Young Americans are growing wary of AI: 10 findings from Pew's 2026 survey

Most Americans under 30 use AI chatbots, yet their enthusiasm for the technology has dropped. In 2021, 25% of adults ages 18 to 29 said the growing use of artificial intelligence in daily life left them more excited than concerned. By June 2026, that share was 11%. Young adults also became more likely to expect AI to mean fewer jobs over the next 20 years. That share rose from 61% in 2024 to 73% in 2026.

Those figures come from a Pew Research Center short read published August 18, 2026, by senior researcher Colleen McClain and research analyst Eugenie Park. Pew surveyed 3,488 U.S. adults between June 22 and 28, 2026. Every respondent belongs to Pew's American Trends Panel, and Pew says the results represent all U.S. adults. The trend lines draw on earlier Pew surveys from 2021 through 2025. The jobs question uses 2024 as its starting point.

The survey measures feelings and expectations, not behavior. It asks whether people are more concerned or more excited about AI. It also asks whether they think AI will mean more or fewer jobs. It does not show young adults abandoning the tools. Wariness and regular chatbot use exist side by side in this group.

Age matters, though not in the way the trend might suggest. Adults under 30 are not the most worried group. In 2026, 55% of them said they are more concerned than excited, compared with 59% of adults 65 and older. What sets younger adults apart is how far their excitement has fallen and how quickly their job-loss expectations have climbed.

The broader public has also cooled on AI. In 2026, 52% of U.S. adults said they are more concerned than excited, up from 37% in 2021. Only 9% said they are more excited than concerned.

The 10 slides that follow are a selection of findings from that one Pew survey of how young Americans and other age groups view AI. They cover overall sentiment, the year-by-year shift since 2021, the decline in excitement across four age groups and how expectations about AI and jobs differ by age. They do not cover everything Pew has published on Americans and AI.

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Just over half of U.S. adults, 52%, say the growing use of artificial intelligence in daily life makes them more concerned than excited. That is the most common answer in the June 2026 survey from Pew Research Center, and it is a majority on its own.

The question offers three choices. Respondents can say AI makes them more concerned than excited, more excited than concerned, or equally concerned and excited. In 2026, 37% picked the evenly balanced answer. Only 9% said their excitement outweighs their concern.

The gap between the two one-sided groups is wide. Adults who lean toward concern outnumber those who lean toward excitement by 43 percentage points. For each American who is more excited than concerned, nearly six are more concerned than excited.

Combining the first two groups gives another reading of the result. Together, the more concerned and the evenly split make up 89% of U.S. adults. Every person in that combined group reports concern about AI that is at least as strong as their excitement.

The three answer shares add up to 98%. Pew's short read does not break down the remaining 2%.

The current level is well above where Pew's trend line began. In 2021, 37% of U.S. adults said they were more concerned than excited. The 2026 figure is 15 percentage points higher. Over that stretch, the concerned group grew from a little over a third of the public to more than half.

The 52% figure covers all adults. It serves as the national benchmark for Pew's age breakdowns. Those breakdowns show that the move away from enthusiasm has played out differently for adults under 30 than for older Americans.

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Between 2021 and 2026, U.S. opinion on AI in daily life moved from mixed feelings toward concern. Pew Research Center's yearly figures show the share more concerned than excited rising from 37% to 52%. Over the same period, the share equally concerned and excited shrank from 45% to 37%.

In 2021, ambivalence was the most common answer. That year, 45% of U.S. adults said they felt equally concerned and excited about the growing use of AI in everyday life. Another 37% leaned toward concern. The remaining 18% leaned toward excitement.

The 2022 survey looked much like the year before. The middle group edged up to 46%, and concern edged up to 38%. The share more excited than concerned slipped to 15%. On those numbers, most of the public still sat in the middle.

The order changed in 2023. Concern rose to 52% and became the most common response. The equally concerned and excited group fell to 36%, and excitement dropped to 10%.

The next three surveys moved within narrow bands. In 2024, the split was 51% more concerned, 38% equally concerned and excited, and 11% more excited. In 2025, it was 50%, 38% and 10%. The June 2026 survey recorded 52%, 37% and 9%.

Taken end to end, the series shows one group growing and two shrinking. The more-concerned share gained 15 percentage points over five years. The middle group lost eight points. The more-excited group lost nine points, halving from 18% to 9%.

The shrinking middle changes how the public's view is distributed. In 2021, the evenly balanced answer outnumbered concern by eight points. By 2026, concern led the evenly balanced answer by 15 points. Fewer Americans now describe their feelings about AI as evenly split between concern and excitement.

The published shares do not always add to exactly 100%. They total 98% or 99% in four of the six years, including 2026. The source does not say how the remaining respondents answered.

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Most of the rise in Americans' concern about artificial intelligence happened in a single year. In Pew Research Center's trend data, the share of U.S. adults who said they are more concerned than excited about AI in daily life rose from 38% in 2022 to 52% in 2023. It has stayed near that level since.

That 14-percentage-point move is the largest one-year change in Pew's series. Before it, concern had barely moved. The figure was 37% in 2021 and 38% a year later.

The 2023 increase drew from both of the other camps. Between 2022 and 2023, the share who said they feel equally concerned and excited fell from 46% to 36%. That is a 10-point drop.

The smallest group shrank too. The share more excited than concerned slipped from 15% in 2022 to 10% in 2023.

After 2023, the pattern changed. Concern registered 51% in 2024 and 50% in 2025. In the survey Pew conducted from June 22 to 28, 2026, it stood at 52%. Across those four readings, the figure stayed within a two-point band. The 2026 result matches the 2023 result exactly.

A flat national line does not mean every measure held still. Pew's jobs question asks whether AI will mean fewer jobs over the next 20 years. Between 2024 and 2026, the share giving that answer rose in all four age groups. Over the same years, the share of all adults more concerned than excited stayed between 50% and 52%.

Pew's short read does not give a reason for the 2023 jump. It also does not report margins of error for the earlier surveys. The figures above are the yearly shares as Pew published them.

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Just 9% of U.S. adults say the growing use of artificial intelligence in daily life leaves them more excited than concerned, according to Pew Research Center's June 2026 survey. That share is half the 18% who said the same in 2021.

The enthusiast camp is now the smallest of the three groups Pew tracks by a wide margin. More than half of adults, 52%, lean toward concern. Another 37% describe their feelings as an even mix of concern and excitement.

Put side by side, people who lean toward concern outnumber those who lean toward excitement by close to six to one. In 2021, the ratio was about two to one, with 37% concerned and 18% excited.

The shrinkage did not happen all at once. Excitement slipped from 18% in 2021 to 15% in 2022. It then fell to 10% in 2023, the largest one-year drop in the series at five percentage points. Since then it has stayed in a narrow band, at 11% in 2024, 10% in 2025 and 9% in 2026.

The 2026 reading is the lowest in the six annual readings Pew reported for this question. It sits one or two points below the three years before it. Pew asked the question once a year, so the data cannot show movement between survey waves.

No age group comes close to an enthusiastic majority. Even the most upbeat group in 2026, adults ages 30 to 49, stands at 12%. Adults 65 and older are the least enthusiastic, at 4%.

The finding measures how people feel about AI's spread, not whether they use it. A respondent can rely on AI tools at work or at home and still say the technology's growing presence worries them more than it excites them. Pew's question asks about feelings toward AI's role in everyday life, not about any single product.

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Fewer adults in every age group now say they are more excited than concerned about AI. In Pew Research Center's survey, that share fell in all four age brackets between 2021 and 2026, from adults under 30 to those 65 and older.

Young adults had the largest drop. Among adults ages 18 to 29, the share more excited than concerned went from 25% in 2021 to 11% in 2026. That is a 14-point decline. It moved the group from the most excited bracket to the second most excited.

Adults ages 30 to 49 moved in the same direction. Their excitement share fell from 21% to 12%, down nine points. That leaves the 30-to-49 group with the highest excitement level of any age bracket in 2026. It sits one point above adults under 30.

The two older groups started from a lower base. Adults ages 50 to 64 went from 13% to 8%, a five-point drop. Adults 65 and older went from 11% to 4%, a seven-point drop. In 2026, one in 25 adults in the oldest group said they are more excited than concerned.

Two of the four groups ended the period at less than half their 2021 excitement level. Those are adults under 30 and adults 65 and older. The other two groups kept a little more than half of their 2021 share.

The age pattern has also compressed. In 2021, excitement fell with each older bracket, and 14 points separated the youngest group from the oldest. By 2026, the spread between the most and least excited groups — ages 30 to 49 and ages 65 and older — had narrowed to eight points.

No age group in 2026 has an excitement share above 12%. In 2021, three of the four groups were above that level.

The measure tracks one answer. Pew asked whether the growing use of AI in daily life makes people more excited than concerned, more concerned than excited or equally both. A smaller excitement share means fewer people lean positive on that question. It does not measure how many people use AI tools.

Pew does not publish sample sizes or margins of error for the age subgroups in this short read. Those missing figures matter most for the narrowest gaps, such as the one point between ages 18 to 29 and ages 30 to 49 in 2026.

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Adults ages 18 to 29 lost more enthusiasm for artificial intelligence than any other age group in Pew Research Center's surveys between 2021 and 2026. The share of under-30s who said AI in daily life makes them more excited than concerned fell from 25% to 11%, a drop of 14 percentage points.

The next-largest decline came among adults 30 to 49, where the share fell by nine points. Adults 65 and older saw a seven-point decline. Adults 50 to 64 saw the smallest change, a five-point drop.

The size of the fall reflects where young adults started. In 2021, under-30s were the most enthusiastic group in Pew's data, with a quarter saying excitement outweighed concern. That was four points above adults 30 to 49. It was also more than double the 11% recorded among adults 65 and older.

By 2026, that lead was gone. Adults under 30 now sit at 11%, one point below the 12% among adults 30 to 49. The group that once stood apart for its optimism about AI now registers close to the middle-aged adults surveyed alongside it.

Measured as a proportion rather than in points, the ranking changes. The under-30 share fell by 56% of its 2021 level. The share among adults 65 and older fell by about 64%, from 11% to 4%. The oldest group started from a much lower base. That is why its drop in points was smaller even though its relative decline was larger.

Pew's question measures feelings, not behavior. It asks whether the growing use of AI in daily life leaves people more excited, more concerned or equally both. A shrinking excitement figure does not mean young adults have stopped using AI tools.

The data in Pew's short read do not include a 2021 concern figure for adults under 30. That makes this falling excitement share the clearest long-run measure in the data of how young adults' outlook on AI has changed.

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Adults under 30 are not the age group most worried about artificial intelligence. In Pew Research Center's June 2026 survey, 55% of adults ages 18 to 29 said the growing use of AI in daily life makes them more concerned than excited. Among adults 65 and older, the share was 59%.

That leaves a gap of four percentage points between the youngest and oldest adults. Both groups sit above the national figure of 52%. Young adults are three points above it.

The age difference is wider at the other end of the scale. In 2026, 11% of adults under 30 said they are more excited than concerned about AI. Among adults 65 and older, that share was 4%. The oldest group has the lowest level of enthusiasm of the four age groups in Pew's data.

The order flips on jobs. Pew asked whether AI will mean fewer jobs over the next 20 years. In 2026, 73% of adults under 30 said it will, compared with 63% of adults 65 and older. That is a gap of 10 points in the opposite direction. Pew describes the older group as somewhat less likely to hold this view, though it is still the majority view among them.

The survey measures feelings and expectations, not use. A higher level of concern does not mean a group has stopped using AI tools.

Pew's short read gives no 2021 concern figure for adults under 30. Its finding that young adults are growing more wary rests on their falling excitement and their rising expectation of job losses, not on a measured rise in concern.

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Most U.S. adults under 30 use AI chatbots, Pew Research Center reports, even as their enthusiasm for artificial intelligence has cooled. Pew's survey measured feelings and expectations about AI. It did not measure whether young adults are using the technology less.

That difference shapes how the rest of the findings should be read. A change in attitude is not a change in behavior. The short read gives no figure for chatbot use among adults under 30. It also does not report whether that use has risen or fallen over time.

The attitude data moves in one direction. In 2026, 11% of adults ages 18 to 29 said the growing use of AI in daily life makes them more excited than concerned. In 2021, that share was 25%.

Concern is the more common response in this age group. Among adults under 30, 55% said in 2026 that they are more concerned than excited about AI. That is a majority, though it sits below the 59% recorded for adults 65 and older.

Expectations about work have shifted as well. Among adults under 30, 73% said AI will mean fewer jobs over the next 20 years. In 2024, the figure was 61%.

Taken together, these numbers describe a group that widely uses chatbots while expressing less excitement and more doubt about where AI is heading. Pew's data does not show whether that wariness will change how often young adults turn to chatbots. It also does not explain why use and sentiment have moved apart. The survey records the gap between the two without measuring its causes.

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Nearly three in four U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 — 73% — expect artificial intelligence to mean fewer jobs over the next 20 years, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2026. In 2024, 61% of that age group gave the same answer.

That 12-percentage-point rise is the largest of the four age groups Pew tracked on this question between 2024 and 2026. Adults ages 30 to 49 went from 66% to 74%, an increase of eight points. Among adults 65 and older, the share moved from 58% to 63%. Adults ages 50 to 64 changed the least, going from 69% to 72%.

The faster climb among under-30s reshuffled the age comparison. In 2024, adults under 30 were less likely to expect job losses than either the 30-to-49 or the 50-to-64 group. They trailed the 50-to-64 group by eight points. Only adults 65 and older were less likely to hold that view.

By 2026, those gaps had all but disappeared. The under-30 figure sat one point below the 30-to-49 group and one point above the 50-to-64 group. Adults 65 and older remained the outlier, 10 points below the youngest adults. Even so, at least 63% of every age group expected fewer jobs.

The question sets a 20-year time frame. It asks about jobs over the next two decades, not the next year or two. For someone who is 18 to 29 today, that period would end when they are 38 to 49.

The 73% figure reflects expectations about the future, not job losses that have already happened. It also says nothing about whether young adults use AI tools.

Pew surveyed 3,488 U.S. adults from June 22 to 28, 2026, all members of its American Trends Panel. Pew says the results represent all U.S. adults. Its jobs trend uses 2024 as the starting point.