A survey of Washington workers on AI in the workplace, conducted for the Office of the Washington State Attorney General — covering job security, displacement, skills training, and worker requests for AI governance.
Halibut Flats Research and Development, in partnership with the Office of the Washington State Attorney General, surveyed workers across Washington’s largest employment sectors — technology, government, education, healthcare, and professional services — between December 2025 and January 2026. The survey fills a gap in data on how Washington workers actually use AI, how they feel about it, and how it is changing their jobs, providing data-driven insights to inform policy recommendations.
Key findings
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Workers are pessimistic: 80% of participants reported negative feelings toward AI, and 68% believe it is negatively impacting their industry — even as 56% are encouraged by their employers to use it.
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Displacement is already being reported: 55% of job seekers said AI was a factor in their job loss, 13% said it the primary cause, and 75% of all workers reported workplace changes due to AI. Most reported losses were in the technology sector.
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Familiarity breeds insecurity: 65% of workers who described themselves as “very familiar” with AI felt the most insecure in their industry.
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Training is largely self-directed: 83% of workers learning AI are self-teaching on their own time, while 52% say they lack the time to train at all.
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Workers are asking government to regulate AI in the workplace, citing the current lack of governance.
The report covers survey demographics, the landscape of current AI use, job security and displacement, AI-related skills training, impacts across worker populations, and worker requests for governance.