Four in ten Americans (40.6%) now use generative AI. Fewer than one in twelve (7.7%) use AI that acts on its own. That gap of 32.9 points, between using AI and letting it act, is the defining feature of America’s relationship with artificial intelligence in 2026, and it runs through every finding in this report.
This is the first edition of The AI Barometer, Channel V Media’s reading of American attitudes toward artificial intelligence. It draws on Prosper Insights & Analytics‘ June 2026 survey of 7,675 U.S. adults, cut by generation and by workplace role. The data shows a public that uses AI widely but sets firm limits on what it will let AI do.
Six findings
- Consumers don’t want autonomous AI. 40.6% of Americans use generative AI, but only 7.7% use agentic AI, and just 17.6% think autonomous AI is a good idea (41.8% say it isn’t; 40.6% are unsure). Even after being given a definition, 59.9% would use an AI agent for none of the thirteen tasks offered.
- The C-suite is racing ahead of the workforce. 53.2% of executives and business owners use generative AI vs. 37.9% of employees, a 15.3-point gap that widens to 2.7x on agentic AI (17.5% vs. 6.6%). Even so, 76.8% of those same executives still want a live person for their banking and 77.4% for their healthcare.
- Millennials, not Gen Z, are America’s AI power users. 47.2% of Millennials use generative AI (Gen Z 44.3%, Gen X 42.4%, Boomers 32.2%), 13.3% use agentic AI (Gen Z 8.5%), and 29.6% think it’s a good idea (Gen Z 22.6%). Gen Z is the generation most anxious about AI (21.9%) and most afraid of losing its own job to it (14.8%).
- AI is becoming a search engine before it becomes an assistant. Searching the internet is the No. 1 use of generative AI (53.0% of users), followed by research (48.3%), well ahead of writing assistance (30.4%) or content creation (17.1%). Among Boomer users, 65.5% search with AI. At the same time, 30.5% of Americans have heard of generative AI but don’t understand it.
- Americans still want a person when it matters. Americans prefer a live person over AI chat in every category tested: healthcare 84.0%, banking 82.6%, travel 77.5%, telecom 72.6%, and even online shopping 69.1%. Even among Millennials, the most AI-receptive generation, humans win 61.9% to 38.1% in shopping and 76.3% to 23.7% in healthcare.
- The biggest fears are practical, and privacy unites everyone. The top concerns are that AI needs human oversight (40.4%) and that it gives wrong information (40.3%), ahead of job losses (36.2%). Six in ten Americans (60.5%) are very or extremely concerned about AI violating their privacy, identical among executives and employees and a majority in every generation.
Methodology
This report is based on data from Prosper Insights & Analytics’ monthly consumer survey, conducted in June 2026 among 7,675 U.S. adults aged 18 and older. Prosper Insights & Analytics collected the data. Channel V Media analyzed it and is responsible for the interpretation in this report.
Results are shown for all U.S. adults and for six segments. By generation: Gen Z (N=1,543), Millennials (N=1,924), Gen X (N=2,039) and Boomers (N=1,853). By workplace role: Executives & Business Owners (N=1,960) and Employees (N=1,471). Prosper supplied the two breakdowns as separate cross-tabulations of the same survey wave rather than as respondent-level data, so findings cannot be combined across them (for example, Gen Z executives).
Questions about what respondents use generative AI for were asked only of those who said they already use it. Percentages for those items describe users within each segment, not all adults. Respondents were asked whether they had heard of agentic AI before being shown a definition (AI systems designed to act autonomously, making decisions and taking actions to achieve specific goals with minimal human intervention), and were then asked whether it is a good idea and which of thirteen tasks they would use it for.
Where the report cites a multiplier, such as 2.7x, it is one group’s percentage divided by another’s, and both figures are shown. Point gaps and multipliers are calculated from the percentages presented and rounded to one decimal place. “Very or extremely concerned” combines the two top responses on a four-point privacy scale. Totals for multiple-response questions may exceed 100%.
1. Consumers don’t want autonomous AI
Four in ten U.S. adults (40.6%) already use generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. Ask the same population whether they use agentic AI (systems that make decisions and take actions on their own) and the figure falls to 7.7%. That is a 32.9-point drop between using AI and delegating to it, the largest gap in the survey.
The drop is not only about awareness, although awareness is low: 67.6% of Americans have never heard of agentic AI. When the survey explained the concept and asked whether it was a good idea, only 17.6% said yes. 41.8% said no, and 40.6% couldn’t decide. Asked which of thirteen everyday tasks they would hand to an AI agent, 59.9% chose none of them.
Agentic AI needs to start small
The smaller the stakes, the more willing Americans are to let an AI agent act. The leading use case is finding and booking a restaurant (12.1%), followed by buying groceries (11.0%), managing a smart home (10.0%) and paying bills (9.8%). Appetite falls steadily as the consequences rise: investing in stocks, bonds or crypto (8.1%), healthcare matters (6.9%), teaching their children (5.6%) and, at the bottom, buying a car (5.0%). Americans will let AI make a dinner reservation long before they will let it make a major life decision.
That hierarchy suggests AI autonomy will not arrive everywhere at once. It will move from low-risk convenience toward higher-consequence decisions, and each step will depend on trust earned at the step before.
Spotlight: Boomers
Boomers aren’t anti-AI. Nearly a third (32.2%) already use generative AI, and among those who do, it has become their primary way to search the internet. But Boomers draw the line at autonomy more sharply than any other group. 81.5% have never heard of agentic AI. Just 1.6% use it, versus 13.3% of Millennials. Only 4.7% think it’s a good idea, and once it was explained to them, 54.7% said it wasn’t. Offered thirteen tasks to delegate, 81.4% of Boomers chose none. The generation most willing to ask AI questions is the least willing to let AI act on the answers.
Channel V Media commentary
“Most people are happy to use AI as a tool. Far fewer want it making decisions for them, and that gap is what any company launching an AI agent is up against.”
“The four in ten Americans who are unsure whether agentic AI is a good idea are the group that matters most for adoption. This is where marketing and PR can play a disproportionate role in shaping the future of an AI company. Early adopters will try new technology on their own. The rest need to be convinced, and that is a communications job.”
Kieran Powell, Executive Vice President, Channel V Media
2. The C-suite AI gap
AI transformation is happening faster at the top of American companies. More than half of executives and business owners (53.2%) already use generative AI, compared with 37.9% of employees, a 15.3-point gap. When autonomy enters the picture, the gap widens: 17.5% of executives and business owners use agentic AI versus 6.6% of employees. Additionally, a third of executives (33.8%) think agentic AI is a good idea, against 18.9% of employees.
The gap between executive and employee AI use
Among people who use generative AI, 41.3% of executives and business owners use it for writing assistance, compared with 28.8% of employees. Executives also lead on content creation (24.4% vs. 17.4%), creative writing (26.9% vs. 19.9%), research (51.3% vs. 45.5%) and education and explanation (29.3% vs. 23.1%). The one place the two groups converge is the most basic use: searching the internet, at 48.9% for executives and 49.7% for employees. Leaders appear to be moving past AI as a search tool toward AI-assisted creation and knowledge work. Much of the workforce hasn’t followed.
| Use (generative AI users only) | Executives & Business Owners | Employees | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research (summaries, information) | 51.3% | 45.5% | +5.8 pts |
| Searching on the internet | 48.9% | 49.7% | -0.8 pts |
| Writing assistance | 41.3% | 28.8% | +12.5 pts |
| Education (test questions, explanations) | 29.3% | 23.1% | +6.2 pts |
| Personal assistant (scheduling, reminders) | 29.2% | 26.2% | +3.0 pts |
| Creative writing | 26.9% | 19.9% | +7.0 pts |
| Content creation (articles, blogs, social) | 24.4% | 17.4% | +7.0 pts |
Even the biggest adopters want a human when it matters
Executives, who are the furthest ahead on AI adoption, are no more willing than anyone else to let a bot handle high-stakes customer service. 76.8% of executives and business owners still prefer a live person for banking and financial services, and 77.4% for healthcare matters. Only 23.2% prefer AI chat for banking and 22.6% for healthcare, figures that are essentially identical to employees (23.4% and 20.7%). Executives are more open to AI chat for online shopping (39.7%), telecom (37.0%) and travel (31.2%), but on money and health, being an AI power user does nothing to diminish the desire for human expertise.
| Prefer AI chat over a live person | All U.S. adults | Executives & Business Owners | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online shopping / purchases | 30.9% | 39.7% | 33.0% |
| Telecom & entertainment | 27.4% | 37.0% | 30.5% |
| Travel (airlines, hotels) | 22.5% | 31.2% | 25.5% |
| Banking / financing | 17.4% | 23.2% | 23.4% |
| Health care matters | 16.0% | 22.6% | 20.7% |
Spotlight: Executives & Business Owners
Executives are the most AI-forward segment in the survey and the clearest proof that adoption doesn’t equal trust. They use generative AI at 1.4 times the employee rate and agentic AI at 2.7 times. Nearly half (48.6%) have heard of agentic AI, against 35.2% of employees. But when the question turns to their own bank account or their own doctor, more than three in four executives (76.8% and 77.4%) choose a human, the same proportion as the workforce they lead. The executive who deploys autonomous agents at work still wants a person on the phone when it’s personal.
Channel V Media commentary
“Executives use these tools more than their staff, so they tend to assume everyone else is as comfortable with them as they are. The data says they are not.”
“Executives are nearly three times as likely as their employees to use agentic AI, yet three in four of them still want to speak to a person when they need help with their bank. Executives need to remember this when they promote their products to the general public. The same hesitation applies to their customers, only more so, and the messaging has to assume it is there.”
Kieran Powell, Executive Vice President, Channel V Media
3. Millennials, not Gen Z, are America’s AI power users
The assumption that the youngest consumers always lead technology adoption doesn’t hold for AI. Millennials lead, with 47.2% already using generative AI, ahead of Gen Z at 44.3%, Gen X at 42.4%, and Boomers at 32.2%. On agentic AI the Millennial lead is wider still: 13.3% already use it, compared with 8.5% of Gen Z. And Millennials are the generation most likely to think agentic AI is a good idea, at 29.6%, versus 22.6% of Gen Z, 15.4% of Gen X and 4.7% of Boomers.
| Measure | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Already use generative AI | 44.3% | 47.2% | 42.4% | 32.2% |
| Excited to experience it but not yet using it | 22.2% | 18.9% | 15.5% | 10.8% |
| Already use agentic AI | 8.5% | 13.3% | 7.6% | 1.6% |
| Think agentic AI is a good idea | 22.6% | 29.6% | 15.4% | 4.7% |
| AI makes me anxious | 21.9% | 17.4% | 17.1% | 17.9% |
| Worried about losing my own job to AI | 14.8% | 8.3% | 9.7% | 4.2% |
Gen Z’s AI paradox: high adoption, high anxiety
Gen Z is enthusiastic and engaged with AI. 44.3% already use generative AI, and another 22.2% say they are excited to experience it, the highest “excited but not yet using” share of any generation. But Gen Z is also the generation most likely to say AI makes them anxious (21.9%, versus roughly 17% for every other generation), and by far the most likely to fear personally losing a job to it (14.8%). The generation growing up alongside the first generation of generative AI feels most personally exposed to it.
Two generations, two different job fears
Young and old Americans fear AI-related job losses in completely different ways. Nearly half of Boomers (47.0%) believe AI will cause job losses, compared with only 33.9% of Gen Z. But ask whether their own job could disappear and the result flips: 14.8% of Gen Z worry about losing their own job, against just 4.2% of Boomers. Boomers fear what AI will do to the workforce. Gen Z fears what AI will do to them.
Spotlight: Gen Z
Gen Z is the generation living with AI most closely and most uneasily. Two-thirds are either using generative AI (44.3%) or excited to (22.2%), but 21.9% say it makes them anxious and 14.8% fear it will take their job. Among generative AI users, Gen Z is the only generation whose top use isn’t searching the internet (41.6%, the lowest of any group). Instead they lead on education (35.1%), writing assistance (37.8%) and language learning (17.6%). Gen Z is an early adopter of AI that can see exactly what it might cost them.
Channel V Media commentary
“Everyone assumes Gen Z is the AI generation. The data says it is Millennials. They use generative AI more than any other age group, and the gap is even wider on AI agents. Gen Z uses AI too, but it is also the generation most nervous about losing its own job to it.”
“Gen Z is the audience companies most want to reach with an AI story, and it is also the generation most worried about losing its job to AI. Any brand talking about AI to a young audience should factor this into their communications. Acknowledging that worry will get a better hearing than a message that is only about what the technology can do.”
Kieran Powell, Executive Vice President, Channel V Media
4. AI is becoming a search engine before it becomes an assistant
For all the attention paid to AI that writes, draws and codes, the way most Americans actually use generative AI is to find things out. Among people who already use it, 53.0% use it to search the internet (the top listed use), and 48.3% use it for research, generating summaries and pulling together information. Those two uses sit well above writing assistance (30.4%), personal-assistant tasks (22.9%), customer-support answers (23.3%) and content creation (17.1%).
The pattern intensifies with age, too. Among Boomer AI users, 65.5% use it for internet search, and 50.8% for research. Gen X follows at 54.0%, Millennials at 48.2%. Gen Z, at 41.6%, is the only generation for which search is not the top use. For everyone over 30, the AI answer box has effectively become the search box.
| Use (generative AI users only) | All users | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Searching on the internet | 53.0% | 41.6% | 48.2% | 54.0% | 65.5% |
| Research (summaries, information) | 48.3% | 46.8% | 46.4% | 49.2% | 50.8% |
| Writing assistance | 30.4% | 37.8% | 35.9% | 31.6% | 20.3% |
| Customer support (answering FAQs) | 23.3% | 20.5% | 22.3% | 22.3% | 27.2% |
| Personal assistant (scheduling, reminders) | 22.9% | 29.2% | 31.4% | 18.5% | 14.4% |
| Education (test questions, explanations) | 22.1% | 35.1% | 25.6% | 19.1% | 12.5% |
| Content creation (articles, blogs, social) | 17.1% | 19.9% | 23.1% | 17.6% | 9.5% |
Awareness is nearly universal. Understanding isn’t.
AI may dominate business and media conversation, but a very large share of the public is still working out the basics. 87.6% of Americans have at least heard of generative AI, but 30.5% say they’ve heard of it without understanding what it is. Add the 12.4% who haven’t heard of it at all, and roughly 43% of U.S. adults are either unfamiliar with generative AI or say they don’t understand it. Among Boomers, the confused-but-aware group (46.6%) is larger than the group that uses it (32.2%). Nearly half the country is forming its understanding of AI right now, and the tool most of them are using to do it is AI itself.
| Generative AI awareness | All U.S. adults | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No, haven’t heard of it | 12.4% | 9.7% | 14.2% | 15.0% | 10.4% |
| Yes, but I don’t understand what it is | 30.5% | 23.8% | 19.7% | 27.1% | 46.6% |
| Yes, and I’m excited to experience it | 16.5% | 22.2% | 18.9% | 15.5% | 10.8% |
| Yes, and I already use it | 40.6% | 44.3% | 47.2% | 42.4% | 32.2% |
| Unfamiliar or don’t understand (combined) | 42.9% | 33.5% | 33.9% | 42.1% | 57.0% |
Spotlight: Boomers
Boomers have made AI their front door to the internet. Two-thirds of Boomer generative AI users (65.5%) use it to search the web, the highest of any generation, and half (50.8%) use it for research. Boomers also lead every generation in using AI to get customer-support answers (27.2%). At the same time, Boomers are the generation least likely to understand the technology they’re relying on: 46.6% have heard of generative AI but say they don’t understand it, more than the 32.2% who use it.
Channel V Media commentary
“The most common thing people do with AI is search. So the first thing many customers, candidates and reporters learn about a company now comes from ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, and for the 43% who don’t understand how these tools work, that may be the only place they look.”
“Those engines build their answers from sources they consider credible: established publications, expert commentary, third-party coverage. Earned media has always been about reaching an audience. Now it also decides what the AI says about you.”
Kieran Powell, Executive Vice President, Channel V Media
5. Americans still want a person when it matters
Despite the attention around AI customer service, Americans prefer a live person in every category the survey tested, and the preference is overwhelming where the stakes are personal. 84.0% want a human for healthcare matters. 82.6% want a human for banking and financial services. 77.5% for travel. 72.6% for telecom and entertainment services. Even for online shopping, the lowest-stakes category tested, 69.1% choose a person over an AI chat program.
A generational ceiling, even for Millennials
Younger Americans are considerably more receptive to AI chat than older ones, but the ceiling is lower than some might assume. For online shopping, 38.1% of Millennials prefer AI chat versus 19.1% of Boomers. For banking it’s 25.7% versus 6.9%; for healthcare, 23.7% versus 5.2%. Those are large generational gaps. Even among Millennials (the most AI-receptive generation in the survey) humans still win decisively: 61.9% choose a person for online shopping, 74.3% for banking and 76.3% for healthcare. Younger audiences are not giving companies permission to remove people from customer service.
| Prefer a live person | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care matters | 76.8% | 76.3% | 86.6% | 94.8% |
| Banking / financing services | 76.2% | 74.3% | 85.2% | 93.1% |
| Travel (airlines, hotels) | 72.5% | 70.7% | 78.0% | 87.7% |
| Telecom & entertainment | 66.3% | 66.3% | 73.2% | 83.5% |
| Online shopping / purchases | 62.4% | 61.9% | 69.7% | 80.9% |
Spotlight: Millennials
Millennials set the ceiling for AI customer service in America, and the ceiling is low. They are the generation most willing to talk to a bot, at 38.1% for online shopping, 25.7% for banking and 23.7% for healthcare, roughly four to five times the Boomer rates. Even so, in every category a majority of Millennials still choose a human: 61.9% for shopping, 66.3% for telecom, 70.7% for travel, 74.3% for banking and 76.3% for healthcare. If the most AI-friendly generation with the most purchasing power won’t accept a bot for its bank, no brand should assume anyone else will.
Channel V Media commentary
“The people most comfortable with AI, Millennials and executives, still want a human when money or health is involved. That is not going to change quickly.”
“‘AI-powered customer service’ is not a selling point on its own. Customers want to know they can reach a person when it matters, and where AI sits in the process. Companies that are upfront about both will be trusted more than the ones that automate everything.”
Kieran Powell, Executive Vice President, Channel V Media
6. What Americans actually worry about
The public’s biggest objections to AI are practical fears: can I trust what it tells me, and is a human checking it? The two top concerns are almost tied. 40.4% say AI needs human oversight and 40.3% worry that it can provide incorrect information. Those outrank job losses (36.2%), the need for more transparency about the data AI uses (32.5%), distrust that AI has people’s best interests in mind (29.3%) and government regulation (27.8%). Only 16.4% of Americans have no concerns at all.
| Concern | Gen Z | Millennials | Gen X | Boomers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| It needs human oversight | 34.8% | 31.4% | 38.8% | 54.7% |
| It can provide wrong information | 37.4% | 32.2% | 39.2% | 51.9% |
| It will cause job losses | 33.9% | 28.2% | 35.9% | 47.0% |
| Needs more transparency on its data | 34.1% | 26.7% | 29.9% | 39.2% |
| Don’t trust AI has my best interests in mind | 25.2% | 18.7% | 28.2% | 44.1% |
| Needs government regulation | 26.2% | 20.6% | 23.5% | 38.7% |
| It is biased | 24.9% | 19.0% | 19.1% | 22.9% |
| No concerns | 13.1% | 20.2% | 20.3% | 12.6% |
Privacy: the one concern that unites everyone
On almost every question in this survey, executives and employees, young and old, diverge, sometimes by a factor of two or more. Privacy is the exception. About six in ten U.S. adults (60.5%) are very or extremely concerned about their privacy being violated through AI’s use of their data. Among executives and business owners the figure is 60.5%. Among employees it is 60.5%. It is a majority concern in every generation, from 56.6% of Gen X to 65.0% of Boomers.
Spotlight: Executives vs. Employees
Privacy is the great equalizer. Executives use generative AI at 1.4 times the employee rate and agentic AI at 2.7 times. They are 1.8 times as likely to call autonomous AI a good idea. On privacy, though, the two groups are indistinguishable: 60.5% of executives and 60.5% of employees are very or extremely concerned about AI violating their privacy, with nearly identical shares at the extreme end (31.9% vs. 31.4%) and at the unconcerned end (12.7% vs. 12.4%). Whatever else divides the corner office from the cubicle, the fear of what AI knows about them is shared almost exactly.
Channel V Media commentary
“People aren’t worried about robots. They want to know whether the answer is right and whether a person checked it. Both are things a company can address directly.”
“Privacy is the one concern that shows up at the same level in every group. In a dataset where almost nothing else is shared across age or role, six in ten people worry about the same thing. Being clear about what you do with people’s data speaks to executives, employees and customers at once.”
Kieran Powell, Executive Vice President, Channel V Media
Conclusion
The findings in this edition of The AI Barometer show a public that uses AI widely but does not yet trust it to act on its own. Americans use it (four in ten already, more than half of executives), and the thing they use it for most is finding out what’s true. But they don’t yet trust it to act on their behalf, they don’t want it between them and their doctor or their bank, and their sharpest fears are the practical ones: that it’s wrong, that nobody is checking, and that it knows too much about them.
None of that is a verdict against AI. Four in ten Americans can’t say whether autonomous AI is a good idea. Three in ten have heard of generative AI without understanding it. The task-by-task results show where trust begins, with a dinner reservation, and the generational and workplace data shows who is ready to go further and who isn’t. The public conversation about what AI should be allowed to do is still taking shape.
For companies, that is both the risk and the opportunity. The first impression most Americans now form of a brand, a product or a claim comes from an AI engine, and those engines build their answers from the sources they judge credible. Companies that explain plainly what their AI does, where the human stays in the loop, and what happens to people’s data, and that get that explanation carried by voices the public already trusts, will find an audience far more persuadable than the topline caution suggests. Companies that leave the explaining to the engines will be described by whatever the engines find.
Source: Prosper Insights & Analytics, June 2026 monthly consumer survey, N = 7,675 U.S. adults 18+. Analysis by Channel V Media. Percentages for AI usage questions are of generative AI users. Multipliers and point gaps are calculated from the percentages shown. For media inquiries, contact Channel V Media.