Internal Anthropic Survey Predicts AI's Impact on Unemployment
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AI
Anthropic polled 1,334 of its employees. They're more sure than most of us that AI will take over jobs.
By Stephen Council
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Attendees chat at Anthropic's developer conference in May.
Don Feria/AP Content Services for Anthropic
October 17, 2026, 12:48 AM GMT+2
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Anthropic employees believe that AI will make their labor obsolete. Most US workers don't see their jobs that way at all.
The AI company published research on Friday that compares surveys with US adults against an internal poll of 1,334 Anthropic employees. Most of the Anthropic staffers said AI will handle at least 80% of their jobs by 2030, while only about 5% of the US workers felt the same.
The research, titled "The AI expectations gap", shows the chasm between how the employees at the AI startup feel and how other American adults feel. Anthropic workers are far more optimistic about the progress of AI capabilities, how much it's already saving time, and how fast the economy will grow.
The median Anthropic employee said that by the end of 2030, they expect AI to handle 95% of the work of building a new AI model.
Peter McCrory, Anthropic's chief economist, wrote on X:
"We're publishing this research because Anthropic runs roughly a year and a half ahead of the economy on AI adoption, so what happens at Anthropic could be a leading indicator for the broader world."
Anthropic workers expect higher unemployment and extreme GDP growth.
Anthropic's surveys examined how workers already use AI and how they think it will change.
"US adults and Anthropic staff largely agree about what AI can do today. However, they disagree about how quickly it will improve, how widely it will be used, and how large the productivity gains measured by time saved will be."
There are a few possible explanations for the discrepancies.
- Anthropic employees have larger budgets for the tools and often get access to unreleased models.
- US workers, on average, are more likely to work with their hands or in a service industry.