to use AI daily or weekly, by 40% to 17%. Among managers, 37% were regular users, compared with 25% of individual contributors.

Among employees who use AI, 63% said it helps them do their job faster, 56% said it helps them find more creative solutions, 47% said it gives them more time for the most interesting parts of their job, and 46% said it helps them produce higher-quality work. The gap between regular and irregular users was wide: 79% of regular users said AI made them faster, against 38% of irregular users, and 59% said it improved the quality of their work, against 26%.

Reported benefits also tracked income: 70% of AI users earning $10,000 or more a month said AI helps them work faster, compared with 58% of those earning under $4,000.

Quality jobs and extra work

Gallup found that 52% of weekly AI users hold what its criteria classify as a quality job, compared with 46% of infrequent users and 32% of employees who never use AI. It cautioned that more research is needed, because the groups most likely to have quality jobs, including higher-educated workers, managers and workers in certain industries, are also the heaviest users of AI.

There is a workload side to the picture. Nearly a third of AI users, 31%, said their employer has asked them to take on more responsibilities because of their AI use, rising to 37% among those who say AI makes them faster. Among AI users aged 18 to 24, the figure was 38%, compared with 31% or less in every other age group. Separately, 52% of all employees said they have less influence than they would like over the adoption of new technology at work.

A vendor view from the same week

A Global Workforce Report from Workday, released October 5, looks at the same shift from the employer side. In a survey of 6,001 employees and business leaders, 40% of leaders said they expect AI to help them get more from existing employees, while 28% expect it to reduce headcount. Drawing on de-identified data from its own customers, Workday said internal moves fell year over year at 57% of employers, with promotion rates essentially flat worldwide.

Among heavy AI users, Workday found, 62% said AI will make their current skills less valuable, while 76% said they expect it to open new career opportunities.

“Employees may not be changing jobs, but their jobs are changing around them,” said Phil Willburn, vice president of people systems, intelligence and support at Workday.

Why it matters

Gallup’s data indicates that AI tools are reaching some parts of the U.S. workforce much faster than others, and that the workers who report the biggest gains are mostly those who were already in better-paid, higher-quality roles. Workers in sectors such as retail and healthcare support are largely not using the technology at all, according to the survey.

The finding that almost a third of AI users have been handed more responsibilities suggests that time saved does not automatically mean a lighter workload. Both reports also point to a gap between the pace of change and the support workers receive: Gallup found a majority want more say in technology adoption, and Workday found that 79% of employees know what skills they need while 66% say their employer helps them develop those skills.

The caveats

Gallup notes that its findings rely on employees’ own assessments of how AI affects their work and do not establish how employers would judge those effects. The fieldwork took place in the first quarter of 2026, several months before publication, and the study shows an association between AI use and job quality rather than cause and effect. Workday’s figures combine its own surveys with data from its customer base.

What to watch

Gallup said the full year-two report of the American Job Quality Study is due in late October 2026.

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