Research from last spring and early this year shows that U.S. workers are using artificial intelligence (AI) at significantly higher rates than their European counterparts, according to a paper to be discussed at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) conference on March 27.
“We found that by 2026, 43% of U.S. workers will be using AI in their jobs, compared to 32% of European workers,” wrote authors Alexander Bich of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Adam Brandin of Vanderbilt University, David J. Deming of Harvard University, and Nicola Fuchs-Schundern and Jonas Jessen of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
The authors also compared a U.S. Census Bureau survey that asked companies whether they use AI “in the production of goods and services” to a European Union survey.
“By 2025, 7% of US companies will use AI in production, compared to 4% of EU companies,” they write. The authors caution that worker and business surveys do not measure AI adoption in the same way and differ for a variety of reasons. AI for production This is a much narrower definition than the one the authors used in their workforce survey.Generation AI (AI that creates new content such as text or computer code).
Additionally, corporate surveys in the United States and the European Union are different. EU surveys found that an average of 20% of companies use at least one AI technology for some purpose (five times the average for using AI in production), whereas US surveys had not asked such broad questions until recently.
Nevertheless, the authors write, “We conclude that AI adoption by U.S. businesses and workers exceeds adoption across Europe.”
This paper investigated the reasons behind national variations in AI adoption, including company size and type, employee demographics (age and education), and management practices. They concluded that while all factors explained part of the gap, it was largely caused by management practices. AI adoption is strongly tied to whether companies actively encourage their employees to use AI and provide access to AI tools.
The authors also examined differences in AI adoption across Europe and found significant variation. The 2026 Labor Survey (six European countries) shows AI usage rates ranging from 36% in the UK to 26% in Italy. According to an EU survey of companies in 27 countries, the proportion of companies using AI in production in 2025 will range from 9% in Sweden to 1% in Serbia.
We then examined whether the disparity in AI adoption between the US and Europe was impacting productivity. Surveys of workers suggest that this is probably the case. The total time savings (including both AI users and non-users) was 2.3% of time in the US versus 1.4% in Europe. An analysis of company data found similarly sized findings in both the US and Europe “consistent with a positive productivity impact from AI.”
And, at least for now, they write, “we find no clear evidence that recent AI adoption is associated with systemic changes in employment, either in Europe or the United States.”
