One in three workers in Britain say they are using AI on the job, although not to do very much

Key takeaways

  • 32% of workers in Britain say they use AI technology or tools for their job…
  • …however, 60% of this group say they use AI to do “very little” of their job; only 6% say they use it to do all or most of their work
  • AI adoption seems to be bottom up: only 25% of workers who use AI say it is because their employers are making them
  • Summarising information (60%), research (58%), and editing and checking text (56%) are the main tasks workers say they use AI for
  • Copilot (58%) and ChatGPT (48%) by far the most commonly used AI tools

Artificial intelligence has been heralded as a transformative force in the workplace, but just how far is the technology actually embedded in the working lives of Britons?

A new YouGov survey finds that 32% of workers in Britain say that they use AI technology for their current job; a further 6% say they have previously done so but no longer do.

AI uptake is highest in the IT and telecoms sector, with 66% of workers in this field saying they currently use AI at work. The majority who work in financial services say likewise (57%). Those working in education are also more likely than the broader British workforce to say they are using AI technology or tools (41%).

AI usage at work is also notably higher among Gen Z and Millennial workers (38-40%), than their Gen X (26%) and Boomer (15%) counterparts.

How much are workers using AI?

Among those who use AI at work, approximately one in three (35%) say they use AI on a daily basis. Another four in ten (43%) say they use it “several times a week” or “once a week”, with a further 16% saying they use AI at work once or twice a month.

However, it does not appear that AI is being used to do very much in the workplace. When asked how much of their work they use AI to do, the majority (60%) say “very little”, with a further third (34%) saying “some of it”. Only 6% say that they use AI for “most” or “all” of their work.

Workers do expect that AI could be utilised more, but only to a limited degree. When we asked how much of their current jobs could be done with AI, we see the number saying “very little” drop to 27%, and the number saying “some” grow to 58%. Nevertheless, relatively few expect that a large portion can be handled by AI: 10% think “most” of their current job could be done by AI, and only 1% think the technology could do their job entirely.

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AI adoption at work seems to be primarily ‘bottom up’

While much is made of employers’ enthusiasm for adopting AI, our results show that only 25% of those who use AI at work say they are using tools as a direct requirement set by their organisation.

Instead, by far the most common reason people use AI at work is personal preference. Fully 71% of workers using AI on the job say they are using tools that their employer neither requires nor prohibits.

Additionally, a further 11% of AI-using workers say they are using tools at work that their company would frown upon or has explicitly banned.

What are workers using AI at work to do?

The most common task that workers are using AI for is summarising information, with almost six in ten (60%) employees who use AI at work saying they use it for this purpose.

Also common are using AI to ‘ask questions, conduct research, or gather information’, at 56%. Approximately a third are using AI to collate data (37%) and to analyse data (36%).

When it comes to writing tasks, 56% say they use AI to edit or check text that they themselves have already written. More than four in ten (46%) have AI write letters or emails for them, and 45% say they have it generate text for internal documents, with 29% saying they use it to write external material (like adverts or website copy).

Other tasks include using AI to brainstorm and come up with ideas (48%), transcribing or summarising meetings (44%), and using AI to plan and organise tasks, and time management help (22%).

What AI tools are Britons using at work?

Two AI programs stand out at the top of the list of what workers are using: Microsoft’s Copilot, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The majority of workers who use AI for their job (58%) say they use Copilot, with almost half saying the same of ChatGPT (48%).

Google’s Gemini comes in a distant third (17%), with all other examples achieving only single digits.

See the full results here

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