FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AI Has Already Changed How Most Americans Work, New National Survey Finds
Mercury Analytics study of 1,004 U.S. adults reveals 62.5% of full-time workers say AI has reshaped their job, with speed, writing, and automation driving everyday use
Washington, D.C. – May 8, 2026 – Nearly two-thirds of full-time American workers (62.5%) say AI has already changed how they do their job, according to a new nationally representative omnibus survey of 1,004 U.S. adults conducted by Mercury Analytics.
Overall, 53.8% of Americans now use AI at least weekly and 28.7% use it daily or more. But a quarter of the country (25.7%) has never touched an AI tool.
When asked in open-ended responses how they use AI at work, 746 participants painted a practical picture. The most common use cases were:
- Quick information lookup (28.5%)
- Drafting emails and documents (18.2%)
- Brainstorming ideas (13.4%)
- Automating repetitive tasks (12.6%)
- Data analysis (10.8%)
However, roughly a quarter of open-end respondents (24.6%) said they don’t use AI at work at all, citing job irrelevance, privacy worries, or a preference for traditional methods. Thematic analysis of the same responses found that 82% were positive in tone, with relief, satisfaction, and creative empowerment the most common themes, while 7.3% flagged concerns about accuracy and trust as a barrier to adoption.
The survey also reveals sharp differences in AI adoption across age, gender, income, education, employment type, and geography.
Age
- Adults aged 25-34 are the peak adoption segment at 50.6% daily or more, compared to 31.8% of 18-24 year olds
- Daily usage drops sharply from 37.6% (35-44) to 23.3% (45-54), and the “Never” rate nearly doubles
- Among Americans 65 and older, 43% have never used any AI tool
Gender
- 4% of men use AI daily, compared to 21.2% of women
- 2% of women have never used any AI tool vs. 18.1% of men
- 0% of men say AI has changed how they do their job, compared to 29.7% of women
Income and education
- Daily use more than doubles from <$25K households (19.5%) to $100K-$150K households (46.2%)
- Postgraduates: 44.1% daily use vs. 14.6% for those with a high school education or less
- “Never” rate: 33.1% for high school graduates vs. 15.7% for postgrads
Employment type
- Full-time workers reporting AI job impact: 62.5%
- Part-time workers: 36.2%
- A 26 percentage point gap
Geography
- Large-city residents: 39.9% daily use
- Small-city and town residents: 14.4% daily use
- Rural areas have the highest “Never” rate at 37.9%
“The way Americans work is changing. A majority of full-time workers say AI is already part of how they do their job, and the most common uses are straightforward: finding information, writing emails, and handling repetitive tasks. But the data also shows that adoption varies significantly by gender, income, education, and geography,” said Ron Howard, CEO of Mercury Analytics.
The full study methodology, demographic breakdowns, and open-end analysis are available upon request.
About the Study
The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of 1,004 U.S. adults conducted by Mercury Analytics on March 11. The study used Mercury’s Qual at Scale methodology, combining traditional quantitative questions with deep qualitative IDI like probing of all participants, providing statistically robust insight into both the quantitative data and the qualitative perspectives of a national sample.