What 81,000 people told us about AI economics
Anthropic AI Attitude Surveys
What 81,000 people told us about AI economics
- Published: 2026-04-22
- Sample: About 81,000 Claude users (re-analysis of the December 2025 interviews)
Method and sample
- The December 2025 interviews with 81,000 people were re-analyzed for economic themes.
- Respondents were users of Claude.ai personal accounts.
- Occupation, career stage and sentiment were inferred from answers with Claude-powered classifiers.
- The study related each occupation's AI exposure to worry about job displacement.
Key findings
- People in roles more exposed to AI have more concern about job displacement.
- These concerns are higher among early-career respondents.
- The highest- and lowest-paid occupations report the largest productivity gains.
- Those with the largest speedups express higher concern about displacement.
Who worries about displacement
- One fifth of respondents voiced concern about economic displacement.
- For every 10-point increase in exposure, perceived job threat rose 1.3 points.
- The top 25% by exposure mentioned the worry three times as often as the bottom 25%.
Reported productivity
- The mean productivity rating was 5.1, corresponding to substantially more productive.
- 3% reported negative or neutral impacts.
- 42% gave no clear indication on productivity.
Who benefits
- Most cited benefits to themselves: faster tasks, expanded scope, freed-up time.
- 10% of those who named a recipient said employers or clients were asking for and getting more work.
- Only 60% of early-career workers indicated they personally benefited, versus 80% of senior professionals.
Scope or speed
- The most common gain was in scope, cited by 48% of users who mentioned productivity.
- 40% emphasized speed.
- Doing new tasks was mentioned more often than doing tasks faster.
What it means
- Benefits and worries sit side by side: those who gained the most speed worry more.
- Early-career workers report fewer benefits and more concern.
- Caveats from Anthropic: self-selected Claude.ai users only, occupation inferences may be inaccurate, and findings need confirmation through structured surveys.
Source
- https://www.anthropic.com/research/81k-economics
- Published: 2026-04-22
- All figures are as stated in the source. Summary by this site.