What employees really use AI for at work

“We find that the work activities associated with ChatGPT usage are highly similar across very different kinds of occupations,” the report read.

“Overall, we find that information-seeking and decision support are the most common ChatGPT use cases in most jobs.”

AI as ‘co-workers’

Meanwhile, the report also answers the question of whether ChatGPT can really improve productivity in workplaces.

“We argue that ChatGPT likely improves worker output by providing decision support, which is especially important in knowledge-intensive jobs where better decision-making increases productivity,” it said.

“Our findings are most consistent with Ide and Talamas (2025), who develop a model where AI agents can serve either as co-workers that produce output or as co-pilots that give advice and improve the productivity of human problem-solving.”