WASHINGTON, D.C.: American workers are incorporating artificial intelligence into their jobs at a rapidly accelerating pace, with a growing share now using AI tools daily, according to a new Gallup Workforce survey.

About 12 percent of employed U.S. adults say they use AI every day in their work, Gallup found in a fall survey of more than 22,000 workers. Roughly one-quarter reported using AI frequently — defined as at least a few times a week — while nearly half said they used AI at least a few times a year.

That marks a sharp rise from 2023, when just 21 percent of workers said they used AI at least occasionally, underscoring the impact of the commercial boom sparked by ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools that can write emails and code, summarize documents, generate images, or answer questions.

Gene Walinski, a 70-year-old Home Depot associate in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, is among those embracing AI on the job. Working in the store's electrical department, Walinski turns to an AI assistant on his personal phone roughly every hour during his shifts to help answer customer questions about products he is not entirely familiar with.

"I think my job would suffer if I couldn't because there would be a lot of shrugged shoulders and ‘I don't know' and customers don't want to hear that," Walinski said.

AI use is concentrated in tech, finance, and education

AI adoption remains highest in technology-related fields. About six in ten technology workers say they use AI frequently, with roughly three in ten reporting daily use.

Gallup found that AI adoption among tech workers has risen significantly since 2023, though there are signs the pace of growth may be slowing after a sharp surge between 2024 and 2025.

In finance, another high-adoption sector, 28-year-old investment banker Andrea Tanzi said he relies on AI tools daily to synthesize documents and data that would otherwise take hours to review. Tanzi, who works at Bank of America in New York, also uses the bank's internal AI chatbot, Erica, for administrative tasks.

Majorities of workers in professional services, higher education, and K-12 education reported using AI at least a few times a year.

High school art teacher Joyce Hatzidakis, 60, in Riverside, California, said she began using AI chatbots to refine messages to parents.

"I can scribble out a note and not worry about what I say and then tell it what tone I want," she said. "And then, when I reread it, if it's not quite right, I can have it edited again. I'm definitely getting fewer parent complaints."

Another Gallup Workforce survey from last year found that about six in ten workers who use AI rely on chatbots or virtual assistants, while roughly four in ten use AI to consolidate information, generate ideas, or learn new skills.

Hatzidakis initially used ChatGPT before switching to Google's Gemini after her school district adopted it as its official tool. She has also used AI to help draft recommendation letters, noting that "there's only so many ways to say a kid is really creative."

Benefits, risks, and uneven exposure

The AI industry and the U.S. government are heavily promoting workplace and classroom adoption, as wider use is seen as key to justifying massive investments in AI infrastructure. Economists, however, remain divided on how much AI will boost productivity or disrupt jobs.

"Most of the workers that are most highly exposed to AI, who are most likely to have it disrupt their workflows, for good or for bad, have these characteristics that make them pretty adaptable," said Sam Manning, a fellow at the Centre for the Governance of AI and a co-author of recent research on AI's job impacts.

Manning said workers in computer-based roles that heavily use AI typically have higher levels of education, broader skill sets, and greater financial buffers, helping them adapt to potential job disruption.

His research also identified about 6.1 million U.S. workers who are both heavily exposed to AI and less equipped to adapt. Many are in administrative and clerical roles, about 86 percent are women, and they tend to be older and concentrated in smaller cities with fewer alternative career options.

"If their skills are automated, they have fewer transferable skills to other jobs, and they have lower savings, if any savings," Manning said. "An income shock could be much more harmful or difficult to manage."

Few fear imminent job lzoss

Despite rising AI use, a separate Gallup Workforce survey from 2025 found that relatively few workers believe AI or automation will likely eliminate their jobs within the next five years. Half said it was "not at all likely," though that figure has declined from about six in ten in 2023.

The Rev. Michael Bingham, pastor of the Faith Community Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, said he is unconcerned about AI replacing his role. After receiving what he described as "gibberish" from a chatbot when asking about medieval theologian Anselm of Canterbury, Bingham said he would never use AI to help write sermons.

"You don't want a machine, you want a human being, to hold your hand if you're dying," he said. "And you want to know that your loved one was able to hold the hand of a loving human being who cared for them."

Gallup found AI use remains less common in service-based sectors such as retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. Home Depot did not ask Walinski to use AI when he was hired last year after decades in the car business, but the company also did not discourage it.

Walinski said he is "not at all worried" about AI replacing him.

"The human interface part is really what a store like mine works on," he said. "It's all about the people."