AI use still relatively minimal in blue-collar occupations: survey

A recent survey of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) members indicated that Artificial Intelligence (AI) remains little used in operative occupations, even though many employees have encountered it outside the workplace.

SAK is proposing a digital and AI strategy for work life that could help to boost productivity and enhance employee participation and rights in the digital transformation, said SAK in a press release on Wednesday.

The survey found that just under a quarter (23 per cent) of SAK union members in blue-collar occupations claimed to have applied AI at work.

AI is most commonly used in public service sector positions, where more than a third (36 per cent) of respondents reported using it at work.

A clear majority (60 per cent) reported using AI outside the workplace. Younger respondents were more likely to be familiar with AI.

“Three quarters (76 per cent) of surveyed union members aged under 30 have used generative artificial intelligence, while half (49 per cent) of those aged 60 and over have done so,” said SAK Head of Research and Development Juha Antila.

Antila noted that Finland is clearly lagging behind in applying AI at work. A third (32 per cent) of SAK survey respondents felt that there was greater scope for using AI in their own duties at work. A quarter (27 per cent) were unable to say whether such use of AI could be increased.

Antila pointed out that only a quarter (23 per cent) of respondents who had used AI at work claimed that it had improved the quality of their work, with only a fifth (20 per cent) acknowledging that using AI had made their work more interesting.

One in five respondents (21 per cent) said that they supported increased use of AI in work life. A clearly larger proportion (37 per cent) opposes such an increase.

“These are worrying findings that suggest a failure to organise the application of AI at workplaces and to realise the productivity benefits that it enables,” Antila said.

Antila stressed the importance of employee security when applying AI, requiring the involvement of staff representatives in policymaking already at the stage of planning its deployment and application.

“The uncertainty, concern and even fear of unemployment that currently prevails in society is an obstacle to realising the potential of new technology and a constraint on the growth of productivity,” Antila observed, referring to policies of the Finnish Government that have impaired work life and social welfare.

Experiences of using AI at work obviously differ between employees aged over and under 40 years. Younger employees are clearly applying AI more frequently than their older colleagues, and have more often found that AI has streamlined their work in practice.

Antila considered it essential to enhance the digital skills of older employees in particular, so that they can stay abreast of the evolving demands of work and enhance their own job performance.

SAK is calling for a digital and AI strategy for work life to be launched by no later than the next government, with a view to improving employee inclusion and rights in the digital transformation.

Materials for the survey of union members on the impact of artificial intelligence on work in SAK-affiliated collective bargaining sectors were collected in December 2025 and 1,812 members responded to the survey.