62% believe artificial intelligence will have a major impact on jobholders overall in the next 20 years, but far fewer think it will greatly affect them personally. People are generally wary and uncertain of AI being used in hiring and assessing workers
The rapid rise of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) systems has prompted widespread debates about the effectiveness of these computer programs and how people would react to them. At times, Americans are watching the general spread of AI with a range of concerns, especially when the use of AI systems raises the prospect of discrimination and bias.
One major arena where AI systems have been widely implemented is workplace operations. Some officials estimate that many employers use AI in some form of their hiring and workplace decision-making.
A new Pew Research Center survey finds crosscurrents in the public’s opinions as they look at the possible uses of AI in workplaces. Americans are wary and sometimes worried. For instance, they oppose AI use in making final hiring decisions by a 71%-7% margin, and a majority also opposes AI analysis being used in making firing decisions. Pluralities oppose AI use in reviewing job applications and in determining whether a worker should be promoted. Beyond that, majorities do not support the idea of AI systems being used to track workers’ movements while they are at work or keeping track of when office workers are at their desks.
Yet there are instances where people think AI in workplaces would do better than humans. For example, 47% think AI would do better than humans at evaluating all job applicants in the same way, while a much smaller share – 15% – believe AI would be worse than humans in doing that. And among those who believe that bias along racial and ethnic lines is a problem in performance evaluations generally, more believe that greater use of AI by employers would make things better rather than worse in the hiring and worker-evaluation process.
Overall, larger shares of Americans than not believe AI use in workplaces will significantly affect workers in general, but far fewer believe the use of AI in those places will have a major impact on them personally. Some 62% think the use of AI in the workplace will have a major impact on workers generally over the next 20 years. On the other hand, just 28% believe the use of AI will have a major impact on them personally, while roughly half believe there will be no impact on them or that the impact will be minor.
Asked about potentially beneficial or harmful effects of AI in workplaces in the next 20 years, a higher share say it will hurt more than help workers than say the inverse. About a third of Americans (32%) think the benefits and harms will be equally split for workers generally, while 22% are not sure about its potential effect.
At the personal level, 38% of Americans say they are not sure what the outcome of AI use in workplaces will be for them personally. Three-in-ten say the use of AI in these places will even out – the help and the hurt will be equal. Some 16% of adults think they themselves will be more helped than hurt, and 15% believe they themselves will be more hurt than helped.
When it comes to Americans’ opinions about the impact of AI use in the workplace on the overall U.S. economy, 56% think over the next 20 years the impact will major, while 22% believe it will be minor. A small fraction (3%) say there will be no impact and 19% are not sure. (For details by demographic groups on these questions, please see Appendix A.)
These broad results come from a Center survey of 11,004 U.S. adults conducted Dec. 12-18, 2022. These findings set an overarching framework for more contextual findings related to three specific work-related activities that are explored more fully in the poll: hiring processes, worker monitoring and evaluation efforts, and the use of face recognition in workplaces.
Americans have a range of views about the use of artificial intelligence systems by employers. They strongly oppose some possible applications of AI, but they also are more supportive of others.
They reject the idea that AI would be used in making final hiring decisions, by a ratio of roughly ten-to-one. A smaller plurality (41%) also opposes the use of AI in reviewing job applications. These findings line up with a theme in Center research: that people are not comfortable ceding final decision-making to a computer program.
Relatedly, U.S. adults are more opposed than favorable toward the idea of employers using AI analysis in determining other major employee-related decisions. By a 55%-14% margin, adults oppose the prospect that employers would use information collected and analyzed by AI about their workers’ job performance to decide whether someone should be fired from their job. And a 47% plurality opposes the notion that AI analysis of worker performance would be used in deciding if an employee gets promoted (22% favor this).
Beyond uses of AI in decision-making about hiring, firing and promoting workers, employers have access to AI systems that are able to track worker behavior – including when they are working remotely – and provide evaluations of their performance. U.S. adults oppose some key aspects of monitoring workers’ activities, but one application draws more support than opposition.
Americans are notably more likely to oppose than support employers using AI to track workers’ movements while they work, keep track of when office workers are at their desks, and record exactly what people are doing on their work computers. Views are mixed when the issue is the use of AI to evaluate how well people are doing their jobs: 39% oppose this use, 31% favor it and 29% are not sure. When it comes to organizations using AI to analyze how retail workers interact with customers, 37% oppose it, 34% favor it and 28% say they are not sure.
Still, there is an aspect of employer use of AI programs analyzing workers that draws more public support than opposition: By a 43%-34% margin, people favor employers using AI to monitor workers’ driving behavior as they make trips for the company.
When it comes to using face recognition technology to monitor workers, Americans – by 70% to 9% – oppose this as a way to analyze employees’ facial expressions. They are also more likely to oppose using face recognition to track how often workers take breaks (52%-25%). At the same time, a 45% plurality favors face recognition being used by employers to automatically track the attendance of their employees (35% oppose it).
It is important to note that as the public confronts these questions about uses of AI in hiring and monitoring workers, notable shares of the population say they are not sure of their positions.
At a personal level, many U.S. adults say they would not want to apply for a job with an employer that used AI to help make hiring decisions: 66% say they would not want to apply for a job under those circumstances, compared with 32% who say they would want to apply.
Across demographic groups, people are more likely to say they would not want to apply for a job where this technology is used than say they would. At the same time, there are some differences based on age, gender, race and ethnicity, and income. For example, 70% of women say they would not apply for a job with an employer that used AI in hiring decisions, compared with 61% of men who would not apply for a job at such a workplace.
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