Research institute · Pew Research Center
Half of US Adults Now Use AI Chatbots: Pew 2026
Pew Research Center's 2026 survey of 5,119 US adults finds half now use AI chatbots, and 60% read AI summaries at the top of search results. Adoption is climbing fast even as trust in the technology stays low.
Source published Summarised
Key findings at a glance
- 49% of US adults now use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, up from 33% in 2024
- 60% read AI-generated summaries at the top of search engine results
- 24% use AI chatbots every day, including 4% who use them almost constantly
- 44% use ChatGPT, more than double the 18% who did in 2023
- 24% use Google Gemini, the second most-used chatbot
- 17% use Microsoft Copilot
- 42% use chatbots to search for information
- 38% of employed adults use chatbots for tasks at work
- 20% use chatbots to get medical advice
- 35% own a smart speaker with AI features
- 63% think AI is advancing too quickly
- 10% use chatbots for emotional support or advice
What the report covers
Pew Research Center surveyed 5,119 US adults in February 2026 on how they use and feel about artificial intelligence. The study tracks chatbot adoption, smart home devices and, at scale, how often people read AI-generated summaries at the top of search results.
The headline is straightforward: AI has gone mainstream. Half of US adults now use chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot, up from a third in 2024, and about a quarter use them every day. ChatGPT alone reaches 44% of adults, more than double its 2023 figure. Searching for information and work tasks are the most common uses, with smaller shares turning to chatbots for images, medical advice and emotional support.
Adoption is not the same as enthusiasm. Roughly two-thirds of Americans think AI is moving too quickly, and more expect a negative than a positive impact on society. That split, fast uptake paired with real wariness, mirrors what we found in our earlier report on how UK teens use AI weekly to learn and create, where heavy use sits alongside sharp scepticism about whether sources can be trusted.
What this means for UK marketers
For UK marketers, the number that should reset planning is the 60% who now read AI summaries at the top of search results. These figures are US-based, but Pew is the benchmark the industry cites and UK behaviour tends to track it closely. AI Overviews are no longer an edge case sitting above the organic results. They are the result for a majority of searchers, which means a page that ranks first but is not cited in the summary can still lose the click.
The practical response is to write for extraction, not just for position. Clear answers near the top of the page, defined terms, structured data and genuine subject authority are what get a brand quoted inside an AI summary. This is the core of how we approach SEO for UK businesses now: ranking and citation are separate goals, and both need planning. In regulated sectors the stakes are higher still, as we set out in our report on AI Overviews in financial services and other YMYL niches.
Three things follow for the next 12 months. First, chatbots are now a discovery channel in their own right: 42% use them to search and 44% use ChatGPT, so being visible inside those tools matters alongside Google. Second, the scepticism is a gift to honest brands. With two-thirds of people wary of AI and worried about their data, content that is accurate, sourced and transparent will outperform thin AI-spun pages as audiences learn to check. Third, the channel mix is shifting unevenly: the quarter of adults who use chatbots daily behave very differently from the half who never touch one, so segment rather than assume blanket adoption. The agencies that win the next phase will treat AI visibility as a measurable discipline, not a slogan.
How they got the data
The findings come from a Pew Research Center survey of 5,119 US adults conducted from 17 to 23 February 2026. Respondents were drawn from the Center's American Trends Panel, a probability-based panel recruited through random sampling of residential addresses so that results represent the full US adult population. Pew weights the data to national benchmarks for factors including age, race and education.
Figures on chatbot use, smart devices and views on AI are self-reported, and some questions changed wording between survey waves, which Pew notes where year-on-year comparisons are drawn. Fuller detail on sampling, weighting and the topline questionnaire sits with Pew's American Trends Panel methodology. As with all the consumer research we summarise, treat US figures as a directional benchmark for UK behaviour rather than a like-for-like read.
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From Pew Research Center · published 17/06/2026