TU Darmstadt found the people who know AI best fear it most

A representative TU Darmstadt survey of more than 2,000 people in Germany found that about 43% of those with very strong AI knowledge expect AI could soon take over their work, a higher share than among those who understand it less. Only 15% of respondents have had any AI training, eighteen months after the AI Act’s literacy obligation began to apply.

The better people understand AI, the more they expect it to take their job. About 43% of those with very strong AI knowledge think so, TU Darmstadt found.

The survey covered more than 2,000 people in Germany, carried out with YouGov. It is representative, and the answers are measured against last year’s edition.

“Those who understand AI best are also the most aware of its disruptive potential,” said Peter Buxmann, who led the study. He called the pattern both remarkable and worrying.

Industry matters less than output. If your work produces text, analysis, reports, code or slides, you are more exposed, Digital Trends reported.

The worries themselves are unglamorous, which is the second surprise. Hallucinations and data protection top the list, well ahead of anything about machine superintelligence.

Only 40% think superintelligence is even likely. TNW has argued that what AI is doing to jobs in Europe looks different from the headline version.

Younger workers are more anxious than older ones, which inverts the usual expectation too. Concern about job security rose across every occupational group since last year.

One number should trouble employers more than the rest of it. Just 15% of respondents have had any AI training at all.

Europe has had a rule about that for eighteen months. Article 4 of the AI Act has applied since 2 February 2025.

It obliges providers and deployers of AI systems to take measures supporting AI literacy among the staff who operate them, weighed against their training and the context of use.

It sets no particular level and binds only organisations actually using such systems, so 15% is not a compliance rate. TNW has asked whether the Act can protect jobs at all.

It is a readiness figure instead. Eighteen months of a literacy duty, and most German workers have had nothing.

Which is Buxmann’s point. He wants training and honest answers rather than reassurance, because losing a job costs more than income.