Blue-Collar Workers More Open to AI in Workplace, MIT Study Says

Workers without a college degree—especially Hispanic and Black workers—are more optimistic about artificial intelligence tools and automation in the workplace than those with a diploma, according to a new Amazon.com Inc.-backed Massachusetts Institute of Technology study.

Researchers expected workers in more routine jobs, and those with less formal education, to be especially wary of automation when they set out to study employee perception of AI, according to Ben Armstrong, executive director of MIT’s Industrial Performance Center. But in both cases those hypotheses weren’t borne out in the study.

In the MIT study released Monday, 27.4% of workers without a ...