Concern about artificial intelligence is outpacing enthusiasm among U.S. adults, even as the technology becomes more visible in daily life, according to new Pew Research Center findings drawn from several surveys over the past five years.
Pew said half of U.S. adults now feel more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in everyday life. Only 10% say they are more excited than concerned, while 38% say the two feelings are about equal. That share of concern is higher than when Pew first asked the question in 2021, when 37% said they were more concerned than excited.
The research suggests Americans are especially uneasy about how AI could affect human abilities and social life. About half of adults said the technology will weaken people’s capacity for creative thinking and for building meaningful relationships. At the same time, many are more open to AI handling tasks tied to analysis, including applications such as weather forecasting.
Views differ sharply depending on the setting. Americans are notably more optimistic about AI in health care than in education or work. In an August 2024 Pew survey, 44% of adults said AI would have a positive impact on medical care in the United States over the next two decades, compared with 19% who expected a negative impact.
By contrast, only about a quarter said they expected AI to help education, and 23% said the same about how people do their jobs. Across the areas Pew asked about, roughly 16% to 30% of respondents said they were unsure.
Public comfort also appears to be growing unevenly. Pew found that nearly all Americans have now heard at least something about AI, and 47% said they had heard a lot about it in June 2025. That is up 21 percentage points from 2022. The share of adults saying they interact with AI several times a day also rose, from 22% in early 2024 to 31% in 2025.
Younger Americans are more likely than older adults to know about and use AI tools. Around half of adults under 50 said they interact with AI about once a day or more, according to Pew. Among employed adults, 38% of those ages 18 to 29 said they had used ChatGPT at work, compared with 30% of workers ages 30 to 49 and 18% of those 50 and older.
Teen use is even more widespread. In a fall 2025 survey, 64% of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 said they had used an AI chatbot. The most common reasons were looking up information and getting help with schoolwork. One-in-ten said they used a chatbot for all or most of their schoolwork. Teens also reported using chatbots to summarize content and create or edit images or video.
That adoption comes with concern. About six-in-ten teens said students at their school use chatbots to cheat at least somewhat often, and about a third said it happens very often or extremely often.
Pew’s findings also show AI reaching into homes and workplaces. About one-in-five U.S. workers said some of their job is now done with AI, up from 16% a year earlier. Among parents of children 12 or younger, about one-in-ten said their child uses an AI chatbot, and a similar share said their child uses a smartwatch with AI-assisted features.
Despite the spread of the technology, trust remains limited. In a 2024 Pew survey, AI experts were far more upbeat than the public about AI’s long-term effects. Still, both groups said they want more control over how AI is used in their lives.
Pew’s broader conclusion is that Americans are living with AI more often, but not necessarily feeling better about it. The public sees promise in some applications, especially medicine and data analysis, while remaining wary of its effect on creativity, relationships and everyday decision-making.