{
  "id": "F-16",
  "url": "https://evy.so/facts/ai-use-by-occupation-and-industry/",
  "chapter": "Who Uses AI at Work",
  "question": "Which occupations and industries use AI the most?",
  "answer": "Tech workers, by a wide margin: about 8 in 10 US workers in computer jobs or the tech industry use AI for work, against about 2 in 10 in hands-on service jobs. The same order shows up in the EU, among EU firms and in AI companies' usage logs.",
  "range": {
    "low": 78,
    "high": 85,
    "unit": "% of US workers in the top group who use AI for work (2026)",
    "display": "78–85% of US tech workers use AI for work; hands-on service jobs about 15 to 25%"
  },
  "confidence": "high",
  "confidence_reason": "Two US worker surveys, official EU statistics on people and on firms, Danish survey data and Anthropic's logs all put computer and information work on top and manual and in-person service work at the bottom. Small occupation groups have margins of error of 5 to 13 points, so the middle of the ranking is less certain than its ends.",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-14",
  "how_to_read": "Each chart row is the top group in one source. The US surveys and Eurostat's people survey give the share of workers in each job or industry who use AI; Eurostat's firm survey counts businesses; the Danish study covers 11 exposed jobs in late 2023. Industry labels differ (Gallup's technology against the official information industry). US rates run higher than EU rates partly because the surveys and time windows differ. Education stands out: many US education workers use AI, but few use it daily (9 to 13%).",
  "sources": [
    {
      "creator": "Alexander Bick, Adam Blandin and David Deming; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis",
      "title": "Generative AI Adoption Tracker: adoption rate for work by occupation and industry (FRED)",
      "year": 2026,
      "sample": "Real-Time Population Survey, May 2026 wave; small groups have large margins of error",
      "method": "Self-reported use of generative AI for one's job, by occupation (22 groups) and industry",
      "figure": "Computer and mathematical 77.6%, management 71.9%, business and finance 60.3%, education 56.3%, office support 36.9%, personal care 20.8%, protective service 15.6%. By industry: information 82.2%, professional services 69.5%, public administration 23.4%",
      "url": "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RPSGENAIUSAGESHAREOCC3",
      "quote": "Generative Artificial Intelligence, Adoption Rate for Work: Computer and Mathematical Occupations"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Gallup",
      "title": "Indicator: Artificial Intelligence, AI use trends by industry",
      "year": 2026,
      "sample": "22,573 US employees, May 2026",
      "method": "Self-reported frequency of AI use, by 10 industries",
      "figure": "Technology 85% use AI (42% daily); finance 71%; professional services 68%; healthcare 48%; manufacturing 47%; retail 40%",
      "url": "https://www.gallup.com/699797/indicator-artificial-intelligence.aspx",
      "quote": "As of May 2026, daily AI use varies widely by industry."
    },
    {
      "creator": "Eurostat",
      "title": "Individuals: use of generative AI tools (dataset isoc_ai_iaiu)",
      "year": 2026,
      "sample": "EU household ICT survey, 27 member states, 2025",
      "method": "Official statistics; use for work in the previous 3 months, by occupation group",
      "figure": "ICT professionals 58.3%, other professionals 20.0%, manual occupations 5.3%; all employed 21.8%",
      "url": "https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/isoc_ai_iaiu/default/table",
      "quote": "Use of generative AI tools: for professional (work) purposes"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Eurostat",
      "title": "Use of artificial intelligence in enterprises",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "157,000 EU enterprises with 10 or more employees, early 2025",
      "method": "Official statistics; share of firms (not workers) using at least one AI technology",
      "figure": "Information and communication 62.52% of firms; professional and technical services 40.43%; construction 10.79%; all firms 19.95%",
      "url": "https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Use_of_artificial_intelligence_in_enterprises",
      "quote": "the information and communication sector (with 62.52%) and professional, scientific and technical service activities"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard",
      "title": "The Adoption of ChatGPT (IZA Discussion Paper 16992)",
      "year": 2024,
      "sample": "Workers in 11 AI-exposed occupations in Denmark, November 2023 to January 2024",
      "method": "Survey with Statistics Denmark. Ever used ChatGPT, any purpose; an early wave.",
      "figure": "79% of software developers had used ChatGPT, against 34% of financial advisors",
      "url": "https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/16992",
      "quote": "adoption rates ranging from 79% for software developers to 34% for financial advisors"
    }
  ],
  "related_findings": [
    {
      "question": "Which jobs do AI conversations come from?",
      "answer": "Mostly tech, in Claude's logs: tasks tied to computer and mathematical jobs were 35% of Claude.ai conversations in February 2026, against about 4% of US employment. In ChatGPT, 57% of messages from users in computer jobs are about work, against 40% for non-professional jobs. Both measure where usage is concentrated, not how many workers in a job use AI.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "creator": "Anthropic",
          "title": "Anthropic Economic Index: Learning Curves (March 2026)",
          "year": 2026,
          "sample": "1 million sampled Claude.ai conversations, February 2026",
          "method": "Conversations mapped to the occupation a task belongs to. Anthropic sells Claude.",
          "figure": "Computer and mathematical tasks 35% of Claude.ai conversations",
          "url": "https://www.anthropic.com/research/economic-index-march-2026-report",
          "quote": "Computer and Mathematical occupations accounting for 35% of conversations on Claude.ai"
        },
        {
          "creator": "Aaron Chatterji, David Deming and colleagues (OpenAI, Duke, Harvard)",
          "title": "How People Use ChatGPT (NBER Working Paper 34255)",
          "year": 2025,
          "sample": "Consumer ChatGPT users with known occupations, aggregated",
          "method": "Share of each occupation's messages that are about work",
          "figure": "57% of messages are work-related for computer-related jobs, 40% for non-professional jobs",
          "url": "https://www.nber.org/papers/w34255",
          "quote": "the unadjusted work shares are 57% for computer-related occupations"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "numbers_you_may_have_seen": [
    {
      "claim": "Programmers are 37% of AI users (Anthropic).",
      "what_the_source_says": "37.2% was the share of Claude.ai conversations about computer and mathematical tasks in early 2025. It counts conversations on one product, and was 35% in February 2026."
    },
    {
      "claim": "Microsoft's list of jobs most at risk from AI shows who uses AI.",
      "what_the_source_says": "The study scores how much Copilot conversations touch each job's activities, without knowing users' jobs. Its authors warn against reading it as job loss, and it does not measure who uses AI."
    },
    {
      "claim": "79% of software developers use ChatGPT at work.",
      "what_the_source_says": "The 79% is ever use of ChatGPT for any purpose among Danish software developers in late 2023."
    }
  ],
  "citation": "EVY (2026). Which occupations and industries use AI the most? The AI at Work Fact Book, F-16. https://evy.so/facts/ai-use-by-occupation-and-industry/ (last checked October 14, 2026). CC BY 4.0.",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0"
}