Greater than half of Individuals — 53% — concern synthetic intelligence may price them or somebody of their family a job, a brand new Reuters/Ipsos ballot finds.
The findings come as corporations ramp up AI investments whereas trimming their workforces, fueling concern throughout demographics. Nervousness about job losses was constant throughout age, gender and schooling ranges, although Democrats had been extra possible than Republicans to specific concern.
The six-day ballot of 4,531 U.S. adults nationwide adopted a wave of AI-related job cuts by main corporations. Software program agency Intuit advised workers final month it could lay off 17% of its world workforce to streamline operations and sharpen deal with its key bets together with its AI efforts.
An April Challenger, Grey & Christmas report discovered U.S. employers introduced 60,620 layoffs in March and AI adoption was the first cause behind 1 / 4 of the cuts.
Final 12 months, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski advised CNBC the Swedish fintech firm diminished its workforce by 40% whereas Ford CEO Jim Farley mentioned AI will “substitute actually half of all white-collar employees within the U.S.”
Jennifer Schalhoub, a 62-year-old freelance author in Little Ferry, New Jersey, advised Reuters she just lately misplaced her job writing letters to authorities officers to advocate for particular insurance policies, a loss that she suspects the rise of AI had a task in.
“AI is taking up as a result of folks care much less and fewer in regards to the high quality of the work that will get produced,” Schalhoub mentioned.
AI Faces Cultural Backlash
Synthetic Intelligence expertise has confronted backlash and its potential use as a software of political propaganda, in leisure and even warfare has prompted warnings by elected leaders and even Pope Leo XIV.
On Could 25, the Catholic Church printed Leo’s encyclicals the place he mentioned that what is required for AI “is a extra lively political involvement that’s able to slowing issues down when the whole lot is accelerating.”
College of Arizona college students booed Eric Schmidt final month when the previous Google CEO mentioned AI’s influence at a commencement ceremony.
The backlash comes as younger job seekers are having a tough time acquiring entry-level jobs.
A Cengage Group survey discovered 76% of employers reported hiring for fewer or the identical variety of entry-level roles in 2025, up from 69% in 2024. A Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York examine discovered 42% of current school graduates are “underemployed,” the best stage since 2020, which means they’re working jobs that don’t usually require a university diploma.
Whereas AI just isn’t the one think about tightened hiring, Peter Watkins, senior director of college packages on the CFA Institute, beforehand advised USA TODAY that the expertise is taking part in a task.
“If corporations wish to make useful resource reductions, AI begins to turn into an answer for that, whereas in one other financial local weather, they’d most likely be utilizing it extra by way of innovation and development,” Watkins mentioned.
Contributing: Reuters
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