What happened #
Pew Research Center reports that 52% of U.S. adults are more concerned than excited about AI’s increased use in daily life, while 71% expect AI to lead to fewer U.S. jobs over the next 20 years.
Pew Research Center surveyed 3,488 U.S. adults from June 22 to 28, 2026, through its American Trends Panel. Pew says the survey represents the views of the full U.S. adult population. The center found that 52% of respondents felt more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life. Another 37% felt equally concerned and excited, while 9% felt more excited than concerned. Respondents who did not answer were not shown in the published chart. The result marks a change from 2021, when 37% were more concerned than excited, 45% felt both emotions equally and 18% were more excited than concerned.
Young adults showed the clearest continuing shift in the data. Among adults ages 18 to 29, the share who were more concerned than excited rose from 31% in 2021 to 39% in 2024, 47% in 2025 and 55% in 2026. The share who were more excited than concerned fell from 25% in 2021 to 19% in 2024, 14% in 2025 and 11% in 2026. Pew reports that concern also reached a majority among adults ages 65 and older, at 59%, although that group had the smallest share expressing greater excitement, at 4%. Across every age group, at least 47% said they were more concerned than excited in 2026.
The employment findings were similarly stark. Pew reports that 71% of U.S. adults believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the United States over the next 20 years, compared with 64% in 2024. Only 5% expected more jobs, while 10% said AI would not make much difference and 14% were unsure; people who did not answer were not shown. Among adults ages 18 to 29, the share expecting fewer jobs rose from 61% in 2024 to 73% in 2026. The comparable figures were 74% for adults ages 30 to 49, 72% for those ages 50 to 64 and 63% for those 65 and older. These are reported expectations, not measurements of current employment outcomes.
Read the primary source: pewresearch.org ↗
Why it matters #
The findings indicate that public concern about AI is broadening rather than fading, including among younger adults. They measure expectations and sentiment, not actual job losses or the effects of specific AI systems.
The central significance of the survey is the direction and breadth of public sentiment. Concern about AI is no longer concentrated in older groups or limited to a small group of skeptics. Pew’s figures show that a majority of adults in every age category now describe themselves as more concerned than excited about AI in daily life. For adults under 30, the change is especially notable because their concern continued to rise after 2023, while the source says concern among older groups rose mainly during the first two years of the period studied.
That pattern suggests that younger adults’ views may be changing as they encounter more discussion of AI’s effects on work and everyday life, though the survey does not identify the reasons for the shift. The jobs data also show how Americans are framing the economic stakes. A large majority expect AI to reduce employment over a 20-year horizon, while only a small minority expect it to create more jobs. The result does not determine whether that forecast will be accurate, but it is relevant to how workers, students, employers and policymakers may approach adoption. Public expectations can shape demands for training, transparency, workplace protections and accountability. The source provides no evidence that the survey itself changed behavior, influenced policy or predicts future voting, purchasing or employment decisions.
There are important limits to what can be concluded. Pew measured what respondents think AI will do, not how many jobs have already been automated, which occupations may be affected or whether new roles will offset losses. The survey does not establish that AI is the cause of any current employment change. It also does not show whether respondents are basing their views on direct experience, news coverage, employer decisions, personal use of chatbots or broader economic anxiety. The source says adults under 30 are generally more likely to think AI will be bad for society and themselves, and that many use chatbots, but it does not provide a causal link between those views and the employment forecast. No independent evidence in the supplied material confirms or disputes the survey’s predictions.
What to watch next #
Future research should test whether these expectations correspond with measurable changes in hiring, layoffs, wages, workplace adoption and education. It will also be important to track whether concern affects regulation, training and public use of AI.
The next useful test will be whether stated expectations line up with observed labor-market outcomes. Future reporting and research should examine hiring, layoffs, wage changes, changes in job tasks and movement between occupations, with results broken down by age, education, industry and geography. Those measures would help distinguish broad fear of displacement from specific exposure to workplace automation. They could also reveal whether AI changes the composition of work without reducing total employment, a possibility that this survey does not assess.
Researchers should also ask respondents about their direct contact with AI. Important follow-up questions include whether a person’s employer uses AI, whether the technology changed their duties or hours, whether they received training, and whether they view AI as a replacement or an assistance tool. Comparing answers from actual users, nonusers, workers and people seeking employment could clarify what is driving the growing concern. The supplied Pew source does not provide those cross-tabs or identify the industries behind respondents’ views.
The policy and product response will be another meaningful indicator. Watch for evidence that employers, schools and governments address the public’s concern through retraining, disclosure of AI use, worker consultation or rules for high-impact decisions. It will also be important to see whether public skepticism changes adoption or merely accompanies it. Future Pew waves or comparable surveys should preserve the same question wording so changes can be tracked, while adding measures of actual experience. Until then, the strongest verified conclusion is about sentiment: Americans, including a majority of young adults, increasingly expect AI to create economic disruption.