Daily AI users in the United States are the least worried Americans when it comes to artificial intelligence, and two-thirds of them are still worried. In a new Gallup survey commissioned by Microsoft, 68% of American daily AI users said AI makes them feel worried. Among Americans who use it less often, the figure was 80%. Among those who have never used it, 74%.
That finding cuts against a comfortable assumption in the technology industry: that once people start using AI, their fears fade. Use does seem to help a little. It does not make the worry go away. And the United States stands out. Of the 37 countries in the first round of results, it recorded the highest share of AI-aware adults who feel worried, at 74%.
This article explains what Gallup asked, what the numbers say about daily AI users in the US and elsewhere, how trust and optimism differ from worry, where early coverage misread the data, and what businesses rolling out AI should take from it. For a related global survey on jobs, see our earlier post, AI Is Feared Globally as the Destroyer of Jobs.
Table of contents
- What Gallup Asked Daily AI Users and Everyone Else
- The Headline: 68% of US Daily AI Users Are Worried
- The Worried West: High Use, High Worry
- Trust Rises With Use, Among Daily AI Users Most of All
- The Adoption Ladder Around the World
- How Early Coverage Misread the Gallup Numbers
- How the Gallup Findings Fit With Other Surveys
- What Daily AI Users’ Worry Means for Businesses
- Daily AI Users: Frequently Asked Questions
- References
What Gallup Asked Daily AI Users and Everyone Else
The survey is the first slice of a much larger project. Gallup and Microsoft plan to cover 140 countries, and the 37 published on 22 September are simply the first to finish fieldwork this year.
How the survey was run
Gallup interviewed about 1,000 adults aged 15 and older in each country, by telephone, face to face or online, between April and July 2026. The samples are nationally representative and probability-based. Gallup puts the margin of sampling error for national results between ±2.2 and ±4.9 percentage points.
Five things it measured
The study tracks public engagement with AI on five dimensions: awareness, how often people use it, how it makes them feel, what impact they expect, and how much they trust it. Questions about feelings, expectations and trust were only asked of people who said they were aware of AI.
Who counts as a daily user
Gallup told 404 Media that it defined a daily user as someone who used AI every day, whether for work or for personal reasons. That is a broad definition. It includes people who use a chatbot to plan dinner as well as professionals who work with AI tools all day.
What is not in it yet
The published results do not include India, Australia or Malaysia, TechCrunch noted. Gallup senior scientist Pablo Diego-Rosell also told 404 Media he had not yet seen results for some large European countries such as Germany and France.
| Survey detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Commissioned by | Microsoft, as part of Gallup’s ongoing research |
| Countries so far | 37 of a planned 140 |
| Sample | About 1,000 adults aged 15+ per country |
| Fieldwork | April to July 2026 |
| Margin of error | ±2.2 to ±4.9 points, national samples |
| Published | 22 September 2026 |
The Headline: 68% of US Daily AI Users Are Worried
The number that gave this story its headline comes from one short passage in Gallup’s report about wealthy Western countries.
The US figures
In the United States, 68% of daily AI users say AI makes them feel worried, compared with 80% of less frequent users and 74% of those who have never used AI. The chart shows the three groups. Each bar’s width is the share of that group who feel worried.
Why “even” is the right word
The gap between daily AI users and less frequent users is 12 percentage points. That is real, and it runs in the direction the industry hopes. But it moves the worried share from four in five to two in three. It does not turn a worried population into a relaxed one.
The middle group is the most anxious
The most worried Americans are not the non-users. They are the people who have tried AI but use it less than daily. One possible reading is that occasional use shows people enough to see the risks without building the familiarity that daily AI users have. Gallup does not test that explanation, so treat it as a hypothesis.
Canada shows the same shape
In Canada, worry rises from 54% among daily AI users to 72% among less frequent users and 69% among non-users. The gap between daily and less frequent users there is 18 points, wider than in the US. Gallup says similar patterns appear in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand.
The Worried West: High Use, High Worry
Gallup calls this section of its report “The Paradox of the Worried West”. It is the most striking pattern in the data.
Seven countries at the top
The seven wealthy Western countries surveyed occupy ranks 1 to 6 and 8 on worry. The United States leads at 74% of AI-aware adults, followed by the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland and Malta.
Heavy users, heavy worry
These are also some of the heaviest AI-using countries in the study. A median of 29% of adults in the seven Western countries use AI daily, compared with 17% across the other 30. So the West has more daily AI users and more worry at the same time, even though, within each Western country, the daily AI users are the least worried group.
Negative feelings win in only three countries
Across the whole survey, positive feelings about AI outweigh negative ones in 34 of 37 countries. The exceptions are the United States, Egypt and the State of Palestine. Diego-Rosell suggested the broader emotional climate may play a part: “When people are living in environments where worry, stress or other negative emotions are already elevated, some of that broader emotional climate may shape how they react to a technology like AI.”
Possible reasons in the US
Gallup does not explain the American mood, but reporters offered context. TechCrunch pointed to AI-linked layoffs, shrinking entry-level openings and warnings from AI leaders such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei that the technology could eliminate many jobs. Gizmodo noted that wealthy economies have more knowledge workers exposed to automation, and that headlines about AI going rogue and power-hungry data centres “certainly have not helped.”
Trust Rises With Use, Among Daily AI Users Most of All
Worry is only one of the five measures. On trust, the gap between daily AI users and everyone else is much wider.
The US trust ladder
Gallup asked AI-aware adults how much they trust AI to provide accurate information. In the US, 45% of daily AI users trust it completely or a lot, compared with 26% of weekly users, 15% of those who use it less than weekly and 8% of those who have never used it.
Daily AI users are more than five times as likely as non-users to trust AI’s accuracy. Even so, fewer than half of them do. The majority of the most frequent users still have doubts about whether the answers are right.
Trust is low almost everywhere
Across the 37 countries, the median share of AI-aware adults who trust AI completely or a lot is 36%. Only four countries reach a majority: Israel at 67%, Vietnam at 59%, China at 58% and Nigeria at 52%.
Optimism outruns trust
In 35 of the 37 countries, more people expect AI to help their country than trust it to give accurate information. People can believe in the promise of AI while doubting its answers today. “People can be curious about AI, expect it to be beneficial and use it frequently while still being worried about it,” Diego-Rosell told TechCrunch.
Which comes first?
Gallup is careful here. “The survey cannot establish whether greater trust leads people to use AI more often, whether experience with AI builds trust, or both,” its report says. Diego-Rosell called causality “the biggest unanswered question” and asked: “Does experience with AI make people more comfortable with it, or are people who already trust AI simply more willing to use it?”
The Adoption Ladder Around the World
Gallup describes AI engagement as a ladder: awareness first, then trying AI, then using it often. Most of the world is still near the bottom.
Most people have never used AI
The median share of adults aware of AI is 81%. The median share who have ever used it is 43%, which means a median of 57% have never used it at all. Daily AI users are a smaller group again.
Two ends of the ladder
Singapore and Malawi show how wide the range is. The table uses Gallup’s figures for all adults.
| Step on the ladder | Singapore | 37-country median | Malawi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aware of AI | 96% | 81% | 12% |
| Ever used AI | 79% | 43% | 3% |
| Use AI daily | 46% | Not published | 1% |
Optimism does not follow use
In Nigeria, 68% of AI-aware adults expect AI to mostly help their country, although only 20% have ever used it. In Vietnam the figures are 91% and 43%. Positive expectations can be widespread where daily AI users are rare.
Who expects AI to help
The gap between the most and least optimistic countries is enormous, and the United States sits near the bottom.
| Most optimistic | Expect AI to mostly help the country | Least optimistic | Expect AI to mostly help the country |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 93% | Bangladesh | 34% |
| Vietnam | 91% | Egypt | 35% |
| Singapore | 77% | United States | 36% |
| Israel | 69% | Optimists outnumber pessimists in 29 of 37 countries | |
| Nigeria | 68% | Optimists are a majority in 18 of 37 | |
Curiosity comes first
Worry is not the dominant feeling worldwide. Across the 37 countries, the median share who feel curious about AI is 64%, against 39% who feel happy and 34% who feel excited. Worry is the most common negative emotion, at a median of 32%, well ahead of sadness and anger at 12% each. Overall, a median of 72% report at least one positive emotion and 41% at least one negative one.
How Early Coverage Misread the Gallup Numbers
Survey stories travel fast, and several details changed on the way. Three are worth correcting, because they change what the numbers mean for daily AI users.
“43% use AI daily”
404 Media wrote that “only a median of 43% used them daily.” Gallup’s 43% is the median share who have ever used AI, for work or personal purposes. The daily figure is much lower. Daily AI users are the top rung of the ladder, not the middle.
Canada’s 29%
TechCrunch reported that 29% of Canadians surveyed use AI daily, and other outlets repeated it. Gallup’s report gives 29% as the median daily-use rate across the seven Western high-income countries as a group, not a figure for Canada alone.
“74% of Americans”
Several reports said 74% of Americans are worried about AI. Gallup’s figure is 74% of AI-aware American adults, because the emotion questions were only asked of people who know what AI is. In a country where most people are aware of AI, the difference is small, but it is not zero.
| Claim in coverage | What Gallup’s report says |
|---|---|
| A median 43% use AI daily | A median 43% have ever used AI |
| 29% of Canadians use AI daily | 29% is the median daily-use rate across seven Western countries |
| 74% of Americans are worried | 74% of AI-aware American adults feel worried |
| 68% of Americans who use AI daily are worried | Correct: 68% of US daily AI users |
Why it matters
These slips all make AI use look more common than it is. That matters for anyone planning around the data. The world has far fewer daily AI users than headlines suggest, and even they are not reassured.
How the Gallup Findings Fit With Other Surveys
Gallup is not alone. Several recent polls point the same way, especially in the US.
Pew’s 37-country survey
Pew Research Center published its own 37-country survey on 17 September. It found that people in 34 of 37 countries are more likely to expect AI to mean fewer jobs over the next 20 years, with 71% of Americans holding that view. Its fieldwork ran from February to May, slightly earlier than Gallup’s.
Gallup’s workplace data
Gallup’s own US workplace research found that half of American workers now use AI, and that the share who worry technology could make their jobs obsolete rose seven points in a year, to 27%. Using AI at work and worrying about it clearly go together.
A pause poll
Gizmodo cited a POLITICO poll by Public First which found that roughly half of adults in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Spain and Germany think AI is already good enough and support pausing further development to reduce risks.
Timing matters
Gallup’s fieldwork ended in July, before a month of loud warnings from AI insiders and a public debate about slowing the frontier. TechCrunch also noted that sentiment in some countries, especially China, may have shifted since. The next round of results will show whether the worry among daily AI users has grown.
What Daily AI Users' Worry Means for Businesses
For companies rolling out AI to staff or customers, the Gallup data carries a clear message: adoption is not the same as acceptance.
Usage dashboards can mislead
A company can see that most staff use its AI tools every day and conclude the rollout has worked. The US data says two-thirds of daily AI users may still be uneasy. Ask directly how people feel, not only how often they log in.
Accuracy is the trust gap
Fewer than half of US daily AI users trust AI’s accuracy. That points to the fix: show sources, make it easy to check answers, and keep humans responsible for decisions that matter. Training that teaches people when not to trust an answer builds more confidence than training that only teaches prompts.
Worry can shape the rules
TechCrunch noted that people who rely on AI every day may still support tougher rules on its use in hiring, healthcare, education and government. Businesses in those sectors should expect scrutiny from their own customers, not only from regulators.
Talk about jobs honestly
Much of the worry is about work. Clear plans for how roles will change, and what support staff will get, address the fear behind the numbers. Silence leaves room for the worst assumptions. We looked at how AI leaders frame this problem in Anthropic CEO Says AI Backlash Is “Fundamentally a Crisis of Trust”.
Daily AI Users: Frequently Asked Questions
Are daily AI users in the US worried about AI?
Yes. Gallup found that 68% of American daily AI users say AI makes them feel worried. That is less than less frequent users (80%) and non-users (74%), but still two in three.
Which country is most worried about AI?
The United States, where 74% of AI-aware adults say AI makes them feel worried. The Netherlands (67%) and Canada (64%) follow.
Do people who use AI more trust it more?
Yes. In the US, 45% of daily AI users trust AI’s accuracy completely or a lot, compared with 8% of people who have never used it. Gallup cannot say whether trust leads to use or use builds trust.
Who ran the survey and how big was it?
Gallup ran it with Microsoft. It covered about 1,000 adults in each of 37 countries between April and July 2026, and will eventually cover 140 countries.
Which country has the most daily AI users?
Singapore, where 46% of adults use AI daily. In Malawi, the figure is 1%.
Is the rest of the world worried too?
Less so. Positive feelings outweigh negative ones in 34 of 37 countries, and curiosity is the most common reaction. Only the US, Egypt and the State of Palestine lean negative.
References
AI Optimism Globally Widespread Despite Uneven Use (Gallup)
Even Americans who use AI every day are worried about it (TechCrunch)
Americans Fear AI Will Make the World Worse, Love It Anyway (404 Media)
Americans Are a Lot More Worried About AI Than the Rest of the World (Gizmodo)
Gallup poll reveals widespread global AI optimism (Mashable)
Gallup Finds Strong Support for AI Globally (Yahoo News)
Many countries are optimistic about AI, poll finds (The Star)
Globally, More People Expect AI to Cause Job Loss Than Growth (Pew Research Center)
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