Americans are increasingly turning to AI to help with tasks such as research, writing, school or work projects, and data analysis, but they’re not entirely happy with it.
Even as AI use and adoption grows, Americans remain distrustful of the new tool, according to A Survey at Quinnipiac University was published on Monday. More than three-quarters of the nearly 1,400 Americans surveyed said they don’t trust AI — 76% say they rarely or sometimes trust it, compared to 21% who trust it most or almost all of the time.
This comes even as a growing number of Americans embrace artificial intelligence in their daily lives; only 27% said they had never used AI tools, down from 33% in April 2025.
“The contrast between the use and trust of AI is striking,” said Chetan Jaiswal, a professor of computer science at Quinnipiac. “Fifty-one percent say they use AI for research, and many use it for writing, work, and data analysis. But only 21 percent trust AI-generated data most or almost all of the time. Americans are clearly using AI, but they’re doing so with deep hesitation, not deep confidence.”
Part of this distrust may stem from a sense of fear that future AI will bring. According to the survey, only a scant 6% are “very excited” about AI, while 62% are either not very excited or not at all excited. When it comes to concern, these numbers are largely reversed: 80% are either very concerned or somewhat concerned about AI, with Millennials and Baby Boomers taking the mantle of most concerned, and Gen Z not far behind.
According to the survey, half (55%) say AI will do more harm than good in their daily lives, while only a third say AI will do more good than harm. More people have negative views of artificial intelligence than in last year’s survey, according to researchers — which may not be surprising after a year of Big Tech layoffs. Cases of AI psychosisand data centers that strain the power grid.
All Americans oppose the construction of AI data centers in their communities, with 65% saying they do not want one, citing high electricity costs and water usage as the primary reason.
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A majority (70%) believe that AI advances will reduce the number of job opportunities, while only 7% believe that AI will lead to more job opportunities. That’s in contrast to 56% of Americans who thought advances in AI would lead to job losses last year, and 13% who thought AI would increase job opportunities. Members of Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2008, are the most pessimistic, with 81% predicting job losses.
They don’t exactly imagine it either. There are entry-level job postings in the US 35% sunk since 2023, and AI leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned technology will wipe out jobs.
“Young Americans report the most familiarity with artificial intelligence tools, but they are also the least optimistic about the job market,” said Tamilla Triantoro, a professor of business analytics and information systems at Quinnipiac. “Here AI fluency and optimism are moving in opposite directions.”
Interestingly, while most Americans are concerned about the impact of AI on the job market as a whole, many do not think it is coming specifically to their jobs. 30% of working Americans worry that AI will make their jobs obsolete. Again, this is 21% more than last year.
“Americans are more concerned about what AI might do to their jobs than what it might do to their jobs,” Triantoro said. “People seem more willing to predict a tougher market than to imagine themselves on the losing end of this disruption – worth watching as technology gets deeper into the workplace.”
Perhaps a big reason why Americans have trust issues with artificial intelligence is that they don’t trust the companies behind the technology to tell the truth. Two-thirds of respondents said businesses are not doing enough to be transparent about their use of AI. The same percentage say the government is not doing enough to control AI. The sentiment comes as states push to retain authority over AI regulations, even as federal officials do, including under Trump’s latest rules. light touch AI framework — and industry leaders advocate limiting regulation at the state level.
“Americans are not outright rejecting AI, but they are sending a warning,” Triantoro said. “Too much uncertainty, too little trust, too little regulation and too much fear about jobs.”
