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From the drive-thru window at your favorite fast-food restaurant to the automated phone service that manages your call when you contact nearly any business, artificial intelligence seems to be inescapable. As this technology continues to evolve by leaps and bounds, it can be hard to wrap our heads around what it can – and just as importantly, can’t – do.
As is the case with the introduction of any new technology, AI has brought an array of fears, challenges and opportunities. Businesses that have incorporated AI tools have maximized efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, causing tens of thousands of workers nationwide to become redundant and therefore, jobless. In fact, AI is a leading cause of job loss worldwide, with one study suggesting that 15% of the global workforce may lose their jobs to AI by 2030. At the same time, AI has brought new opportunities to the job market, creating nearly as many jobs as it’s made obsolete.
In this time of uncertainty regarding AI and its capabilities and consequences, we wanted to understand its impact on mental health. How do workers feel about changes they’ve already experienced or suspect may be coming to their jobs? What is the general sentiment regarding AI? And finally, how do people feel about the introduction of AI into mental health care?
How Do Survey Participants Feel About AI in General?
First, we wanted to assess how familiar participants were with AI and how their understanding may affect their feelings about it. In our survey, we found that our participants had varying levels of knowledge of AI. Overall, roughly 35% of people reported being AI enthusiasts or very knowledgeable about this technology, while a quarter of participants indicated that they were somewhat knowledgeable. Approximately 40% of participants said they had very little understanding of AI or didn’t understand it at all.
We found that those in the 30-44 age bracket were most familiar with emerging AI technology, with over half (55.3%) of those in this group reporting that they were knowledgeable or enthusiastic about it. Among those aged 45-60 years old, about 31% reported this level of familiarity, compared to 21% of those aged 18-29 and 9% of those aged 60+.
The Correlation Between Familiarity with AI and a Positive Outlook about Emerging Technology
Perhaps surprising to some, our survey found that the more an individual understood about AI, the less likely they were to have negative feelings about it. Among those who reported being knowledgeable or enthusiastic about it, 80% reported positive or very positive feelings toward emerging AI technology. Only 6% of those with advanced familiarity had a negative or very negative outlook, and 15% reported feeling neutral.
On the flipside, 32% of those who had little or no familiarity with AI had negative or very negative feelings about it. About 40% of participants with limited understanding reported neutral feelings, and 30% reported positive or very positive feelings.
Common Concerns Regarding AI
The concerns our participants expressed regarding AI varied considerably. Giving participants the option to select multiple responses, we found that:
- 54.18% were concerned about AI causing job displacement
- 54.18% were concerned about the privacy risk it posed
- 45.45% believed it could cause a loss of human skills
- 44% indicated concern about the ethics of putting AI in charge of making decisions
- 43% of people believe it could negatively impact wealth disparity
- 40% are concerned about the lack of transparency in AI development
- 39% expressed concern about built-in biases
- 32% are concerned about AI becoming autonomous
- 24% are concerned about its potential environmental impact
Controlled for those who are knowledgeable or very knowledgeable about AI, the most prevalent concern was regarding job displacement, with 61% citing this as a top consideration. By comparison, 53% of those who reported the lowest levels of understanding indicated concern about AI-related job loss.
How Do Survey Participants Expect AI to Impact Their Own Employment?
After establishing how participants felt about the impact of AI on the job market as a whole, we wanted to take a closer look at how participants think AI may affect their own careers. We considered how many participants rely on a computer for their job, and then looked for a correlation between computer use and concerns about job loss.
Computer Use and the Impact of AI
Our survey participants rely on technology to varying degrees to fulfill their job duties. We found that over half of our participants worked a job that required them to use a computer. Roughly 29% of participants log onto a computer for at least eight hours per workday, while 28% use a computer for at least two hours per workday. The remaining 43% of participants either used a computer for two hours or less of their workday or didn’t rely on a computer at all to complete their job.
Among those who rely on a computer for work, 60% of people who use a computer full-time have seen “some” or “many” AI-related changes to their jobs, compared to roughly 65% of those who work from their computer between 2-4 hours per day. Unsurprisingly, however, for those who don’t use a computer at all, around 35% have seen “some” or “many” changes while about 65% report that their jobs have been unchanged.
Computer Use and Positive Experiences with AI Tools
Among all participants, about 56% expressed positive or very positive experiences with the AI technology they’ve used. For those who use computers for at least eight workday hours, this shifts to 61%, and it jumps to 68% among those who use a computer for 2-4 hours of their workday. Only 33% of people who don’t use a computer for work report positive or very positive feelings about AI tools they’ve used.
Computer Use and Concerns about Job Loss
Overall, the more someone relied on a computer for their job, the more likely they were to express concerns about AI leading to job loss. For example, when we controlled for those whose jobs require them to use a computer at least eight hours per day, about 63% reported concerns about AI use leading to job displacement. By contrast, 54% of those who use a computer 2-4 hours and about 50% of those who use a computer two hours per day or less relayed this concern.
Technology and Mental Health
Looking beyond AI’s impact on individuals’ jobs and career outlooks, we wanted to determine whether this technology had positive or negative impacts on mental health. To get a baseline, we asked participants to rate their mental health on a scale of 1-10, with 10 representing optimal health. The breakdown came in as follows:
- 0.36% rated their mental health at 1
- 1.45% rated their mental health at 2
- 1.45% rated their mental health at 3
- 4.36% rated their mental health at 4
- 5.82% rated their mental health at 5
- 5.09% rated their mental health at 6
- 13.82% rated their mental health at 7
- 21.82% rated their mental health at 8
- 15.27% rated their mental health at 9
- 30.55% rated their mental health at 10
Based on these figures, we find an average mental health score of 7.98, indicating that our typical participant rated their mental health as relatively high. There was a disparity in how men and women rated their mental health, with average score for males coming in at 8.49 compared to 7.47 for females. We also found a considerable difference in average mental health scores based on household income, with those earning less than $50,000 per year reporting an average score of 7.13 while those earning $150,000 or more reporting an overall rating of 9.22.
Mental Health and Computer Use at Work
Next, we looked for a correlation between mental health and the number of workday hours spent using a computer. Among our respondents, those who spend at least eight hours per day working from a computer have the highest mental health score, indicating an average of 8.4. Those who use a computer between 2-4 hours give their mental health a slightly lower rating of 8.2 while those who use one for two hours or less reported an average score of 8.0. Interestingly, those whose jobs don’t involve any computer use report an average mental health score of 7.2.
This trend may be the result of several factors. Those who use a computer for work part- or full-time may have greater remote work flexibility as well as freedom to manage their tasks and schedule in a way that best fits their needs. Additionally, computers enable effective multitasking and increased productivity, particularly with the help of AI tools, promoting efficiency at work and potentially improving work-life balance. On the other hand, jobs that primarily require manual labor typically lack these benefits, leading to reduced overall satisfaction for some workers.
Mental Health and Optimism about Emerging AI Technology
As AI technology evolves and we begin to explore its possibilities and limitations, how does the typical person feel about its incorporation into everyday life? We wanted to see whether a group’s outlook on new AI technology had a connection with their overall mental health. We found that those who had a positive or very positive outlook on emerging AI technology had an overall mental health score of 8.7. By contrast, those who reported feeling neutral, negative or very negative about AI reported a considerably lower mental health score of 7.3.
When we looked at how survey participants felt about the incorporation of AI in everyday life, we found a similar trend in mental health scores. Those who reported feeling enthusiastic or very enthusiastic about AI in day-to-day life rated their mental health at an average of 8.9. Those who felt neutral, worried or very worried reported an overall score of 7.4.
Mental Health and the Increasing Presence of Technology
For the majority of people, technology is an inescapable part of daily life. For better or worse, it’s permanently altered the way we communicate with friends and family and how we manage our time and complete tasks. We wanted to find out whether our survey participants believed technology impacted their mental health, and whether their beliefs regarding its impact had a correlation with how they rated their mental health.
Overall, a little over half of survey participants (52%) reported feeling that technology has had a positive or very positive impact on their mental health. This group rated their mental health at an average score of 8.6, about 8% higher than the overall score of 7.98.
About 25% of participants felt neutral about technology’s impact on their mental health. Among this group, the average mental health score fell near 7.49. The final group, which includes those who feel negative or very negative about how technology has affected their mental well-being, made up about 23% of respondents. This group provided an average mental health score of 7.10, about 11% lower than the overall score.
Is AI the Future of Mental Health Services?
In the fast-paced world of technology, AI’s applications seem to be expanding every day, even into fields that seem to require human insight, experience and perspective. Recently, we’ve seen an introduction of AI into the realm of mental health services. In some cases, therapists use AI as a tool for recognizing and diagnosing mental illnesses earlier, letting them make more accurate treatment choices. In other cases, AI-powered chatbots serve as the only “therapist” some individuals may ever seek treatment from.
The use of AI in therapy comes with plenty of considerations, varying from concerns regarding how AI is trained to recognize mental health conditions and make recommendations accordingly to how secure a client’s private information is in a digitalized world.
We asked our survey participants how they felt about the concept of AI in therapy. Most respondents expressed opinions about this development, with only 24% reporting neutral feelings or declining to answer the question.
Roughly 28% of people felt negative or very negative about AI technology in therapy. Of this group, over 60% reported a lack of trust in how AI models are trained, and 32% felt unsure about the training process. Interestingly, 55% of the people in this group didn’t trust AI to make unbiased decisions, and 35% were unsure about its ability to do so.
On the other hand, nearly half (48% of respondents) had a positive or very positive outlook on the incorporation of AI into mental health services. This group had a considerably more optimistic viewpoint on how AI models are trained, with about 80% of people in this group stating that they trusted the AI training process, and only 16% felt unsure. When asked if they believed AI could make unbiased decisions, 73% gave positive answers and, once again, only 16% were unsure.
As AI continues to reshape the way we do business and manage our mental health, it’s important to be aware of the stress this may bring as well as the new opportunities it presents. In general, our study found that the more someone understood about this new technology, the less apprehensive they were about it. Knowledge is empowering, so it is possible that understanding AI’s benefits and limitations may alleviate some of the anxiety surrounding its use.
