Poll: Only 1 in 3 US workers expect AI to improve jobs; income gap widens

The poll data reveals a bifurcated landscape in how Americans view AI's economic future, one that maps closely onto existing inequalities in income and work type. The 21-percentage-point gap between high and low earners (40% versus 19%) suggests that workers in better-paid roles—typically those with more education and discretionary power over their workflow—see AI as a tool that can augment their productivity and value. By contrast, lower-wage workers, who often occupy roles more vulnerable to automation, view the technology with skepticism or fear. The disparity between white-collar and blue-collar workers, and the higher anxiety among Black workers, point to a pattern: those whose labor is easiest to automate or most exposed to wage competition are least optimistic about AI's impact on their prospects. Groundwork frames this as a structural problem requiring policy intervention. The group's endorsement of a public stake in AI firms—rather than redistribution measures like universal basic income—suggests a preference for reshaping ownership and returns on AI capital itself, positioning it as a remedy that could align incentives between workers and the companies building these systems.