[thomnific]

Perhaps labour economists, demographers, or sociologists?

I don't believe ML researchers are unqualified -- it's more of a potential incentive problem. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that people involved with / employed by a technology may have a tendency to exaggerate its benefits.

Ideally I'd trust the numbers here more if there was at least a cross-section of knowledgeable people being surveyed across a few different disciplines (or at least more than one).