AI is delivering productivity gains at work, but the biggest benefits are going to workers who were already more likely to hold quality jobs.
A study released by Gallup on Monday found that regular AI use is far more common among college graduates and managers than among other workers. College graduates are more than twice as likely as those without a degree to use AI daily or weekly, at 40% versus 17%, while managers are more likely to be regular users than individual contributors, at 37% versus 25%. The 2026 survey was conducted Jan. 26 through March 24 and included 15,482 U.S. employees.
A Gap In Who Benefits
The American Job Quality Study, a partnership between Gallup, Jobs for the Future and The Families & Workers Fund, found that 52% of employees who use AI at least weekly have a quality job, compared with 32% of those who never use it. The divide also appears among AI users: 68% of college graduates who use AI say it helps them work faster, compared with 51% of AI users with a high school education or less. Among the highest-paid workers ($10,000 or more a month from their main job), 70% say AI helps them work faster, versus 58% of those earning less than $4,000 a month.
The study noted that further research is needed to untangle the relationship, since the same subgroups who tend to have quality jobs, including higher-educated employees, managers, and workers in certain industries, also report higher AI usage.
Molly Blankenship, associate vice president of strategy and impact at Jobs for the Future, said AI’s workplace benefits “are not being shared evenly, they’re not reaching all workers,” reported Fox Business on Tuesday. She said people in higher-quality jobs tend to already be more satisfied at work, and that satisfaction correlates strongly with AI usage, meaning the technology’s gains risk reinforcing an existing divide rather than closing it.
Why It’s Happening
More than half of employees still report never using AI in their role, with usage lowest in healthcare support, manufacturing and retail, jobs with less built-in access to digital tools. Just over half of employees also say they have less influence over new technology decisions at work than they’d like, a factor researchers flagged as shaping how AI’s benefits ultimately get distributed.
The findings add to a broader debate over AI’s uneven workplace impact. Entry-level roles have already shown signs of strain, with Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) flagging weaker hiring in AI-exposed industries, while hiring platforms have described a growing “doom loop” as AI reshapes how candidates apply and get screened for jobs.
Disclaimer: This content was produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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