American Workers Have Mixed Feelings About AI’s Workplace Potential
Artificial intelligence (AI) applications have proliferated rapidly in the past two years, leading to both excitement and concern about what the technology means for the future of work.
But in a new Pew Research Center poll, 52 percent of U.S. workers say they are worried about the future impact of AI use at work, and 32 percent say it will likely lead to fewer job opportunities for them in the long run. Lower- and middle-income workers are more likely to say AI will lead to fewer job opportunities. Across all workers, only 6 percent said AI use will lead to more opportunities for them in the long run.
But it’s not all doom and gloom—36 percent of workers say they feel hopeful about how AI might be used in the workplace.
AI isn’t a future issue, either. For 16 percent of workers surveyed, at least some of their work is currently done with AI, and another 25 percent said that while they are not currently using AI, at least some of their work can be done with AI. Among young workers and those with at least a bachelor’s degree, these percentages are significantly higher, Pew reported. For workplace AI users, 73 percent are under 50 years of age, and about half have at least a bachelor’s degree.
What AI tools are in use? Chatbots—such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot—are popular, with 9 percent of workers saying that they use them at work every day or a few times a week. These chatbots are most often used for research, editing written content, or drafting written content.
Did AI help those workers? Forty percent of users said the chatbots helped them do things more quickly, and 29 percent said the chatbots helped improve the quality of their work.
Security professionals are also curious about AI applications for their jobs. According to a new ASIS International research report, 2025 Security Trends: Understanding the Evolving Role of Security, 57 percent of survey respondents said they had used at least one AI-powered tool for security, and many were interested in learning more about the tools available—both for security-specific applications and more general ones.
Of the 57 percent who had used AI in a security application, 46 percent said AI had been a helpful tool and 9 percent said AI had far exceeded their expectations. One in five, however, said it was too soon to tell if the tools were effective.
Data from the 2025 ASIS Security Trends study shows security professionals have begun dabbling in artificial intelligence applications and think there is great potential in the near future. https://t.co/yT9tciAfUz
— Security Management (@SecMgmtMag) February 25, 2025
“When looking specifically at the benefits of using AI, half (51 percent) of security professionals who said they had used AI in a security application reported that AI had helped them create stronger ties to other departments,” wrote Scott Briscoe in a summary of the survey results for Security Management.
“Other benefits included automating incident response, expanding perimeter patrolling capacity, and allowing frontline security to spend less time patrolling—each of these benefits was cited by approximately one-third of those who had used AI. Less prevalent was AI leading to a decrease in overall security staffing (17 percent) or a reduction in frontline personnel allowing increases in other security personnel (14 percent).
“Overall, security professionals think highly about the potential for AI: two-thirds said it was an important tool and they were eager to learn more as it develops, and most of the rest were even more enthusiastic, with 29 percent saying AI is transformative and they try to stay on top of the latest knowledge,” Briscoe continued. “Only four percent said they thought AI was overblown.”
For more on security trends and artificial intelligence, read the entire ASIS Research: 2025 Security Trends series.
