Millions of working Americans struggle to read at a functional level, and artificial intelligence may be helping conceal it. AI tools let workers complete tasks they may not fully understand, masking deeper skill gaps until they are asked to make judgments, solve problems or evaluate the answers AI produces.
The Scale of Low Literacy at Work
Roughly 130 million U.S. adults read below a sixth-grade level, according to adult literacy estimates. About 43 million cannot read, write or do basic math above a third-grade level, according to ProLiteracy. Sharon Bonney, CEO of the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, told Axios that more than 90% of jobs require some form of computer literacy.
The gaps surface in emails, safety instructions, training materials, math-heavy trades, health benefits forms and computer-based tasks. Bonney said adult education programs often see learners who want better jobs but lack the basic reading, math, English-language or digital skills needed to enter apprenticeships, community college or higher-paying work. "If you can't read, write, speak the language, can't use a computer, your chances of being gainfully employed are pretty slim," she said.
How AI Hides the Gap
Some researchers describe a pattern of "cognitive surrender," where people defer to AI outputs without fully evaluating them. The result is a workforce that looks productive on the surface but is vulnerable to disruption. Workers have long hidden literacy gaps by asking family for help, avoiding written tasks or relying on coworkers, said Amanda Bergson-Shilcock, senior fellow at the National Skills Coalition. AI may now be accelerating that, creating what she calls an "invisible drag on productivity" that does not show up in data but slows teams down.
In some cases, low literacy among supervisors can ripple across an entire workplace, affecting performance and compliance, Bergson-Shilcock said. "If it's flashing a red warning light that says we have a literacy challenge, then we probably really do have a literacy challenge," she told Axios.
Why AI Raises the Skill Bar
Stephen Reder, professor emeritus of applied linguistics at Portland State University, argued that AI is likely to increase demand for workers with higher basic skills, not lower. He compared AI to calculators, which made math easier but did not remove the need to understand the problem being solved. "You still need to know what you're doing," he said.
A Reading Culture That Persists for Some
Americans have not stopped buying books. Independent bookstores have grown in recent years and Barnes & Noble has staged a comeback, suggesting reading culture remains strong for some. But Reder said book buying and literacy skills are not the same thing. The wider divide, he said, may be between people who use reading deeply in everyday life and those who rarely practice those skills, with usage falling fastest at the lower end of the spectrum.