--- title: One in Five US Workers Now Give AI Work That Used to Go to a Colleague description: An Epoch AI and Ipsos survey of 1,106 employed US adults finds 20 percent say AI now handles a task that used to go to a coworker or contractor. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-08-07T11:56:55.028Z updated: 2026-08-07T11:56:55.035Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/one-in-five-us-workers-delegate-tasks-to-ai image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/ai-at-work-task-delegation-117714.webp categories: Business content_type: News region: United States publication: Sovereign Magazine schema_type: Article --- A fifth of employed Americans say a task that used to go to a coworker or a contractor is now done by AI. That comes from a survey of 1,106 employed US adults by Epoch AI and Ipsos, which asked people how they use AI across ten common work tasks rather than how often they open a chatbot. The researchers, Caroline Falkman Olsson, Yafah Edelman and Amreeta Das, call it task-level substitution: AI picking up specific pieces of work that used to go to another person, rather than whole jobs. They add a caution of their own in the report: “Although we are seeing task-level substitution, this does not necessarily equal full worker displacement.” ## Analyzing Data Is Where Work Moves to AI Most Often The swap shows up across all ten tasks measured, though unevenly. It is most common in [analyzing data](https://epoch.ai/publications/one-in-five-workers-delegate-work-to-ai), where 7.1 percent of respondents say AI now does work that used to go to someone else, followed by reading work documents at 5.7 percent and maintaining records at 5.3 percent. ## Most Workers Using AI Are Handing It Only Part of a Task Among workers who perform each task at all, use of AI ranges from 25 percent for maintaining records to 57 percent for designing computer systems or software. It is 46 percent among those analyzing data and 39 percent for reading work documents. Breadth of use does not mean AI does the whole job. Full or nearly full reallocation of a task is most common among workers designing computer systems or software, at 10 percent, and stays below 7 percent for every other task. ## Time Savings Rise With How Much of the Task AI Does Where AI assists with part of the work, workers report that 37 percent of those tasks take less time. Where it performs most or all of the task, that rises to 53 percent. Roughly one in six AI-assisted tasks now takes longer than before, and the share is similar whether AI does part or most of the work. The researchers offer possible reasons: working with the AI itself adds time, or the worker is spending longer on a task for other reasons, such as being freed up to do more of it or a better version of it. ## Two Thirds of AI Output Goes Out With Minor Edits or None Across tasks that AI partly or fully performs, 66 percent of its output is used as produced or with only minor revisions, including 6 percent used with no changes at all. More extensive revision is reported for 27 percent, and 5 percent is majorly reworked or mostly redone. The survey was fielded from 10 to 19 July on the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, a probability-based online panel recruited by address-based sampling, and weighted to represent employed US adults. The ten tasks come from O*NET, the US Department of Labor's occupational database, chosen by employment share to cover common knowledge work. An earlier Epoch AI survey, fielded in March, found 51 percent of employed AI users already used it at least as much for work as for personal tasks. ## FAQ **Q: What share of workers say AI has taken over a task a colleague used to do?** 20 percent of respondents say AI now handles at least one task that was previously handed to a coworker or contractor. **Q: Which tasks show the most substitution?** Analyzing data at 7.1 percent of respondents, reading work documents at 5.7 percent and maintaining records at 5.3 percent. **Q: Does using AI for a task always save time?** No. Where AI assists with part of a task, 37 percent of those tasks are reported faster, rising to 53 percent where it does most or all of the task. About one in six AI-assisted tasks takes longer than before. **Q: How much do workers edit what AI produces?** 66 percent of output is used as produced or with only minor revisions. 27 percent gets more extensive revision and 5 percent is majorly reworked or redone. **Q: Who ran the survey?** Epoch AI and Ipsos, among 1,106 employed US adults on the Ipsos KnowledgePanel between 10 and 19 July 2026.