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The closer people get to AI, the more clearly they see both its advantages and its risks. That paradox sits at the center of a recent Anthropic study analyzing 81,000 users of Claude. Those reporting the greatest productivity gains are also the most concerned about job displacement—particularly in roles most exposed to AI and among early-career workers.
AI tools like Claude tend to feel personally empowering. Users are far more likely to describe benefits to themselves than to their employers or to AI companies. High-income professionals—especially entrepreneurs and technologists—reported the largest productivity boosts. At the same time, lower-wage workers and those with less formal education also saw meaningful gains.
Across the board, most respondents said AI enhanced their capabilities by expanding the scope of their work or accelerating how quickly they complete it. Yet the users experiencing the biggest speed improvements were often the most uneasy about AI’s long-term impact on employment.
The data, part of Anthropic’s Economic Index, highlights how perceptions of AI are deeply tied to economic concerns. Roughly one in five respondents expressed worry about job displacement. At the same time, many said AI made them feel more productive and empowered. For some, it opened the door to entrepreneurship or freed up time for higher-value tasks. For others, it felt restrictive or imposed by employers.
AI is also fueling side projects and new ventures. One delivery driver used Claude to launch an e-commerce business, while a landscaper began building a music app. Entrepreneurs, notably, reported the strongest productivity gains of any group.
Concern about automation rises with exposure. For every 10-percentage-point increase in AI exposure, perceived job risk increased by 1.3 percentage points. Workers in the top quartile of exposure mentioned job-related fears three times as often as those in the bottom quartile.
Career stage plays a role as well. Early-career workers were significantly more likely to worry about displacement than more senior professionals.
Overall, respondents reported solid productivity improvements, averaging 5.1 on a seven-point scale. However, the sample consisted of active Claude users willing to complete a survey, which likely skews results toward more positive experiences.
The most commonly cited benefit was expanded scope of work (48%), followed by increased speed (40%). Scientists and lawyers reported the smallest gains. Some legal professionals, in particular, raised concerns about reliability, noting that AI often fails to consistently follow precise instructions when analyzing complex documents.
The more than 20,000 potential job cuts announced by Meta and Microsoft this week—following Amazon’s largest-ever layoffs months earlier—may signal the start of a deeper shift rather than an isolated wave of downsizing.
At the same time that major tech firms are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into building AI infrastructure to meet surging demand, they are also using that same technology to streamline operations and reduce headcount. These cuts are further amplified by efforts to correct pandemic-era overhiring.
Many economists and industry analysts now warn that a labor market disruption may already be underway, not looming in the distant future. More than 92,000 tech workers have been laid off in 2026 alone, according to Layoffs.fyi, bringing total industry layoffs since 2020 to nearly 900,000.
“This represents a fundamental structural shift rather than a temporary market correction,” said Anthony Tuggle. “We’re witnessing the beginning of a permanent transformation in how work is organized and executed across industries.”
Concerns about job security have been rising since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, demonstrating the expanding capabilities of generative AI. Those fears intensified as Anthropic introduced increasingly powerful Claude tools, capable of handling tasks once performed by entire teams.
Optimists argue that AI is transforming work rather than eliminating it outright, pointing to past technological shifts that ultimately created new categories of employment. Roles like mobile app developers or IT administrators, after all, only emerged alongside the technologies that required them.
Still, a gap appears to be widening between job losses and job creation. A 2026 study by Motion Recruitment found that AI adoption is slowing hiring for entry-level and general IT roles, even as demand surges for specialized AI talent. Salaries have largely stagnated since 2025, with the exception of niche positions such as AI engineers.
“There’s little doubt AI will create jobs,” said Rajat Bhageria. “What’s less clear is what those jobs will look like.”
Recent announcements underscore the trend. Meta plans to cut 10% of its workforce—about 8,000 jobs—while also eliminating 6,000 open roles in a bid to improve efficiency and offset heavy AI investments. Microsoft, meanwhile, is offering voluntary buyouts to a significant portion of its U.S. workforce, potentially affecting thousands of employees.
The impact extends beyond the tech sector. Nike recently announced layoffs affecting roughly 1,400 employees, many in technology roles, highlighting how AI-driven restructuring is spreading across industries.
Worker sentiment is shifting accordingly. Data from Glassdoor shows the tech sector experienced the steepest decline in employee confidence of any industry over the past year. According to its chief economist, Daniel Zhao, fewer workers are voluntarily leaving their jobs due to uncertainty—prompting companies to rely more heavily on layoffs and stricter performance measures to reduce costs.
Other firms are following suit. Snap Inc. is cutting 16% of its workforce, citing AI-driven efficiencies, while Salesforce has eliminated thousands of customer support roles. Oracle has also announced significant layoffs as it ramps up AI spending and navigates investor pressure.
Meanwhile, industry giants including Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon are expected to collectively invest close to $700 billion this year in AI infrastructure—raising questions about how much further workforce reductions may go.
In the startup ecosystem, a new operating model is emerging: smaller teams generating outsized revenue. Venture capitalists increasingly favor lean companies that scale quickly with minimal headcount. Startups reaching tens of millions in revenue with just a few dozen employees are becoming more common, a sharp departure from traditional growth models.
This shift is not lost on workers inside large tech firms, where headcounts often exceed 100,000. Developers now have access to the same AI-powered tools as startups and are watching products launch at unprecedented speed.
The result is a paradox: a technological boom driven by AI, paired with rising anxiety among the very workers building it.
“This is an unusual moment,” Zhao noted. “The people closest to this technological transformation are also some of the most uncertain about their place in it. Many workers feel stuck.”