---
title: "What Work Does Generative AI Do? · AI Fault Line"
url: https://aifaultline.com/research/p/title-ae92eb1281024d07/
description: "AI Fault Line is a neutral, evidence-cited field guide to why experts looking at the same developments disagree about AI's effect on productivity, jobs, inequality, regulation and the pace of change."
---

[Research](https://aifaultline.com/research/)

# What Work Does Generative AI Do?

[Alexander Bick](https://aifaultline.com/authors/network/#map=alexander-bick), [Adam Blandin](https://aifaultline.com/authors/network/#map=adam-blandin), [David J. Deming](https://aifaultline.com/authors/david-deming/), Tyler R. Schumacher · NBER Working Papers · August 2026

[Read original source](https://www.nber.org/papers/w35677)

Where this sits in the debate

- [Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates?](https://aifaultline.com/debate/jobs/)

Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model ([AI-written](https://aifaultline.com/about/)).

## Key takeaway [AI-written](https://aifaultline.com/about/)

Using a nationally representative survey that links generative AI use to detailed occupations and tasks, the authors build the first task-level indexes of genAI adoption. They show these adoption measures can sharpen analyses of genAI's labor-market impact, and that standard exposure scores explain only part of actual use.

## The paper in three steps [AI-written](https://aifaultline.com/about/)

Written by an AI agent from the paper's abstract, which is the
primary source and is quoted below.

1

The question

Which job tasks do workers actually use generative AI for, and does task-level adoption help explain its labor market impact?

2

The approach

A nationally representative survey of workers linking generative AI adoption to detailed occupations and tasks, used to build task-level adoption indexes.

3

The findings

The authors report the first task-level generative AI adoption indexes and show they can inform analyses of labor market impact; exposure scores explain only part of observed adoption.

How to read it: survey.
Self-reported data from firms or individuals — good for perceptions and adoption; answers can differ from behavior.

## Limitations and counterpoints [AI-written](https://aifaultline.com/about/)

The available abstract is truncated, so the size of the gap between exposure and adoption and other results are not described here. Survey self-reports may not match measured use.

## Abstract

We measure how workers use genAI for their jobs in a nationally representative survey linking genAI adoption to detailed occupations and tasks. Our data provide the first task-level genAI adoption indexes, which we show can inform analyses of genAIs labor market impact. Exposure scores explain some,

## About this publication

**Working paper.** A working paper — circulated for discussion before formal peer review, the standard first outlet in economics.

Published

2026

Citations

Not recorded for this source

Citation counts come from OpenAlex; none are recorded for this source — absence of a count is not absence of citations.

[Chart: published 2026]

David J. Deming signed the wemustactnow.ai letter — part of why this paper is in the collection.

## Cited elsewhere in this guide

- [State of the debate: Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates?](https://aifaultline.com/debate/jobs/)

## More on this topic

Related by theme, not necessarily by method or conclusion.

- [The Effects of Generative AI on High Skilled Work: Evidence from Three Field Experiments with Software Developers](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-2139-ssrn-4945566/) SSRN · 2024

- [GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-48550-arxiv-2303-10130/) arXiv · 2023

- [Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative artificial intelligence](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-1126-science-adh2586/) Science · 2023

- [The simple macroeconomics of AI](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-1093-epolic-eiae042/) Economic Policy · 2024

Overview assembled automatically from collected metadata.
[How this site is built](https://aifaultline.com/about/).