Tech workers split fifty-fifty on whether AI empowers or diminishes them

The brief

The second annual Tech Worker Sentiment Survey reveals a profound split in the industry. Exactly half of the workforce feels amplified and empowered by artificial intelligence, while the other fifty percent feels diminished and increasingly alienated by it.

Rather than fearing immediate job replacement, employees are struggling with a massive eleven-point surge in burnout. The primary culprit is a shifting productivity expectation, where workers are pressured to do far more work for the exact same pay.

The anxiety is not distributed evenly across tech roles. Designers, researchers, and data analysts report the highest levels of stress and lowest job satisfaction, whereas company founders and employees at smaller startups remain the most optimistic.

In an era of organizational flattening, manager effectiveness has emerged as the single most critical factor in mitigating employee burnout. Well-trained managers are the ultimate buffer between workplace chaos and sustainable productivity.