Artificial intelligence (AI) has become part of everyday life for many Americans – at work, at school, in health care and beyond. As AI spreads, the public remains cautious, but somewhat open to its potential benefits.
Drawing on five years of Pew Research Center surveys, here are 13 findings about how Americans use and view AI, and where they see promise and risk.
Americans continue to be wary of AI’s impact on daily life. Half of U.S. adults say the increased use of AI in daily life makes them feel more concerned than excited, according to a June 2025 survey. Just 10% say they are more excited than concerned. Another 38% say they are equally concerned and excited.
More Americans are concerned today than they were when we first asked this question in 2021. Back then, 37% said they were more concerned than excited.
In contrast, concern is lower in many of the 24 other countries we’ve polled about AI.
U.S. adults are generally concerned about AI’s effect on creativity and relationships but are more open to using it for data analysis. About half of Americans said in the June survey that AI will worsen people’s ability to think creatively and form meaningful relationships with others. Far fewer said AI will make these things better.
However, Americans tend to be more open to AI playing a role in data analysis tasks such as forecasting the weather.
Americans are more optimistic about AI in medical care but pessimistic about its impact on education and jobs.
Americans were more likely to say AI will have a positive (44%) than negative (19%) impact on medical care in the U.S. over the next 20 years, according to an August 2024 survey.
Views were more negative for the other areas we asked about. For example, only about a quarter said AI would have positive impacts on education (24%) and how people do their jobs (23%).
Across the areas we asked about, 16% to 30% said they weren’t sure what impact AI would have.
A majority of teens use AI chatbots. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 (64%) say they ever use an AI chatbot, according to a fall 2025 survey.
Teens use chatbots for many reasons, but searching for information and getting help with schoolwork are the most common ones, out of the uses we asked about. More than half of teens say they use chatbots for these reasons, and one-in-ten teens report using a chatbot to help with all or most of their schoolwork.
About four-in-ten teens also say they use chatbots to summarize text or videos (42%) or to create or edit images or videos (38%). Fewer say they use chatbots for more personal reasons, such as casual conversation (16%) or emotional support or advice (12%).
Most teens say using chatbots to cheat on schoolwork is common at their school. About six-in-ten say students at their school use chatbots to cheat at least somewhat often. This includes about a third who say it happens extremely or very often.
A growing share of U.S. workers say at least some of their work is done with AI. That share has risen from 16% in 2024 to 21% in a September 2025 survey. However, a majority of American workers (65%) still say they don’t use AI much or at all in their job.
Public awareness and usage of AI continue to grow. Almost all Americans said they had heard or read at least a little about AI, including 47% who said they had heard a lot about it in a June 2025 survey. The latter has increased 21 percentage points since 2022, when 26% said they’d heard a lot about AI.
In addition, 31% of Americans said they interact with AI at least several times a day, up from 22% in February 2024.
Younger adults are more likely than older Americans to be aware of and use AI.
Around half of adults under 50 say they interact with AI about once a day or more often. Smaller shares of those 50 and older say the same, according to the June survey.
We see a similar pattern in the shares of employed Americans who say they’ve ever used ChatGPT at work. While 38% of employed 18- to 29-year-olds say they’ve done this, that drops to 30% of those 30 to 49 and 18% of those 50 and older, according to a February-March 2025 survey.
When asked about the increased use of AI in daily life, younger adults are slightly more excited than older adults. Still, majorities of younger adults are wary of AI’s impact on things like human creativity or forming meaningful relationships.
Using AI-assisted devices starts early for some kids. In a May 2025 survey, we asked parents of young kids about their child’s use of technology. About one-in-ten told us that their 5- to 12-year-old uses AI chatbots.
And 11% of parents with a kid 12 or younger said their child uses a smartwatch, which often has AI-assisted features. This share rises to 21% among parents with an 11- or 12-year-old.
Parents of older children are also more likely than those with a younger child to say their kid uses a voice-activated assistant like Siri or Alexa.
11% of parents say their child uses a smartwatch, similar share with an older kid say this about chatbots
% of U.S. parents of a child age 12 or younger who say that as far as they know, their child ever uses or interacts with the following
* Based on parents of a child age 5 to 12.
Note: Refer to the questionnaire for full question wording and response options. Parents with more than one child age 12 or younger were asked about one randomly selected child and may have children in other age groups. Not all differences shown are statistically significant. Those who did not answer or gave other responses are not shown.
Source: Survey of U.S. parents conducted May 13-26, 2025.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
11% of parents say their child uses a smartwatch, similar share with an older kid say this about chatbots
% of U.S. parents of a child age 12 or younger who say that as far as they know, their child ever uses or interacts with the following
| Voice-activated assistant | Smartwatch | AI chatbot* | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 37 | 11 | 8 |
| Child under age 2 | 12 | 7 | N/A |
| Ages 2 to 4 | 27 | 7 | N/A |
| 5 to 7 | 36 | 7 | 3 |
| 8 to 10 | 46 | 13 | 7 |
| 11 to 12 | 53 | 21 | 15 |
* Based on parents of a child age 5 to 12.
Note: Refer to the questionnaire for full question wording and response options. Parents with more than one child age 12 or younger were asked about one randomly selected child and may have children in other age groups. Not all differences shown are statistically significant. Those who did not answer or gave other responses are not shown.
Source: Survey of U.S. parents conducted May 13-26, 2025.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
AI experts are much more enthusiastic about AI than the U.S. public is, but both groups want more control.
In 2024, we surveyed the American public and experts in the field of AI about their views on AI and its impact on society. Some 56% of AI experts think AI will have a very or somewhat positive impact on the U.S. over the next 20 years, compared with just 17% of the general public.
However, almost half or more in both groups said they have little or no control over AI’s use in their lives, and more than half want more control.
Few Americans are getting news from AI chatbots, and those who do have mixed views of its accuracy.
Just 9% of U.S. adults say they get news at least sometimes from AI chatbots based on an August 2025 survey. Most (75%) say they never get news this way.
And seeing inaccurate information is fairly common on chatbots. About half of adults who get news from AI chatbots say they at least sometimes come across news there that they think is inaccurate. That includes 16% who say this happens often or extremely often.
Americans are more likely to say certain groups are better represented than others in AI design.
Four-in-ten U.S. adults say the people designing AI take the experiences and views of White adults into account at least somewhat well, according to a 2024 survey. Fewer say the same about Asian (25%), Black (19%) or Hispanic adults (17%).
The public is also more likely to say men’s perspectives are well considered in AI design, compared with those who say the same about women’s perspectives.
Still, sizable shares – 37% to 44% – say they are unsure how well these groups are represented.
Democrats have less trust than Republicans do in the U.S. to regulate AI, according to a March 2025 survey.
Americans are divided on the amount of trust they have in the country to regulate AI use well. While 44% have a lot or some trust, 47% have not too much or no trust at all.
However, this varies by party: 54% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have a lot or some trust in the U.S. to regulate AI, compared with 36% of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published Nov. 21, 2023. Former Associate Director of Research Alec Tyson co-authored the original post.
