The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI
Alexander Bick, Adam Blandin, David J. Deming · Management Science · 20 Jan 2026
Where this sits in the debate
- Will AI actually boost productivity and growth? · its finding: it depends (why studies differ)
- How fast will the impact arrive? · its finding supports the claim (why studies differ)
Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model (AI-written).
Abstract
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is a potentially important new technology, but its impact on the economy depends on the speed and intensity of adoption. This paper reports results from a series of nationally representative U.S. surveys of genAI use at work and at home. As of late 2024, 45% of the U.S. population age 18–64 uses genAI. Among employed respondents, 27% used genAI for work at least once in the previous week: 10% used it every workday and 17% on some but not all workdays. Relative to each technology’s first mass-market product launch, work adoption of genAI has been faster than the personal computer (PC), and overall adoption has outpaced both PCs and the internet by an even wider margin. Between 1% and 7% of all work hours are currently assisted by genAI, and respondents report time savings equivalent to 1.4% of total work hours. Potential productivity gains vary widely by industry, and firm climate and policies play an important role in adoption patterns. This paper was accepted by Alfonso Gambardella, business strategy. Funding: This work was supported by the Walmart Foundation [Grant 252882]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2025.02523 .
About this publication
Leading field journal. A leading journal in economics or a neighbouring field (on the Tinbergen Institute’s A list or near the top of the RePEc ranking), or a top-rated computer-science venue.
Placed by: Leading field journal. How sources are ranked.
- Published
- 2026 (9 months ago)
- Citations
- 50 (OpenAlex)
Citations in context
50 citations — 99th percentile among the 188 indexed papers from 2026 in this collection. Citation counts favor older papers; this compares only same-year papers here, not the whole literature.
David J. Deming signed the wemustactnow.ai letter · author affiliation matches seed institution harvard university — part of why this paper is in the collection.
Related by theme, not necessarily by method or conclusion.
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