Majority of Americans Believe AI Will Decrease Salaries, According to Survey Results

The rise of AI has raised some interesting questions about the future of the world, chief among them being the impact it will have on people’s job prospects. AI can be useful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up getting work done in a shorter period of time. However, this also means that human workers will become less necessary than might have been the case otherwise, and that might lead to a decline in income.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the vast majority of Americans are fearing pay cuts after AI adoption. To be more specific, 79% of Americans who responded to a recent survey by Checkr and Pollfish stated that they expect their salaries to go down once AI becomes more widespread.

Millennials seem to be more fearful of AI, with 82% saying that they are worried about how the use of AI would impact their take home pay. Gen Z, on the other hand, is not all that much more optimistic, with 76% agreeing with these sentiments with all things having been considered and taken into account.

74% even believed that they might lose their jobs outright as has happened previously when automation made human involvement unnecessary or even dangerous. They expect AI induced lay offs to start occurring anywhere from six months to two years from now.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, 86% stated that they would be willing to suffer some kind of a pay cut so long as it meant that AI would make it easier for them to do their jobs. Over half of the people that responded to this survey also said that they would not mind using AI if it helped them switch over to a four day work week.

The perception surrounding AI is a bit of a mixed bag, but people are by and large concerned about it in the short term. It will be interesting to see if these fears end up proving prescient to any extent.