Founder Reports surveyed 2,000+ employed American adults in April 2026 to understand how workers use AI on the job, how their employers manage it, and what happens when AI-assisted work gets passed between coworkers.

The survey covered five areas: how often workers use AI tools, whether their employer has an AI policy, how much they trust AI-assisted work from coworkers, whether they review that work differently, and how often they’ve had to fix or redo it.

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Key Findings

AI adoption is widespread. 89% of workers have used AI for work. 38% use it daily, and another 23% use it weekly. Software engineers (71%), marketing professionals (63%), and IT workers (55%) have the highest daily usage rates.

Most workplaces lack AI policies. 44% of workers say their employer has no clear AI policy or they aren’t sure one exists. At companies with fewer than 10 employees, that figure is 59%.

Workers trust AI-assisted work less. 43% say they trust a coworker’s output less when they know AI was involved. Only 20% trust it more. Workers under 40 are more skeptical (48%) than those over 50 (34%).

AI-assisted work triggers more scrutiny. 77% of workers review a coworker’s work more carefully when they know AI was used. This holds even among daily AI users, 80% of whom still review coworker AI output more carefully.

Nearly half of workers have had to fix AI-reliant work. 45% say they’ve fixed or redone a coworker’s work that relied too heavily on AI. The rate is highest among managers and senior leaders (57%) and at companies that require AI use (73%).

Employer policy has unexpected effects. At workplaces where AI is allowed with restrictions, 52% of workers trust AI-assisted output less, compared to 28% at workplaces where AI is allowed without restrictions. And where AI use is required, 17% of workers say they regularly fix coworker AI output.

The rework burden flows upward. 63% of C-suite executives and VPs have had to clean up AI-reliant work, compared to 38% of individual contributors.

About the Survey

The survey was conducted via Prolific in April 2026. Respondents were screened for U.S. residency and current employment. The sample includes full-time (80%) and part-time (20%) workers across 22 work functions, with ages ranging from 22 to 82 (median 37). Seniority levels range from individual contributors (49%) to C-suite executives (3%). Companies of all sizes are represented, from under 10 employees to 1,000+.

The full PDF report includes findings with breakdowns by age, gender, seniority, department, company size, education level, and employer policy type. It also includes methodology details and charts for each finding.

The report is free to download. If you cite any of the data, we ask that you link back to this page.

For media inquiries, interview requests, or questions about the data, contact marc@founderreports.com.

Research by Founder Reports (founderreports.com)

The photo at the top of this page is by YuriArcursPeopleimages / Envato.