Artificial intelligence is now less popular than the Republican Party, ICE, and Donald Trump. According to an NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted February 27 through March 3, just 26% of Americans hold a positive view of AI, while 46% view it negatively. That puts AI's net favorability at -20 points, worse than every political institution tested except the Democratic Party and Iran.
These numbers land at a strange moment. Corporate AI spending is at record highs. Every earnings call mentions AI. Every product is getting an AI feature bolted on. Yet the people these products are supposedly being built for increasingly want nothing to do with them.
The Trust Problem Runs Deep
The Gallup-Bentley University study paints an even bleaker picture when you look beyond the headline numbers. Among 5,835 U.S. adults surveyed, 77% said they don't trust businesses to use AI responsibly. That includes 33% who said "not at all." And here's the kicker: even among people who describe themselves as extremely knowledgeable about AI, 70% still don't trust companies to use it well.
This isn't ignorance driving the backlash. People who understand the technology are nearly as skeptical as those who don't.
Specific applications trigger even stronger reactions. 85% of adults are concerned about AI making hiring decisions. 83% don't want it driving vehicles. 80% are worried about AI giving medical advice. These aren't fringe opinions. That's four out of five Americans saying no to three of the biggest commercial AI use cases.
56% Use AI, 56% Are Anxious About It
A Brookings survey found that roughly 56% of Americans report using AI tools. A separate Verasight poll from February 2026 found that 56% of respondents expressed anxiety about AI's rise. The overlap is telling: people are using AI because it's increasingly hard to avoid, not because they're enthusiastic about it.
A Malwarebytes survey pushed even harder, finding that 90% of people don't trust AI with their data. Meanwhile, 75% of Americans told Gallup they believe AI will reduce the total number of U.S. jobs within the next decade.
The demographic breakdown is worth paying attention to. Voters ages 18 to 34, the exact group tech companies assume will be their biggest AI advocates, have a net AI favorability rating of -44 points. Women ages 18 to 49 aren't far behind at -41.
What This Actually Means for AI Tools
For anyone building or marketing AI products, the message from these polls is consistent and clear: people tolerate AI when it saves them obvious time on tasks they already didn't want to do. They reject it the moment it feels forced, surveillance-adjacent, or like it's replacing human judgment in high-stakes decisions.
The companies succeeding with AI adoption right now aren't the ones shouting loudest about their AI features. They're the ones making AI invisible, handling the boring stuff in the background while keeping humans in control of anything that matters. The 72% of Americans who now want more regulation of the AI industry (up 15 points from a year earlier) are sending a signal that the industry would be smart to hear before Congress hears it for them.