People around the world are rapidly folding artificial intelligence into everyday life. They use it to draft emails, research projects, build presentations, check homework and even plan dinner. But broader adoption is not translating into broader trust.
A Growing Gap Between Use And Confidence
That tension is especially visible in the United States. According to a new Gallup survey commissioned by Microsoft, 68% of Americans who use AI daily say they are worried about it. More broadly, 74% of Americans surveyed reported feeling concern, while only 36% expect the technology to mostly benefit the country.
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The results matter because they challenge a common assumption in the AI debate: that frequent use is a proxy for enthusiasm. The opposite may be true. The more people encounter AI in daily life, the more likely they may be to notice its flaws, risks and limits.
A Global Survey With Uneven Sentiment
Gallup’s study spans 37 countries so far, with roughly 1,000 respondents per country surveyed between April and July. The project is expected to eventually cover 140 countries. Notably absent from the current results are major technology markets including India, Australia and Malaysia.
The U.S. appears to sit near the anxious end of the international spectrum. Western countries, in particular, show elevated concern. Canada is a case in point: 29% of respondents reported using AI daily, yet more than half of those users said they were worried about its impact. Overall, 64% of Canadians familiar with AI said the technology concerns them.
By contrast, several countries in Asia and Africa showed a more optimistic outlook. Singapore posted the highest daily usage rate in the study at 46%, and more than 80% of respondents aware of AI said they expect it to improve their everyday lives. Seventy-seven percent said they believe it will help the country. In China and Israel, respondents also expressed a largely positive view of AI’s future impact.
Trust Lags Even Where Optimism Is High
Optimism, however, does not automatically equal trust. Gallup found that daily users tend to be more confident in AI’s outputs than people who use it less often, especially in high-adoption markets such as Singapore, Israel and China. Even so, skepticism remains widespread. In the United States, only 45% of daily users said they trust AI’s results. Across all surveyed countries, just 36% of respondents, on median, said they trust AI’s results a lot.
That distinction is important for business leaders. Organizations are racing to deploy AI across customer service, software development, marketing, recruiting and internal operations. But if employees and customers do not trust the output, adoption alone will not guarantee impact.
Curiosity Dominates, But Concern Is Real
Despite the debate surrounding the technology, Gallup found that positive emotions still outweigh negative ones overall. In 34 of the 37 countries surveyed, people were most likely to describe their feelings about AI as curiosity. Smaller shares said they felt happy or excited. About 32% said they felt worried.
Those positive responses were strongest in China, Singapore and Kenya, where curiosity and optimism remain especially pronounced. But the survey also makes clear that worry is now part of the public conversation, rather than a fringe reaction.
Why Public Attitudes Are Getting More Complicated
The findings arrive amid intensifying scrutiny of AI’s broader consequences. Companies are laying off workers while directing more capital toward automation. Entry-level opportunities are narrowing. Researchers and executives have raised alarms about AI psychosis, job displacement and the possibility of increasingly autonomous systems behaving in ways people cannot control.
There are also broader concerns about climate impact, cybersecurity, intellectual property and data privacy. In other words, public skepticism is not just about whether AI works. It is about who it serves, how it is governed and what trade-offs society is willing to accept.
Pablo Diego-Rosell, senior scientist at Gallup, told TechCrunch that the data shows AI attitudes are “multidimensional.” People can be curious about the technology, expect it to be useful and use it frequently while still worrying about it. They can also see its potential and remain unconvinced that its answers are reliable.
Adoption Will Not Solve The Trust Problem
That may be the central takeaway for executives, policymakers and investors: exposure alone is not enough to resolve public unease. As AI becomes more embedded in daily life, resistance is unlikely to disappear. In fact, more familiarity may sharpen the debate over where the technology belongs and what limits should govern its use.
For now, the data suggests a world that is curious about AI, increasingly dependent on it and still deeply uncertain about the consequences. With billions being poured into the technology, AI is likely to keep spreading. The harder question is not whether it will be used, but how much trust society is willing to extend as it does.
