SAK union member survey: a quarter of all employees use AI at work – with young employees most adept at such use

The deployment of AI at work is still quite rare in SAK-affiliated bargaining sectors, with varying experiences of its use. Use of AI at workplaces has seldom increased the pace of the work or made it more stressful. Young employees find that they can use AI more readily than their older colleagues. They have also had less need to learn new skills due to AI.

Purpose of the survey

The survey studied the impacts of AI by industry and age, and attitudes towards its increasingly widespread application at work.

Key findings

• Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of employees in SAK-affiliated bargaining sectors report that they have used AI at work. Applications of AI are most common in the public and private service sectors, whereas its use is clearly more rare in transport, industry and construction. There are also differences between age groups, with employees under 40 years of age reporting the use of AI significantly more frequently than older employees. Some 60 per cent of respondents have used AI in their leisure time, which is clearly a higher proportion than those using it at work.
• Employees who have used AI at work (23 per cent of respondents) were also asked about its impact on their duties and workload. Some 9 per cent of respondents felt that AI had increased the pace of work, while 59 per cent disagreed on this point. Even though 12 per cent reported that AI had made their work more stressful, the majority (52 per cent) had not experienced any such increase in job-related stress.
  Some 11 per cent of employees using AI reported an increase in intrusive surveillance, but 40 per cent had noticed no such increase. The overall proportion of employees reporting negative impacts was clearly smaller than those who did not feel that AI had impaired their working conditions.
• The impacts of AI are clearly divided by age. Some 61 per cent of employees under 40 years of age feel that they have adequate knowledge of how to use AI at work, while the corresponding figure for older employees is only 36 per cent. Some 55 per cent of employees under 40 also find that AI has made their work more efficient, compared to only 37 per cent of older respondents.
• The under-40s seem more receptive than older respondents to using AI at work. Some 30 per cent of those under 40 years of age reported needing to learn new skills because of AI. The corresponding figure for the over-40s was 43 per cent.
• While 32 per cent of all respondents saw greater scope for applying AI in their duties, 41 per cent disagreed on this point and 27 per cent were undecided. Broader scope for application was envisaged especially in the public service sector, where 38 per cent believed that deployment of AI could be increased.
• Many respondents (55 per cent) nevertheless remained undecided on the issue of increased application of AI. A measure of reservation was also expressed. While 21 per cent of employees in SAK-affiliated bargaining sectors support greater use of AI in work life, some 28 per cent are opposed to this.

Conclusions

• Deployment of AI remains quite minimal in SAK collective bargaining sectors, even though there is scope for growth. Employees are already using AI extensively in their leisure time, with a third considering that there is further scope for its use in discharging their own duties at work.
• Younger employees on the whole are clearly more comfortable in applying AI than their older colleagues. Employers should also invest in boosting the AI skills of their older staff.
• The employee impacts of AI on such aspects as work-related stress and the pace of work are more often positive than negative. The deployment of AI in the workplace should be planned and implemented in partnership with staff to minimise its negative impacts on the world of work.
• Greater employee inclusion and cooperation may also reduce well-founded suspicions among employees regarding the more widespread application of AI.

Implementation of the survey

The SAK union member survey respondents (n=1,812) were collected between the 14th and 24th December 2025.