What happened
Epoch AI, in partnership with Ipsos, surveyed 1,106 employed US adults on the Ipsos KnowledgePanel (fielded July 10-19, 2026) about AI use across ten common work tasks, publishing findings on August 6, 2026. The headline finding: one in five US workers now say AI performs work that was previously delegated to a coworker or contractor, rather than simply assisting them with their own tasks. The survey measured, per task, whether workers use AI, how much of the task AI now performs, whether AI has substituted for human-to-human delegation, realized time savings, and the extent of human editing of AI outputs.
Why it matters
This is a rare direct, methodologically transparent measurement of AI substituting for human coworker labor (not just tool-assisted productivity), giving executives a concrete benchmark for workforce planning and restructuring conversations.
Action needed
Incorporate the task-substitution framing into workforce and org-design planning discussions rather than treating AI purely as a productivity multiplier.