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The AI Labor Report — Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Gallup’s latest workforce survey, published this week, cited that half of all U.S. workers now use AI at work.
Meanwhile, only 12% of workers say AI has fundamentally transformed how their organization actually operates. Workers are using AI tools individually, for their own tasks, in their own workflows.
Their employers have not figured out how to translate that individual use into organizational change. A separate survey of nearly 6,000 executives by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 89% report no measurable effect of AI on their company’s labor productivity over the past three years.
Gallup’s own analysis points to the reason. Employees are 8.7 times more likely to say AI has genuinely changed how their work gets done when their direct manager actively supports and champions AI adoption.
The barrier is managerial. Manager engagement in the U.S. has fallen from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025. The people structurally positioned to drive AI adoption at the team level are the most disengaged group in the American workforce.
The gap between adoption and transformation matters because it shapes who bears the cost of AI’s disruption and who captures its gains. The workers absorbing the most pressure right now are young workers trying to enter the labor market.
Anthropic’s own research team published findings in March showing that hiring into AI-exposed jobs fell 14% for workers aged 22 to 25 since ChatGPT’s release in late 2022. Unemployment for that group is flat.
The hiring door is simply closing. Young workers are being excluded from the front end of the career ladder at precisely the moment when AI is absorbing the entry-level tasks those jobs used to require.
The emotional response to that exclusion is showing up in data. A Gallup survey released April 9, conducted for the Walton Family Foundation, found that 31% of Gen Z workers now report outright anger toward AI, up from 22% a year ago.
Excitement fell 14 points. Hopefulness fell 9 points.
Weekly AI use among Gen Z (those born from 1997 to 2012) grew only 4 points over the past year, well below the pace of prior years. The generation widely described as AI’s natural beneficiaries and most fluent early adopters is turning against the technology. The reason is straightforward.
They are watching it close the doors they expected to walk through.
The Stanford 2026 AI Index, released April 13, documents what is opening on the other side of those closed doors.
Demand for “Agentic AI” skills in U.S. job postings jumped 280% in a single year. These are skills related to managing and directing autonomous AI systems, not simply using AI tools.
AI skills now appear in 2.5% of all U.S. job postings, up 55% from the prior year. That hiring is concentrated in California, Texas, and New York. Singapore leads globally at 4.7% of postings.
Future Forwarded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Future Forwarded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Stanford data also captures a broader divide that runs through all of this. Among AI experts, 73% expect AI to have a positive impact on how people do their jobs. Among the general public, only 23% agree.
That 50-point gap appears consistently across the economy and healthcare as well. The U.S. recorded the lowest trust in its own government to regulate AI of any country surveyed, at 31%.
So, 73% of experts expect AI to improve how people do their jobs; 31% of the people those jobs were supposed to belong to are angry.
The gap between techie expectations and worker realities demarcates the battleground for the next great political fight between labor and industry.
A compilation of the Substack articles examining how the invasion already happened. You just weren’t invited. $9.95 flat fee for the bundle (PDF, ePUB), no subscription required. 2-hr reading time.
Get full access to Future Forwarded at futureforwarded.substack.com/subscribe
Get full access to The AI/Labor Report at ailabor.substack.com/subscribe
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By The AI Labor ReportGallup’s latest workforce survey, published this week, cited that half of all U.S. workers now use AI at work.
Meanwhile, only 12% of workers say AI has fundamentally transformed how their organization actually operates. Workers are using AI tools individually, for their own tasks, in their own workflows.
Their employers have not figured out how to translate that individual use into organizational change. A separate survey of nearly 6,000 executives by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 89% report no measurable effect of AI on their company’s labor productivity over the past three years.
Gallup’s own analysis points to the reason. Employees are 8.7 times more likely to say AI has genuinely changed how their work gets done when their direct manager actively supports and champions AI adoption.
The barrier is managerial. Manager engagement in the U.S. has fallen from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025. The people structurally positioned to drive AI adoption at the team level are the most disengaged group in the American workforce.
The gap between adoption and transformation matters because it shapes who bears the cost of AI’s disruption and who captures its gains. The workers absorbing the most pressure right now are young workers trying to enter the labor market.
Anthropic’s own research team published findings in March showing that hiring into AI-exposed jobs fell 14% for workers aged 22 to 25 since ChatGPT’s release in late 2022. Unemployment for that group is flat.
The hiring door is simply closing. Young workers are being excluded from the front end of the career ladder at precisely the moment when AI is absorbing the entry-level tasks those jobs used to require.
The emotional response to that exclusion is showing up in data. A Gallup survey released April 9, conducted for the Walton Family Foundation, found that 31% of Gen Z workers now report outright anger toward AI, up from 22% a year ago.
Excitement fell 14 points. Hopefulness fell 9 points.
Weekly AI use among Gen Z (those born from 1997 to 2012) grew only 4 points over the past year, well below the pace of prior years. The generation widely described as AI’s natural beneficiaries and most fluent early adopters is turning against the technology. The reason is straightforward.
They are watching it close the doors they expected to walk through.
The Stanford 2026 AI Index, released April 13, documents what is opening on the other side of those closed doors.
Demand for “Agentic AI” skills in U.S. job postings jumped 280% in a single year. These are skills related to managing and directing autonomous AI systems, not simply using AI tools.
AI skills now appear in 2.5% of all U.S. job postings, up 55% from the prior year. That hiring is concentrated in California, Texas, and New York. Singapore leads globally at 4.7% of postings.
Future Forwarded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Future Forwarded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Stanford data also captures a broader divide that runs through all of this. Among AI experts, 73% expect AI to have a positive impact on how people do their jobs. Among the general public, only 23% agree.
That 50-point gap appears consistently across the economy and healthcare as well. The U.S. recorded the lowest trust in its own government to regulate AI of any country surveyed, at 31%.
So, 73% of experts expect AI to improve how people do their jobs; 31% of the people those jobs were supposed to belong to are angry.
The gap between techie expectations and worker realities demarcates the battleground for the next great political fight between labor and industry.
A compilation of the Substack articles examining how the invasion already happened. You just weren’t invited. $9.95 flat fee for the bundle (PDF, ePUB), no subscription required. 2-hr reading time.
Get full access to Future Forwarded at futureforwarded.substack.com/subscribe
Get full access to The AI/Labor Report at ailabor.substack.com/subscribe