Businesses and workers around the world are facing big changes because of AI. A major survey of 15,000 workers found that 64% of employees think their workload has increased in the last year. What is interesting is that AI is not directly making people work harder, but the worry and fear about AI is stressing workers out. Many employees feel they have to learn new skills quickly while still finishing their regular jobs, which makes them feel stretched very thin.

Job losses are happening in many places. In Maryland, United States, layoffs jumped up by almost 30%, meaning about 2,000 more people lost their jobs this year. AI is now one of the top 10 reasons companies are cutting jobs. Across the entire United States, there have been over one million layoffs so far in 2025, which is the highest number since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Young people finishing college are having an especially tough time. Right now, 9.3% of new college graduates cannot find jobs. Some experts worry this number could jump to 25% in just two or three years. This is a serious problem because young people will have student loan debt but no job to help them pay it back.

Lower-income workers are already facing AI at their jobs. These workers often do office work and jobs in hospitals and healthcare, where AI is being used more and more. People are also noticing where someone works matters a lot. Workers who stay home or work part-time at an office are twice as likely to use AI tools compared to people stuck in offices all day. Only 16% of office workers use AI, but 32% of remote workers and 39% of hybrid workers use it.

Even though companies spent billions on AI technology, most workers are not very skilled at using it. An EY survey showed that only 5% of workers are true AI experts who use it as a thinking partner. Most people just use simple AI features like searching or making summaries.