Poll: Most worry about AI's impact, but not about their jobs

AI is rapidly transforming the shape of businesses around the world and has explicitly been named by executives as a reason for layoffs.

AI is rapidly transforming the shape of businesses around the world and has explicitly been named by executives as a reason for layoffs. But most people don’t think it will come for their jobs.

According to a new poll released Thursday morning, many workers in several major economies predict that their own jobs and trades will be relatively unaffected by AI, even as they acknowledge that the technology will likely have large effects on society as a whole.

The survey, conducted by YouGov in partnership with Udemy, an online education platform, took the opinions of over 4,500 working-age adults across the United States, United Kingdom, India and Brazil.

While 70% of adults surveyed in the U.K. worry about economywide AI impacts, 39% worry about AI-related consequences for their own occupation. In the U.S., 72% of surveyed adults said they worried about the broader economic effects of AI, while 47% said they were concerned about their own jobs.

Elizabeth Weingarten, head of behavioral science insights at Udemy, said this observed spread in responses reveals psychological tendencies that have appeared in prior economic transitions.