Key Points

• A Glassdoor analysis shows positive AI sentiment among U.S. workers dropped from 81 percent in 2019 to 43 percent by mid-2026, while negative comments rose to 53 percent.
• The data reveals stark demographic divides: only 21 percent of AI-related comments from Gen Z women are positive, making them the most skeptical group in the workforce.
• Managers remain the most optimistic about AI, while insurance claim adjusters, writers, and customer service representatives view it almost universally negatively.

An analysis of employer reviews on Glassdoor shows that workers are becoming more critical of AI in the workplace. Their complaints go well beyond fear of losing their jobs.

Executives are by far the most AI-positive group. Software architects mention AI more often than any other role and rate it mostly in a positive light. Software engineers, whose work focuses more on writing and reviewing code, are much more skeptical, with 57 percent of their comments skewing negative.

At the other end of the spectrum, according to a Glassdoor analysis, insurance claims workers rate their employers' AI efforts almost entirely negative. They typically complain that management forces buggy tools on them. Writers, accountants, and customer service reps also lean critical by a four-to-one ratio.

Jobs that AI barely touches, like butchers or electricians, rarely mention the topic at all. But once a role hits a moderate level of AI exposure, AI comments show up across nearly every profession, regardless of how much automation actually threatens that particular job. Overall, AI mentions in US reviews jumped 240 percent from May 2025 to May 2026.

Workers find only two paths to AI satisfaction but many to frustration

Most detailed positive reviews fall into just two buckets. 44 percent come from workers whose companies benefit from the AI boom ("AI winners"). 41 percent praise their employer for providing tools, training, and support for AI adoption ("AI users"). About 27 percent of positive reviews contain only generic comments with no real detail.

The criticism is more varied. Fear of job loss accounts for 20 percent of negative comments, making it the single most common complaint, but far from the only one. Another 14 percent say their company forces them to use AI. And 13 percent see AI as a distraction from core business or as something that degrades the customer experience.

Ten percent criticize internal AI use as alienating, citing workplace surveillance or automated messages from management. Eight percent call their bosses' productivity expectations unrealistic. That said, about ten percent of negative comments actually complain that their company is too slow to adopt AI or doesn't provide the right tools, meaning these workers are pro-AI in spirit.

Glassdoor's analysts point out that some negative sentiment overlaps with office jobs where burnout and layoff fears are already common. Many reviews, however, draw a direct line between AI and job losses.

Young women are the biggest AI skeptics in the workforce

Men rate AI positively 45 percent of the time, compared to just 32 percent for women. Gen X is the most receptive, with 47 percent positive comments. Millennials come in at 40 percent, Gen Z at 33 percent.

The gender gap among younger workers is especially stark. Only 21 percent of AI comments from Gen Z women are positive, compared to 42 percent from Gen Z men. Among Gen X workers, the gender gap can be explained by differences in industry and occupation. For Gen Z, that's not the case at all, according to Glassdoor's analysis.

At the industry level, tech workers mention AI most often, with positive and negative comments roughly balanced. Media and communications workers also bring up AI frequently but lean more critical. Workers in arts and nonprofit organizations hold the most negative views. Company size matters too: At small firms with fewer than 200 employees, 51 percent of AI comments are negative. At large companies with more than 10,000 workers, that figure rises to 67 percent.

Other studies back up the Glassdoor findings

Glassdoor reviews don't represent the entire US workforce, and unhappy workers tend to leave reviews more often than satisfied ones. That makes the shift over time more telling than the raw numbers, assuming the platform's negativity bias has stayed consistent across the years.

The Glassdoor data also fits a broader pattern. A survey of US adults from April found that Gen Z is particularly critical of AI, and a study from Anthropic showed overall skepticism among US workers, especially around skill erosion and job losses. Stanford's AI Index 2026 supports the pro-AI tilt among executives with a documented massive perception gap, with 73 percent of US experts rating AI's impact on the job market as positive while only 23 percent of the public agreed.

Glassdoor