Poll finds most Americans worry AI could cost them jobs

More than half of Americans now say they worry artificial intelligence could cost them or someone in their household a job, a sign the AI debate has moved from abstract innovation to kitchen-table anxiety. The concern reached across age, gender and education lines in a six-day survey, suggesting the unease is broad, not confined to one corner of the labor market.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,531 U.S. adults found that 53% worried AI could put them or someone in their household out of work. Another 37% said they were not worried at all, while 10% were unsure or declined to answer. The same poll found 73% of Americans said they were worried about the increased use of AI, up from 68% in a 2023 survey, showing that public skepticism has deepened as the technology has spread.

The partisan split was clear, though not overwhelming. Sixty-one percent of Democrats said they worried AI could threaten jobs in their household, compared with 47% of Republicans. That gap points to a broader divide over trust, regulation and who is likely to bear the costs when companies use AI to reorganize work.

Those fears are landing as employers make concrete changes. Intuit said on May 20 that it would cut about 3,000 jobs, or roughly 17% of its workforce, while sharpening its focus on AI efforts. At the University of Arizona, graduates booed former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt in May after he told them AI would touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship.

For some workers, the anxiety has already become personal. Jennifer Schalhoub, a freelance writer in New Jersey, said she recently lost work writing policy advocacy letters and suspects AI played a role. She said, "AI is taking over" because people care less about work quality.

The debate has also moved well beyond payrolls. Pope Leo XIV warned in his May 15 encyclical Magnifica Humanitas that AI must serve human dignity and not domination, exclusion or war, putting the technology squarely in the frame of ethics and governance. A March 12 Pew Research Center overview found Americans cautious but somewhat open to AI’s promise, underscoring a country that sees both opportunity and threat. For employers and lawmakers alike, the numbers suggest the political fight over AI will be shaped as much by fear of disruption as by the technology’s potential gains.