Regulatory Consulting at Pew Research Center (Policy Arm)

Overview

The Pew Research Center — distinct from the separately governed Pew Charitable Trusts — is a nonpartisan fact tank that has made tracking American and global public opinion on AI one of its most sustained research lines. Rather than advocate for a policy position, Pew supplies the empirical foundation that policymakers, journalists, and advocates on every side of the AI debate draw on: how many Americans have heard of AI, how they use it, whether they trust it, and how their views compare to AI experts’ own. Drawing on five years of American Trends Panel surveys (a nationally representative panel recruited through random sampling), Pew has built one of the most detailed public longitudinal pictures of AI attitudes anywhere, supplemented by a 25-country Global Attitudes Survey comparing views of AI, trust in different countries and blocs to regulate it, and the AI race between the U.S. and China. For anyone in AI policy, Pew’s numbers are the reference data set for ‘what does the public actually think’ — an essential and frequently cited input to debates about regulation, adoption, and trust.

AI-Focused Regulatory Work

Pew’s most consequential recurring finding is a persistent gap between public sentiment and expert optimism. Its 2025 comparison of AI experts and the general public found that while 73% of AI experts expect AI to have a positive impact on how people do their jobs over the next 20 years, only 23% of U.S. adults agree — and just 17% of the public expects AI’s overall effect on the country to be positive, versus 56% of experts. That divide has held remarkably steady: as of a September 2025 report, 95% of U.S. adults say they’ve heard at least a little about AI (up from 26% saying they’d heard ‘a lot’ in 2022 to 47% in 2025), yet half say the increased use of AI in daily life makes them more concerned than excited — more than double the 10% who are more excited, and up sharply from 37% concerned back in 2021. Pew’s newest tracking, released in June 2026, found chatbot use has become the default mental model of AI for the first time (about three in ten Americans now name chatbots first when asked what technology comes to mind), that roughly a quarter of Americans use chatbots daily, and — in an August 2026 release — that young adults are growing warier of AI and increasingly worried about job loss, a notable reversal of the usual assumption that younger cohorts are AI’s most comfortable users. Globally, Pew’s 25-country survey found Americans almost evenly split on whether to trust their own country to regulate AI (44% trust, 47% distrust) and found a median 53% of respondents across 25 countries trust the EU to regulate AI, compared to 37% for the U.S. and 27% for China — hard evidence for anyone debating the relative legitimacy of different AI-governance regimes. For a directory reader, Pew is the neutral empirical backbone beneath nearly every AI-policy argument about public sentiment, trust, and the widening gap between what experts believe and what the public feels.

Notable AI Policy Work

• Published ‘How the US Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence’ (April 2025), finding 73% of AI experts but only 23% of U.S. adults expect AI to positively affect how people do their jobs — based on 5,410 U.S. adults, 1,000+ AI professionals, and 30 in-depth expert interviews.
• Tracks Americans’ awareness and sentiment over five years of surveys: 95% have heard at least a little about AI (2025), and 50% are more concerned than excited about AI in daily life — up from 37% concerned in 2021 and now more than 5x the 10% who are more excited.
• Released ‘Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact’ (June 2026, 5,119 U.S. adults), finding chatbots are now the default first association with AI and about a quarter of Americans use chatbots daily.
• Published ‘Views of AI Around the World’ (Oct 2025, 25 countries, 28,333 adults), finding a median 53% trust the EU to regulate AI versus 37% for the U.S. and 27% for China, and that Americans are nearly evenly split on trusting their own government (44% trust vs. 47% distrust).
• Published ‘What Americans Think About the Global AI Race’ (July 2026), finding 36% of Americans believe China is more advanced in AI development than the U.S., versus 12% who say the reverse.
• Released ‘Young US Adults Are Increasingly Wary of AI, Concerned It Will Take Jobs’ (Aug 2026), documenting rising AI anxiety among younger cohorts — a reversal of assumptions about generational comfort with AI.

Thought Leadership

1. How the US Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence (2025)
   Pew’s landmark expert-vs-public comparison — the single most-cited data point on the gap between AI-expert optimism and public wariness.
2. Americans and AI 2026: Chatbots, Smart Devices and Views on Impact
   Pew’s newest tracking survey (June 2026) on how Americans use and perceive AI, including daily chatbot-use rates.
3. Views of AI Around the World (2025)
   A 25-country comparative study of AI awareness, concern, and trust in different governments and blocs to regulate AI.
4. Key Findings About How Americans View Artificial Intelligence
   A digestible round-up of 13 findings from five years of Pew AI surveys — the most-cited single Pew AI summary for journalists and policymakers.
5. What Americans Think About the Global AI Race
   Public perception of U.S.-China AI competitiveness and its implications for inequality between rich and poor countries.

Clients

Nonpartisan fact tank; funded primarily by The Pew Charitable Trusts and does not take policy positions. Its AI research is used across journalism, academia, and by policymakers on all sides of AI-regulation debates. Distinct from Pew Charitable Trusts’ direct policy-reform programs.