Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact
Pew Research Center survey of 5,119 US adults conducted 17-23 February 2026 on the American Trends Panel, covering chatbot adoption, AI summaries and smart devices, and views on AI's pace and impact. The chatbot section reports what people use chatbots for, including emotional support or advice and companionship, by age and gender, alongside broadly negative views of AI's effects even among younger adults.
Publisher
Pew Research Center
Published
17 Jun 2026
Added
today
DOI
—
Key Findings
- One in ten US adults report ever using chatbots for emotional support or advice, and a smaller share for companionship; among chatbot users the figures are 20% for emotional support or advice and 8% for companionship
- About one in five adults under 30 say they ever turn to chatbots for emotional support or advice, dropping to about one in ten of those aged 30 to 49 and a smaller share of those 50 and older
- Women are slightly more likely than men to use chatbots for emotional support or advice; there are no gender differences for companionship
- Views about AI and how fast it is advancing tilt negative, including among younger adults
- Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1.6 percentage points for the full sample and 2.2 points for the 2,605 chatbot users
Methodology Notes
Released 2026-06-17 (report cover); Wave 187 of the American Trends Panel, a probability-based online panel; 5,119 of 5,854 sampled panelists responded; fieldwork 17-23 February 2026. Curator read the report PDF (83 pages) including the methodology and topline. Emotional-support and companionship items are single self-report questions among chatbot users.
Sources
Pew Research Center report page(opens in a new tab) (primary)
Full report PDF with topline(opens in a new tab)
Archived snapshot (Wayback Machine)(opens in a new tab) — preserved against link rot
Authors
Jeffrey Gottfried, William Bishop, Monica Anderson, Michelle Faverio, Eugenie Park, Colleen McClain
Tags
Cite This
APA
Jeffrey Gottfried et al. (2026). Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/americans-and-ai-2026-chatbots-smart-devices-and-views-on-impact/
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