What happened
Sixty-six percent of registered voters are concerned about artificial intelligence, an increase from 63% in December and 56% in 2023. While 59% of voters anticipate AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates over the next five years, 69% of employed voters remain unconcerned about their own job security. The poll, conducted March 20-23, 2026, also found 70% of voters do not consider learning AI important for their careers, though 60% feel comfortable adopting new technology.
Why it matters
This divergence between general AI anxiety and personal job security creates a challenge for workforce development. Procurement teams and HR leaders face a disconnect: employees acknowledge AI's broad impact but dismiss its relevance to their own roles, hindering upskilling. This sentiment, with 70% of voters deeming AI skills unimportant, risks a future skills gap as 59% foresee net job elimination. A strong consensus, with 93% of voters, including 90% of military veterans, demanding human final decision-making for autonomous weapons systems, establishes a clear constraint for defence technology architects.
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