Pew Research published a survey on June 17, 2026 that puts a number on something a lot of working professionals already feel: hearing about AI and knowing how to use it are two very different things. The study reached 5,119 U.S. adults in February 2026. Ninety-six percent had heard at least a little about AI. Forty-eight percent said they had heard a lot, nearly double the 26% who said so in 2022.
Then the numbers split. About half of U.S. adults have used a chatbot at all. Roughly one in four use one daily. And only 18% say they feel extremely or very confident using these tools. More than half do not use chatbots at all.
So the headline most people will read is "almost everyone has heard of AI." The more useful read for anyone building a career or a business right now is that awareness has raced ahead of skill. If you have heard plenty about AI and still feel unsure where to start, you are in the company of most of the country.
What do Americans picture when they hear "AI"?
Pew asked an open-ended question: what technology comes to mind when you think about AI? No menu, just a blank box. The answers spread out.
- Chatbots: 29% (the single largest category, and still under a third)
- Robots and science fiction: 8%
- Images and videos: 7%
- Generative AI and large language models: 6%
No single answer came close to a majority. That spread is worth noticing. When a country cannot agree on what a technology even is, "I should use more AI" stays a fog rather than a plan anyone can act on. The professionals who get traction are the ones who trade the fog for one specific question: what would AI do for the work in front of me this week?
Chatbots were the single most common answer when Pew asked Americans what comes to mind when they hear "AI," and even that topped out under a third.
Source: Pew Research Center, 2026The paradox: the heaviest users are the most worried
The Pew data breaks the most comfortable assumption people make about AI fear. The people using AI the most are also the most anxious about where it is headed.
Look at chatbot use by age. Among adults 18 to 29, 66% have used a chatbot. For 30 to 49, it is 61%. It drops to 42% for 50 to 64, and 23% for 65 and older. Confidence tracks the same way: 31% of under-30s feel extremely or very confident, falling to 6% among those 65 and up.
Now look at how each group feels about AI's effect on society over the next 20 years. Among adults under 30, 48% expect a negative impact. That share is lower in every older group: 39% for 30 to 49, 38% for 50 to 64, 35% for 65 and up. Only 14% of under-30s expect a positive impact.
Read those two patterns together. The group that uses AI most, and feels most capable with it, is also the group most worried about it. More exposure did not produce more comfort. It produced more concern.
That result runs against a comfortable assumption, the one that says people fear AI only because they do not understand it, and familiarity will fix the worry on its own. The young, daily users understand it fine. They use it constantly. And they are the most uneasy about its future.
More exposure did not produce more comfort. It produced more concern.
Why heavy use can breed worry instead of confidence
Using a tool every day is not the same as understanding how to govern it. A daily chatbot user who has never set up a single guardrail, never decided what the tool should and should not touch, and never built a way to check its output, lives inside the technology without any handholds. The more they use it, the more they see it produce confident, polished, occasionally wrong answers. Constant exposure without a system to manage it teaches you exactly how much could go sideways.
Worry is what fills the space where a method should be. The fix comes from usage with structure: knowing what the tool is good at, where it fails, how to verify it, and where a human stays in the decision. Skill, the practiced kind, is what turns daily exposure into steady confidence instead of low-grade dread.
That is the case for treating AI proficiency as something you learn on purpose and can measure, rather than something you absorb by osmosis from heavy use. Measurement gives you a place to stand. It tells you what you already do well and the next thing to practice, which is the opposite of the open-ended unease the survey captured.
What this means for Indiana employers
Pew did not break its results out by state, so there is no Hoosier-specific number in this study. The age pattern still has a direct read for Indiana, because of who staffs the state's workforce.
Indiana's own workforce planning data shows that roughly a quarter of the state's workers are under 30, with about half between 30 and 54, per the Indiana WIOA State Plan for program years 2024 through 2027. Indiana also competes hard to attract and keep younger workers, which is why young-talent retention sits near the top of the state's economic agenda.
Put the two together. The younger Hoosiers employers are counting on to lead AI adoption are, by the national pattern, the same group using these tools most and feeling most anxious about them. That makes this a workforce question first and a software question second. An employer who hands a capable 27-year-old a chatbot license and assumes confidence will follow is missing what the data shows: heavy use alone tends to raise the worry rather than settle it. A young employee given a clear method, a way to measure progress, and room to grow into governing the tools is far more likely to stay engaged, and to stay.
For a state working hard to keep its young talent, AI training that builds genuine, measured skill is a retention tool as much as a productivity one.
What to do this week
You do not need to fix your whole relationship with AI in one sitting. Three small, specific actions move you from heard-of-it to know-how.
- Name one task, not the whole job. Pick a single recurring task you already do every week, something narrow like drafting a first version of a routine email or summarizing a long document. One task is a handhold. "Use more AI" is not.
- Run it once and check the work. Use a tool like ChatGPT or Claude on that one task, then verify the output against what you know to be true before you use it. The habit of checking is where confidence comes from, and it is the exact habit heavy users skip.
- Find out where you stand. Take a short, honest measure of your own AI skill so you know your real starting point and the next step, instead of guessing from how much you have heard.
Awareness was the easy part. Almost everyone is already there. The harder, more valuable climb is the set of practiced skills underneath it: knowing what a tool is built for, spotting where it fails, checking its work, and deciding where a person stays in the loop. Those skills are learnable in order, and they can be measured. That is what The 7 Levels of AI Proficiency lays out, a clear path from first contact to confident, well-governed use, so the goal stops being "use more AI" and becomes "get measurably better at it."
If you want to see where you stand today, the free 7 Levels of AI Proficiency assessment takes about 10 minutes and shows you your starting point and your next step. Take the assessment.
Related reading: Level 3: The Lieutenant (Critical Thinker).
Sources
- Pew Research Center, "What do Americans think AI is?" (June 17, 2026).
- Pew Research Center, "How opinions and use of AI differ by age" (June 17, 2026).
- Indiana Department of Workforce Development, "Indiana WIOA Unified State Plan, Program Years 2024-2027, Workforce Analysis".
Frequently Asked Questions
Does using AI a lot make you more confident about it?
Not on its own, according to Pew's June 2026 survey. The youngest adults use chatbots the most and feel the most capable with them, yet they are also the most likely to expect AI to harm society over the next 20 years. Heavy use without a method to govern the tools tends to surface the risks, not resolve them.
What share of Americans use AI chatbots?
About half of U.S. adults have used a chatbot, and roughly one in four use one daily, per Pew. Only 18% feel extremely or very confident using them, and more than half do not use chatbots at all. Awareness is near universal at 96%, but use and confidence lag well behind.
Why does this matter for Indiana?
Younger workers make up a large part of Indiana's workforce, and the state competes hard to keep its young talent. The national pattern suggests those same young employees, the ones expected to drive AI adoption, are also the most anxious about it. Measured AI training helps turn that anxiety into capability and gives employers a reason for young workers to stay.
Find your AI Proficiency level
The free 7 Levels assessment places you across seven stages of AI capability. Under ten minutes. Research-backed scoring.