What 81,000 people told us about AI economics
Anthropic (AI lab research) · 22 Apr 2026
Read original sourceOpen accessNot peer reviewed
Where this sits in the debate
- Will AI actually boost productivity and growth? · its finding: it depends (why studies differ)
- Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates?
Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model (AI-written).
Source excerpt
Our recent survey study with 81,000 Claude users provides a way to connect people’s economic concerns with what we’ve quantified in Claude traffic. The survey asked people about their visions and fears around advances in AI. Many of the thoughts that people shared touched on economic topics. We learned that many people fear job displacement—though they also feel more productive and empowered at work. In some cases, AI has enabled them to start businesses, or given them time for more important things; in others, AI feels stifling, or imposed on them by their employers. The survey’s results provide initial evidence that observed exposure (our measure of AI displacement risk) is correlated with economic concern around AI. People in highly exposed occupations—as defined by the tasks Claude is observed performing—were more nervous about economic displacement. This is consistent with people being broadly aware of AI’s diffusion and potential impacts. We expand on our findings below. “Well like anyone who has a white collar job these days I'm 100% concerned, pretty much 24/7 concerned about losing my job eventually to A.I.”—Software engineer. 1 One fifth of the respondents in our survey voiced concern about economic displacement. Some worried about this in the abstract: one software developer cautioned about “the possibility of AI in its current state being used to replace junior positions.” Others lamented that their jobs, or aspects of their jobs, were being automated away. One market researcher said, “In terms of improving my capability, it's no doubt. [B]ut in the future AI may replace my work.” In some jobs, people felt it made their work harder. One software developer observed that “when AI arrived, the project managers started giving harder and harder tickets and bugs to solve.” Throughout this report, we use Claude-powered classifiers to infer people’s attributes and sentiments from their responses. For example, many participants mention their line of work in passi
About this publication
Lab or institute research, not peer reviewed. A report or blog post published by an AI lab or research institute on its own site. It has not been through independent peer review, and the publisher may have a stake in the findings.
- Published
- 2026 (6 months ago)
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