New 5W Research Finds the 99-Point AI Favorability Gap Didn’t Close. It Moved.
TAMPA, Fla., July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In May 2026, 5W identified a 99-point favorability gap between daily AI users (+57) and everyone else (−42) — the widest behavioral divide in American public opinion. The prediction was that the gap would close as adoption spread.
Adoption spread. The gap didn’t close. It changed shape.
The divide is no longer between who uses AI and who doesn’t. Half the country now uses it. The divide is between the quarter of Americans who use AI every day and believe in it — and the quarter who use it every week and don’t.
Half the Country Is Now Using AI
- 49%. Half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots — up from 33% in 2024 and 23% in 2023. Adoption more than doubled in three years. (Pew Research, June 2026)
- 24%. One in four Americans now use AI every day. That’s the Power User cohort — up from roughly 15% in early 2025. (Pew Research, June 2026)
- 60%. Share of U.S. adults who now read AI-generated summaries inside search results. AI is no longer a destination. It’s the layer on top of everything. (Pew Research, June 2026)
Adoption Is Up. Trust Is Not.
- 63%. Share of Americans who say AI is advancing too fast. Only 2% say it’s moving too slowly. (Pew Research, June 2026)
- 16%. Share who expect AI’s 20-year societal impact to be net-positive. The rest split negative or uncertain. (Pew Research, June 2026)
The Gen Z Paradox: Highest Use, Sharpest Skepticism
- 50% vs. 14%. Among adults under 30 — the heaviest users — 50% say AI will be negative for society. Only 14% say positive. (Pew Research, June 2026)
- 70%. Chatbot use among Asian-American adults — the only major demographic group with net-positive views of AI. Daily use runs roughly double the national rate. (Pew Research, June 2026)
“In May, we found a very deep divide between AI users and non-users. Daily users expected AI to improve their jobs, benefit them personally, and reshape daily life for the better — by margins of three-to-one over everyone else,” said Ronn Torossian, Founder & Chairman, 5W. “Today the divide continues, but the fault line moved. It’s no longer about who uses AI. It’s about who believes in it. Adoption is now compulsory — it’s baked into Google, Office, and every phone in America. Conviction is still a Power User trait. Half the country is using a technology it doesn’t trust. That is the largest commercial opportunity in the market right now. When half the country uses a technology it doesn’t trust, the brands the AI engines cite become the trust signal. A skeptical buyer who sees your brand named inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews is a buyer with a reason to say yes. The brands that fill that vacuum — and proactively manage it — win very big.”
What Changed Since May
The original finding: Daily AI users were the leading edge of American consumer behavior — higher-income, higher-education, higher-intent, and dramatically more optimistic about AI than everyone else. The 99-point favorability gap was the widest behavioral divide in American public opinion, wider than gender, race, age, or party.
The update: Adoption crossed 50%, but favorability didn’t follow. The Power User cohort held its +57. The non-user cohort mostly became a light-user cohort — and imported its skepticism with it. Americans are now using AI at record rates while distrust of AI hits record highs simultaneously.
This is the defining commercial condition of the AI era: use without belief.
The Cited Brand Becomes the Trust Signal
Power Users still set buying patterns. They are higher-income, higher-education, higher-intent — and now surrounded by 200 million skeptical light users making the same queries with less conviction and more scrutiny.
A brand cited by the AI engines enters the answer with borrowed authority. A brand absent from them is invisible to the buyer and unverifiable to the skeptic.
The 5W Power User Audit measures a brand’s Citation Share across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, and identifies the retrieval signals — source mix, structured data, third-party citations — required to compete in AI-driven discovery.
Methodology
The July 2026 update to the 5W AI Power User Study synthesizes Pew Research Center’s Americans and AI 2026 (June 17, 2026, n=5,119 U.S. adults, fielded Feb. 17–23, 2026), the original 5W AI Power User Study (May 2026), Data for Progress (February 2026, n=1,228 likely U.S. voters), the Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index, and the Ipsos AI Monitor (March 2026).
About 5W
5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research to help clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research.
Founded in 2003, 5W is recognized as a Top U.S. PR Agency by O’Dwyer’s, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, honored as a 2026 Top Place to Work in Communications by Ragan, and named to Digiday’s WorkLife Employer of the Year list. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors — Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit — and B2B specialties including Corporate Communications, Reputation Management, Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing across Social, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. Learn more at 5wpr.com.
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