Half of American adults used AI in the past week, either for personal or work use, with 20% of full-time workers saying that AI has taken over parts of their job. That's not a projection. That's what workers are reporting right now.

The number comes from a new survey conducted by Ipsos in partnership with Epoch AI, a nonprofit research center focused on tracking AI's development and real-world impact. The poll surveyed 2,000 American adults about how and when they use AI. The findings are specific, data-driven, and harder to dismiss than most AI-and-work narratives floating around.

As someone who covers this space daily, the 20% figure is the one worth paying attention to. Not because it's alarming on its own, but because it's a present-tense data point in a conversation that has been dominated by future-tense speculation.

What the Survey Actually Found

The poll found that AI replaced existing tasks for 20% of full-time workers but created new tasks for 15% of employees who had used AI in the previous week. That five-point gap between replacement and creation is the core tension in the data.

While the survey found that AI replaced some tasks at work, 15% of full-time workers said they had started doing new tasks at work that they wouldn't have done without AI services, with a plus or minus 2.5% margin of error.

The latest survey was conducted from March 3 to 5 via Ipsos' online polling platform. Among adults who used AI in the past week, the research found that almost 50% used AI between two and five days per week. That's not occasional experimentation. That's a regular workflow dependency.

The survey also showed that most people (62.5%) only performed one to two quick tasks using AI on their most intense day of AI usage, in contrast to the roughly 6% of respondents who used AI heavily. So the bulk of users are still dipping in and out, not running their entire day through an AI layer.

How Workers Are Using AI

The survey found that many adults who used AI in the past week had used the services to look up information or recommendations (80%), write or edit text (59%), and brainstorm ideas (53%). These are the three most common use cases, and they map almost exactly to the kinds of tasks that knowledge workers spend most of their time on.

From the sample of roughly 2,000 adults, ChatGPT was the most popular AI service (used by 31%), followed by Google's Gemini (21%) and Microsoft's Copilot (10.5%).

One detail worth flagging: roughly half of American adults who used AI for work in the past week only used their own personal subscriptions or free versions of AI services, instead of subscriptions purchased by their workplaces. Workers are bringing AI into their jobs whether or not their employers have sanctioned it. The largest differences in workplace use appear between paid-tier users and free-tier users. Among employed AI users, 38% of free-tier users reported using AI at least as much for work as for personal tasks. The share rises to 58% among self-paying subscribers and 76% among users with employer-provided subscriptions.

The AI Agent Question

The survey also addressed the growing use of AI agents, or AI systems that can conduct independent tasks. Overall agent usage rates are still low, though the technology has only gained widespread industry attention in the past few months.

Eight percent (plus or minus 1.5%) of AI users had engaged an AI agent in the past week, compared to 49% (plus or minus 1.6%) of AI users using AI systems to search the web.

Renan Araujo, director of programs at the nonprofit Institute for AI Policy and Strategy, said the agent findings were notable: "One in 12 Americans has used an autonomous AI agent, a software that not just answers questions but takes actions on your behalf." That's a small share, but given how recently agentic AI entered the mainstream conversation, it's a number that will compound fast.

What Experts Are Saying

Caroline Falkman Olsson, who helped lead the research for Epoch AI, said the results confirmed broad assumptions about AI's growing impact in the workplace. "When we actually look at what people report for their AI usage, we do see augmentation and automation effects," Olsson told NBC News, cautioning that more granular research is required to understand the exact tasks that are being impacted.

Nicholas Miailhe, an AI policy leader and expert at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, said the results should be a wake-up call for workers and policymakers. "When 1 in 5 workers say AI is already replacing parts of their job, we can start talking about labor market restructuring happening in real time," he told NBC News.

Miailhe added: "The fact that replacement seems to be outpacing augmentation should draw our attention: the policy window to shape how AI transforms work is probably closing fast."

Broader Labor Market Context

The Epoch/Ipsos findings don't exist in isolation. Epoch's survey comes on the heels of new reports from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley addressing the growing role of AI in the labor market. Economists from Goldman Sachs published new findings this week that AI is eliminating around 16,000 jobs per month when accounting for both AI-caused automation and augmentation.

Goldman Sachs researchers had previously estimated that AI can potentially automate tasks that consume around 25% of all work hours.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, which drew on surveys of over 1,000 employers representing more than 14 million workers worldwide, projected that 92 million roles are displaced by 2030, while 170 million new roles emerge. The net number looks positive on paper, but the distribution problem is real. The jobs being destroyed and the jobs being created don't require the same skills, don't pay the same wages, and aren't in the same places.

Unemployment among 20- to 30-year-olds in tech-exposed occupations has risen by almost 3 percentage points since the start of 2025, notably higher than for their same-aged counterparts in other trades and for overall tech workers as well. That's a concrete signal worth watching.

Key Takeaways from the Survey

  • AI replaced existing tasks for 20% of full-time workers but created new tasks for only 15%.
  • Almost 50% of AI users used it between two and five days per week.
  • The top use cases: information lookup (80%), writing or editing text (59%), and brainstorming (53%).
  • Only 8% of AI users engaged an AI agent in the past week.
  • Roughly half of workers using AI at work are doing so with their own personal or free-tier subscriptions.

Final Thoughts

The 20% figure is significant not because it signals mass unemployment, but because it confirms that task-level displacement is already happening at scale. Surveys like this one are rare because they ask workers directly what's changing in their day-to-day work, rather than modeling exposure from the outside. The Epoch AI and Ipsos methodology, while not perfect, gives us something more grounded than most projections.

What stands out to me is the gap between replacement and augmentation. If AI were purely additive, you'd expect those two numbers to track closely. They don't. Replacement is running ahead, and the policy infrastructure to manage that transition is, by most accounts, lagging badly. The agent adoption number is the one I'll be watching most closely over the next 12 months. Eight percent is small today. It won't stay small.

What do you think? Are you seeing AI take over parts of your own work, or does it feel more like a tool you're choosing to use? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

FAQ

What did the Epoch AI and Ipsos survey find about AI and jobs?

The survey found that half of American adults used AI in the past week, with 20% of full-time workers reporting that AI has taken over parts of their job.

Did AI create any new jobs according to the survey?

Yes. Fifteen percent of full-time workers said they had started doing new tasks at work that they wouldn't have done without AI services. However, that figure trails the 20% who reported task replacement.

Which AI tools are workers using most?

ChatGPT was the most popular AI service (used by 31%), followed by Google's Gemini (21%) and Microsoft's Copilot (10.5%).

Are workers using company-provided AI tools or their own?

Roughly half of American adults who used AI for work in the past week only used their own personal subscriptions or free versions of AI services, instead of subscriptions purchased by their workplaces.

How widespread is AI agent usage among U.S. workers?

Eight percent (plus or minus 1.5%) of AI users had engaged an AI agent in the past week. Agent adoption is still early, but growing as the technology gains mainstream attention.