AI makes US workers faster. Only 28% use it weekly

Most US workers who have used AI at work say it pays off. 63% say it helps them work faster and 56% say it leads to more creative solutions. Even so, only 28% of employees use AI at least weekly, and 54% say they have never used it in their role. The figures come from Gallup's American Job Quality Study, run with Jobs for the Future and the Families & Workers Fund. It surveyed 15,482 US employees between 26 January and 24 March 2026.

How often people use it matters a lot. 79% of regular users say AI speeds up their work, compared with about 38% of occasional users. Use is also uneven across groups. 40% of college graduates use AI daily or weekly, against 17% of workers without a degree. Managers lead individual contributors 37% to 25%. Weekly users are also more likely to say they have a "quality job" (52%, against 32% of non-users), though Gallup notes that the same groups tend to have both better jobs and more access to AI. That means the survey can't show AI is the cause.

Jobs for the Future's Molly Blankenship says the benefits "are not reaching all workers."

Why it matters: the productivity gains from AI are going mostly to workers who already had the advantages, so access may soon matter more than the tools themselves.