95% of tech employees in Israel use AI tools, but is its widespread adoption causing demographic divides?
AI adoption reveals clear divides among tech staff, peripheral-region employees, and non-degree workers feel the greatest threat.
Nearly every high-tech worker uses some form of generative AI tools, according to a newly-published study by the Israel Innovation Authority, in collaboration with the Brookdale Institute.
The survey of over 500 high tech workers revealed that 95% of employees in the sector use AI tools regularly, and that 78% use them daily. Roughly 82% of those daily users turn to AI tools for at least three different categories of work, and about one in four use them for more than six.
The prevalence of AI tool usage spans the spectrum of high-tech-related jobs: from coding to marketing to human resources, everybody seems to have a finger in the AI pie. Understandably so, as 70% of surveyed employees report that the use of these tools results in a “substantial improvement” in the quality of their output, and half of surveyed workers report a significant reduction in work time.
The prevalence of these tools is particularly cause for concern to senior employees, who use AI less often than their junior and early-career cohorts (the most active adopters of AI for both content creation and code-related work). Veteran employees report markedly higher anxiety about job security: 37% of senior staff express significant concern, a rate far above that of other groups.
Most employees view artificial intelligence as a career opportunity, with 68% seeing upside and only 27% viewing it as a threat. Still, some amount of caution seems to be at play here: only 64% of startup employees use AI tools for code generation, compared with 77% in international R&D centers and service firms. This gap suggests that younger companies may be more cautious about adopting tools that could interact with or potentially expose the proprietary code they’re building.
Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, lauds the Israeli tech ecosystem for its quick adoption of gen AI, but urges caution in moving without consideration for the ramifications of its use.
“The Israeli high tech industry is responding quickly, adopting the tools, testing new work models, and integrating AI into development, marketing, and management processes. This demonstrates the resilience and flexibility of the sector, but also reminds us that technological leadership requires ongoing adaptability,” he states.
The data shows clear divides: technological workers report more anxiety than non-technological staff, who feel more empowered. Employees in peripheral regions feel more at risk than those in central Israel, and workers without academic degrees report a significantly higher sense of threat than degree holders. Disparities across the broader labor market are likely even wider
“This revolution requires carefully balancing rising productivity and rapid growth with the impact on the labor market. Alongside improved efficiency and innovation, new opportunities are emerging, roles are shifting, and new professions are forming, but others may disappear,” Bin continues.
“To prevent widening gaps between high tech and the rest of the Israeli economy, we must ensure that artificial intelligence is broadly adopted across all industries and across government activity, including education, health, and more.”
