TAMPA, Fla. – 5W Public Relations, an independent PR and digital marketing agency, recently identified a 99-point favorability gap between daily artificial intelligence users (+57) and everyone else (-42) – the widest behavioral divide in American public opinion.
5W predicted that the gap would close as adoption spread. As adoption spread, the gap didn’t close; it changed shape.
The divide is no longer between who uses AI and who doesn’t, 5W stated. While half of the country uses it, the divide is between the quarter of Americans who use AI every day and believe in it.
“In May, we found a very deep divide between AI users and non-users. Daily users expected AI to improve their jobs, benefit them personally, and reshape daily life for the better – by margins of three-toone over everyone else,” said Ronn Torossian, 5W’s founder and chairman. “Today the divide continues, but the fault line moved. It’s no longer about who uses AI; it’s about who believes in it.
“Adoption is now compulsory,” Torossian said. “It’s baked into Google, Office, and every phone in America. Conviction is still a Power User trait. Half the country is using a technology it doesn’t trust. That is the largest commercial opportunity in the market right now. When half the country uses a technology it doesn’t trust, the brands the AI engines cite become the trust signal. A skeptical buyer who sees your brand named inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews is a buyer with a reason to say yes. The brands that fill that vacuum – and proactively manage it – win very big.”
According to 5W, 49% of adults in the U.S. now use AI chatbots – up from 33% in 2024 and 23% in 2023. Now 24% of Americans now use AI every day. Approximately 60% of U.S. adults who now read AI-generated summaries inside search results.
Research also shows that 63% of Americans say AI is advancing too quickly. Only 2% say it’s moving too slowly. About 16% expect AI’s 20-year societal impact to be netpositive. Research also shows 50% vs. 14% of adults under 30 – the heaviest users – say AI will negatively impact society, while only 14% say positive. Chatbot use is at 70% among Asian American adults – the only major demographic group with net-positive views of AI – with daily use runs roughly double the national rate.