Gallup Poll Reveals Rapid AI Adoption in American Workplaces
A new Gallup Workforce survey has uncovered the remarkable pace at which American workers have integrated artificial intelligence into their professional lives over recent years. The comprehensive poll, conducted this autumn with more than 22,000 U.S. workers, provides detailed insights into how AI tools are transforming daily work routines across the nation.
Widespread Integration Across Industries
The survey findings indicate that approximately 12% of employed adults now use AI daily in their jobs, representing a significant shift in workplace practices. Furthermore, roughly one-quarter of workers report using AI at least frequently, defined as several times per week, while nearly half utilise these tools at least a few times annually.
This represents substantial growth from 2023, when Gallup first began tracking this metric and found just 21% of workers using AI occasionally. The dramatic increase coincides with the commercial boom sparked by ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools that can compose emails, write computer code, summarise lengthy documents, create images, and assist with complex queries.
Personal Stories of AI Integration
Gene Walinski, a 70-year-old Home Depot store associate in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, exemplifies this trend. He turns to an AI assistant on his personal phone approximately every hour during his shift to better answer customer questions about supplies in the electrical department.
"I think my job would suffer if I couldn't because there would be a lot of shrugged shoulders and 'I don't know' and customers don't want to hear that," Walinski explained, highlighting the practical benefits he experiences.
Sector-Specific Adoption Patterns
While AI adoption is increasing across many employee groups, usage remains particularly concentrated in technology-related fields. Approximately six in ten technology workers report frequent AI use, with about three in ten utilising these tools daily. The proportion of technology sector employees using AI regularly has grown substantially since 2023, though there are indications this explosive growth between 2024 and 2025 may be beginning to plateau.
Finance represents another sector with high AI adoption. Andrea Tanzi, a 28-year-old investment banker at Bank of America in New York, uses AI tools daily to synthesise documents and data sets that would otherwise require several hours to review. He also employs the bank's internal AI chatbot, Erica, for administrative tasks.
Majorities of workers in professional services, higher education institutions, and K-12 education also report using AI at least several times yearly. Joyce Hatzidakis, a 60-year-old high school art teacher in Riverside, California, uses AI chatbots to refine her communications with parents.
"I can scribble out a note and not worry about what I say and then tell it what tone I want," Hatzidakis explained. "And then, when I reread it, if it's not quite right, I can have it edited again. I'm definitely getting less parent complaints."
Tool Preferences and Applications
A separate Gallup Workforce survey from last year revealed that approximately six in ten employees using AI rely primarily on chatbots or virtual assistants. About four in ten workplace AI users employ these tools to consolidate information or data, generate ideas, or facilitate learning.
Hatzidakis began with ChatGPT before switching to Google's Gemini when her school district adopted it as the official tool. She has even used AI to assist with recommendation letters, noting "there's only so many ways to say a kid is really creative."
Economic Implications and Workforce Adaptation
The AI industry and U.S. government are actively promoting workplace and educational adoption, with increased tool usage necessary to justify substantial investments in energy-intensive AI computing systems. However, economists remain divided about productivity gains and employment impacts.
Sam Manning, a fellow at the Centre for the Governance of AI and co-author of research papers on AI job effects for the Brookings Institution and National Bureau of Economic Research, offered insights into workforce adaptability.
"Most of the workers that are most highly exposed to AI, who are most likely to have it disrupt their workflows, for good or for bad, have these characteristics that make them pretty adaptable," Manning observed.
He noted that workers in computer-based jobs involving significant AI usage typically possess higher education levels, broader skill sets applicable to different positions, and greater savings to weather potential income disruptions.
Vulnerable Worker Populations
Manning's research has identified approximately 6.1 million U.S. workers who face both high AI exposure and limited adaptation capacity. Many occupy administrative and clerical roles, with about 86% being women, typically older, and concentrated in smaller cities like university towns or state capitals with fewer career transition options.
"If their skills are automated, they have less transferable skills to other jobs and they have lower savings, if any savings," Manning explained. "An income shock could be much more harmful or difficult to manage."
Limited Job Replacement Concerns
Despite increasing AI integration, a separate 2025 Gallup Workforce survey found few employees believe new technology, automation, robots, or AI will eliminate their jobs within five years. Half consider this "not at all likely," though this proportion has decreased from approximately six in ten in 2023.
Reverend Michael Bingham, pastor of Faith Community Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, exemplifies those unconcerned about job displacement. After receiving "gibberish" from a chatbot query about medieval theologian Anselm of Canterbury, Bingham stated he would never ask a "soulless" machine to assist with sermons, preferring to rely on "the power of God" for guidance.
"You don't want a machine, you want a human being, to hold your hand if you're dying," Bingham emphasised. "And you want to know that your loved one was able to hold the hand of a loving human being who cared for them."
Sector Variations in AI Usage
Reported AI usage remains less common in service-based sectors including retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. Home Depot did not require Walinski to use AI when he joined the company last year following a decades-long automotive career, nor did the home improvement retailer attempt to restrict his personal usage.
Walinski remains "not at all worried" about AI replacing him, stating "The human interface part is really what a store like mine works on. It's all about the people."
The Gallup quarterly workforce surveys employed random sampling of adults aged 18 and older working full-time or part-time for U.S. organisations, drawn from Gallup's probability-based panel. The most recent survey of 22,368 employed U.S. adults was conducted from October 30 to November 13, 2025, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus one percentage point for all respondents.
