People With This Level of Education Use AI the Most at Work

New research suggests that most Americans don't typically use artificial intelligence at work — yet many of our country's highly educated people do.

According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, involving a demographically representative sample of more than 5,200 US workers, 63 percent of American workers said they don't use AI much or at all in their jobs. Only one-in-six workers reported using the tech for at least some of their work. The rest hadn't even heard of AI being used in the workplace.

Those who used AI tended to be overall more educated than those who didn't, with a higher percentage having at least a bachelor's degree. Just over half of respondents who said they used AI had a bachelor's degree, while 22 percent had a postgraduate degree. That's compared to 39 percent of those who said they don't use AI having at least a bachelor's degree.

The survey also highlights that AI users tended to be significantly younger and more likely to work in jobs that involved data processing.

While it seems a bit counterintuitive for highly educated people to use AI despite its well-known propensity for making stuff up, and failing at solving coding problems, the breakdown of reasons why those workers use chatbots for work is pretty telling.

Of the survey respondents who said they use AI tools for work, 57 percent told Pew they employ AI to research or find more information about specific topics, 52 percent said they utilize it to edit written content, and 47 percent use it to help them with writing drafts.

Forty percent of regular users said they employ chatbots to summarize information or meetings while 35 percent said they use it for brainstorming. 21 percent said they use AI image and video generators.

Just over a quarter (27 percent) of respondents also said they use chatbots to help them analyze data or write code — another use case that's becoming increasingly fraught. Recently, OpenAI admitted that even the most advanced AI models were "unable to solve the majority" of software engineering issues they were tasked with, suggesting plenty of glaring shortcomings with the tech remain.

It's an especially worrying development, considering young coders are starting to rely heavily on the tools, which could greatly undermine their understanding of how programs actually work.

While we don't have a breakdown of what careers those respondents have or what chatbots they use, the widespread use of AI for writing and coding seems troubling.

And workers have some seriously mixed feelings about using AI for their jobs themselves. Over half of the employed workers detailed in the Pew survey said they were more worried than hopeful about future AI use in the workplace, highlighting significant disillusionment with the tech. Less than a third said they were "excited" about using the tech for their work.

Besides, tech leaders have long warned that AI could soon be coming after their jobs — so who could blame them for being concerned?

More on AI at work: Young Coders Are Using AI for Everything, Giving "Blank Stares" When Asked How Programs Actually Work