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The Politics of AI

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  • Nicholas Bloom
  • Christos Makridis

Abstract

Using new data from the Gallup Workforce Panel, we document a persistent partisan gap in self-reported AI use at work: Democrats are consistently more likely than Republicans to report frequent use. In 2025:Q4, for example, 27.8% of Democrats report using AI weekly or daily, compared with 22.5% of Republicans. Democrats also report deeper task-level integration, using AI in 16% more work activities than Republicans. Consistent with this, Democrats are employed in occupations with higher predicted AI exposure based on task-content measures and report larger perceived differences in AI-related job displacement risk. However, in regression models the partisan gap in AI use disappears once we control for education, industry, and occupation, indicating that observed differences primarily reflect compositional variation rather than political affiliation per se.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Bloom & Christos Makridis, 2026. "The Politics of AI," NBER Working Papers 34813, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34813
    Note: IO LS POL PR
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    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General

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