Podcast
How Tech Workers Actually Feel About AI in 2026 | Annual AI Sentiment Survey
Career | Growth
- AI Divides Tech Into Two Opposite Camps
- AI has split the tech workforce roughly in half between those who feel amplified and those who feel destabilized or diminished.
- The AI identity stance predicts optimism, burnout, layoff worry, and willingness to recommend careers much more strongly than role, level, or company size. (Time 0:07:48)
- Ship Faster, Burn Out Harder
- Burnout spiked from 44.7% to 54.7% year-over-year while optimism fell from 54.8% to 48.7%.
- Faster shipping and more outputs enabled by AI correlate with more burnout, not less, despite increased enjoyment for many. (Time 0:19:40)
- Tech Roles Are Hard To Recommend Right Now
- Across functions, no one strongly recommends entering tech right now; NPS-like scores are negative across roles.
- Designers and researchers are the least likely to recommend their roles, reflecting high anxiety about role future. (Time 0:30:30)