Labor seeks public feedback ahead of nationwide AI survey launch

Ahead of the launch of a nationwide survey to capture how Americans are using artificial intelligence, the Department of Labor is seeking comments from the public and federal agencies on how to best collect that data.

In a Federal Register posting published Friday, the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics opened a two-month comment period for its American Time Use Survey on AI, which is set to go into the field for two years starting in January 2027.

The goal of the survey, per the posting, is to help BLS get a better understanding of the public’s adoption of AI, identifying early patterns “during a time of rapid technological and behavioral change.”

This will be the first federal survey that connects people’s AI usage with a “detailed record of their activities,” the posting said. Despite “rapid growth of AI applications,” there’s been no true accounting of how the emerging technology impacts the daily lives of Americans both in the office and outside of it. 

The new survey combined with the ATUS time diary “will allow researchers and policymakers to understand when, how, and for which tasks people use AI tools,” per the posting.

“No other national survey provides this level of behavioral insight; existing federal surveys may collect limited information on technology use, but none provide activity-level detail or link AI use to a continuous 24-hour record,” it continued.

While BLS is still seeking “clearance” from the Office of Management and Budget for the new module containing AI questions, the agency is focused on four areas: if individuals have used AI tools, what tasks AI tools are used for, how AI use varies across demographic and occupational groups, and how AI use corresponds with time spent on work, household activities, education and leisure. 

The BLS is hoping for agency comments that provide feedback into the survey’s “practical utility” and whether the survey methodology and assumptions seem valid. Agency feedback should help the BLS “enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected,” and ultimately minimize the collection burden on respondents. 

Survey data collected by the BLS will eventually be used to produce technical documentation, tabulations and microdata files made available to the public. 

Opening the public comment period puts the BLS in compliance with Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 requirements, a step that all ATUS surveys overseen by the agency go through as part of a “pre-clearance consultation program.” 

“This program helps to ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed,” the posting said.

Members of Congress have pushed legislation in recent months to get better agency-collected data on AI and the workforce. A bill introduced by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., in May tasked the DOL with creating a public resource with “aggregated workforce transparency data.”

Labor’s chief innovation officer, meanwhile, told FedScoop in April that the agency was nearing the finish line on its AI workforce hub, a portal that would bring together government and private-sector data on the technology.