American AI Sentiment in 2026

Survey ReportSEP 2026

Survey conducted June 2026

A study by Gallup and the Special Competitive Studies Project

American AI Sentiment in 2026

Twelve months after Gallup and the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) conducted their first survey on artificial intelligence (AI), Americans’ use of and familiarity with AI have grown, but their trust has not.

Use AI

51%39% in 2025

Use AI always, often, or sometimes at work or school and/or in personal life

Knowledge

68%60% in 2025

Very or somewhat knowledgeable about AI

Trust

28%32% in 2025

Fully or somewhat trust AI to make fair, unbiased decisions

Part 1

Use, Trust, and Economic Sentiment

Use and knowledge are rising, but trust is not

Fewer than three in 10 Americans (28%) either fully or somewhat trust AI to make fair and unbiased decisions in 2026, broadly in line with the 32% who said the same in 2025. More than twice as many people distrust AI (65%) as trust it, and the share who fully trust AI has remained at just 2%.

AI use is the clearest differentiator of trust: 43% of Americans who use AI sometimes or more trust it, more than three times the rate among those who use it rarely or never (12%).

Chart 1

2025 2026

Levels of use of, knowledge about, and trust in AI among U.S. adults (%)

Use AI always, often, or sometimes at work or school and/or in personal life

Very or somewhat knowledgeable about AI

Fully or somewhat trust AI to make fair, unbiased decisions

Americans, especially the young, have soured on AI’s economic effects

More people now believe AI will reduce economic growth (45%) than boost it (36%), a reversal from 2025, when more than twice as many held a positive view (53%) as a negative one (24%).

Chart 3 · Economic Growth

AI will increase AI will decrease

Note: Responses vary by question but are shown as “increase” and “decrease” for simplicity.

More people now believe AI will reduce economic growth (45%) than boost it (36%), a reversal from 2025, when more than twice as many held a positive view (53%) as a negative one (24%).

Part 2

The Policy and Regulation Americans Support

Support centers on broad, bipartisan backing for AI education and workforce training, as well as prioritizing safety and independent oversight over speed of development. However, partisan splits remain on several other policy measures.

Support for other policies split along partisan lines

Partisan differences in AI policy support depend on the specific proposal in question rather than follow a single consistent ideological line.

Chart 5

Support for AI policies by party identification (%)

Mandatory age verification policies, in general

Promoting STEM education to make sure workers are prepared to use AI in their future jobs

Creating on-the-job training programs that teach workers how to use AI skills

Increasing use of AI in manufacturing and robotics industries in the U.S.

Use of AI in the age verification measures used by websites and apps

Increasing government funding for AI research at colleges and universities so they can hire top AI researchers

Increasing U.S. energy production to build and run AI systems in the U.S.

Teaching AI skills in core K-12 education classes like math or reading

Allowing companies or universities researching AI to use the government's resources for their own AI research

Increasing the amount of money the U.S. government spends on funding for AI research

Reducing rules that regulate how AI technology can be developed to make it easier and faster for companies to develop AI

Support calculated by adding strongly and somewhat support. Select a party to isolate its series.

Safety, government regulation, and independent oversight are top priorities

Despite partisan differences on specific policy proposals, Americans are more aligned on the broader question of how AI should be regulated.

79%

say the government should prioritize maintaining safety and data security rules even if that slows AI development

7%prioritize speed of development over safety rules

This is unchanged from 2025 and holds across partisan lines.

75%

A majority of Americans also believe safety testing should be conducted by independent experts

52%say government agencies should conduct the testing

35%say companies should be responsible for their own testing

Conclusion

Americans are informally teaching themselves to use AI, turning to AI tools and free online content far more than to other people, while looking to policymakers to formalize that learning through education and workplace training. These measures, along with a shared preference for safety-first regulation and oversight by independent experts, represent the clearest points of common ground across the political spectrum.

Methodology

The 2026 SCSP-Gallup study is based on a Gallup Panel™ web survey completed by 3,152 adults in the U.S., aged 18 and older, conducted June 2-23, 2026. For results based on this sample, the margin of sampling error at the 95% confidence level is ±1.9 percentage points for response percentages around 50%.