Only 16 Percent of Americans Expect AI to Help Society

Americans are using AI more than ever and trusting it less than ever. A sweeping new survey puts a hard number on that contradiction.

The Headline Number Is a Trust Deficit

Only 16% of US adults expect AI to have a positive impact on society over the next 20 years. Pew Research Center found that 40% expect a negative impact, with most of the rest landing in the neutral middle.

The survey is not a small sample. TechCrunch reported that Pew polled 5,119 US adults from February 17 to 23, 2026, and released the findings on June 17.

That timing is the story. The pessimism arrives during what could fairly be called peak AI hype, with constant product launches, billion-dollar rounds, and a crowded IPO pipeline.

Adoption Keeps Climbing Anyway

The skepticism has not slowed usage. About half of US adults now report using AI chatbots, with roughly one in four using them daily.

ChatGPT dominates that activity. Gizmodo noted that 44% of Americans now report using OpenAI's chatbot, up from 34% when Pew last asked, and more than double the 2023 figure.

The rest of the field trails by a wide margin. Pew put Gemini at 24%, Copilot at 17%, Meta AI at 14%, Grok at 8%, Claude at 6%, and Character.ai at 3%.

That ranking carries a lesson for vendors. Enterprise reputation and consumer reach are not the same thing, and a model can lead in the boardroom while barely registering at the kitchen table.

Young Adults Are the Most Skeptical

The most counterintuitive finding upends a common assumption. The cohort most fluent in AI is also the most pessimistic about it.

Adults under 30 are the least optimistic group in the study, with just 14% expecting a positive impact. SquaredTech noted these are the same people who grew up with algorithmic feeds and content-moderation failures, so heavy use has not translated into faith.

That breaks the tidy narrative that exposure builds enthusiasm. For products aimed at younger audiences, the safer assumption is more scrutiny, not less.

Distrust Extends to Both Regulators and Builders

The unease is not only about outcomes. It is about who, if anyone, is steering.

Pew found that 67% of Americans have little or no confidence in the US government to regulate AI effectively, slightly up from 62% in 2024. About six in ten are also not confident that the companies building AI are doing so responsibly.

There is a security dimension too. Roughly seven in ten respondents predict AI will erode the security of their personal information, a worry that maps directly onto the enterprise reality that AI security has become the hardest part of deployment.

How People Actually Use It Matters for Discovery

The usage data also reshapes how brands get found. Search and work were the most common reasons people reach for a chatbot.

Six in ten US adults told Pew they read AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, a behavior that is becoming unavoidable rather than optional. That shift rewards content built to be cited inside an answer, not just ranked beneath one.

An outside expert framed the stakes plainly. Anton Dahbura of Johns Hopkins told WLOS that the strong usage numbers show AI is officially in the mainstream, while cautioning against overreliance or misplaced trust in chatbots.

What Operators Should Take From This

The practical read is that capability is no longer the bottleneck. Trust is.

People are already using these tools, including assistants like ChatGPT, so the work now is earning confidence rather than driving awareness. That means visible sourcing, clear limits, and honest handling of personal data.

The companies that treat skepticism as a feature to design for, rather than a phase to wait out, will be the ones that convert mainstream usage into durable loyalty. The adoption curve is settled. The trust curve is the one still up for grabs.