Conjointly launched the AI Adoption and Opinion Tracker in June 2023 to monitor how US consumers use and view AI technology. Between June 2023 and December 2025, Conjointly conducted 14 waves of research, surveyed approximately 500 Americans per wave for a total sample of 7,011. Each sample was weighted to match US age and gender demographics.

Fieldwork dates and sample sizes for each wave are as follows:

Rising consumer adoption usually suggests growing comfort with new technology. However, the tracking data tells a different story. Over 30 months, a paradox of necessity emerged where Americans increasingly integrate AI into their lives, yet their desire to halt its development shows no signs of weakening.

This article highlights findings across all 14 waves and identifies how both AI adoption patterns and attitudes toward the technology have evolved over this period.

ChatGPT adoption doubled over 30 months

Measured purely by usage metrics, AI has achieved remarkable penetration. Frequent ChatGPT usage more than doubled across the tracking period, climbing from 11% in Wave 1 (June 2023) to 23% in Wave 14 (December 2025). Trial users, i.e. those who have tried it once or a few times also grew from 18% to 31%.

The proportion who had never heard of ChatGPT dropped from 26% to 10%. This pattern held across all age groups, with each demographic showing a clear downward trend despite wave-to-wave variability. Those aged 65 and over saw the sharpest decline, dropping from 31% to 5%. The 30-44 age group followed, falling from 25% to 10%.

However, this surge in adoption and awareness failed to dampen public demand for a safety pause.

The “Safety Pause” sentiment remains stubborn

Agreement with the statement that “governments must implement a pause on advancing AI capabilities” tracked consistently above 55% throughout the tracking period. Support started at 64% in June 2023, fluctuated within a narrow band across 14 research waves, and stood at 59% by December 2025.

ChatGPT usage makes little difference to pause sentiment over time. Across 14 waves, non-users averaged 61% agreement while users averaged 59%, both groups maintained support for a development pause throughout the tracking period, reflecting deeper concerns across multiple dimensions.

Trust in AI software showed no upward trend

Agreement that software that uses AI is trustworthy ranged between 26% and 35% across all waves, showing no upward trend since the end of 2023.

A persistent trust gap between ChatGPT users and non-users has tracked throughout the study period. ChatGPT users consistently showed higher trust levels, averaging 44% compared to 20% among non-users across the 14 waves.

Notably, the gap narrowed in the October 2025 and December 2025 waves, as user trust declined compared to previous waves while non-user trust remained at similar levels.

Government regulation consistently viewed as inadequate

The persistent demand for a pause becomes clearer when examining how Americans view government oversight.

Throughout the tracking period, only one in four Americans believed the US government adequately regulates the AI industry. This perception of regulatory insufficiency remained relatively stable across all 14 waves, ranging between 19% and 28%, with most measurements clustering near 25%.

The 2024 election appears to have temporarily shifted perceptions of AI regulation. Republican confidence in government AI regulation climbed through the first half of 2025, rising from 25% in November 2024 to peak at 37% in June. From there, a reversal took hold. Republican agreement dropped to 33% in August, then fell sharply to 22% in October before recovering to 28% by December.

Democrats showed a different pattern. Their agreement fell from 29% in November 2024 to 23% in January 2025, then recovered gradually through mid-2025 before declining again in the final months.

By December 2025, Republican agreement had increased slightly to 28% compared to 25% a year earlier, while Democratic agreement dropped to 22% from 29%.

Fears about losing control stayed widespread

Nearly half of Americans agree that advanced AI systems cannot be switched off if they don’t want to be disabled. Agreement ranged between 44% and 56% across all 14 waves, showing no signs of diminishing despite growing familiarity with AI technology.

Age shapes AI autonomy fears dramatically. Young adults aged 18-29 were more than twice as likely as those 65 and over to believe advanced AI systems could resist shutdown, averaging 53% versus 21% across all waves. This generational gap persisted consistently throughout the 30-month tracking period.

Majority support for creator compensation

Since June 2023, at least six in ten Americans supported compensating artists and content creators when their work trains AI models.

While there has been a modest softening from the peak of 73% in late 2023 to 63% in both October and December 2025, support has remained above 60% in every wave measured over the 30-month period.

This sustained level of agreement suggests that while Americans grapple with questions of AI safety and governance, they remain consistent in their view that creators deserve payment when their work contributes to AI development.

How to keep tabs on consumer adoption and attitudes

The persistence of AI concerns despite doubling usage rates, demonstrates that American attitudes toward AI are not evolving in predictable patterns. Trust is not building with adoption, while fear is not diminishing with familiarity.

These insights emerge only through continuous measurement over time. Tracker studies make this possible by surveying the same questions at chosen intervals, revealing how consumer preference and attitudes are shifting or stabilising.

For organisations navigating rapidly evolving markets, understanding these patterns makes the difference between reacting to temporary fluctuations and responding to genuine shifts in consumer sentiment. To explore how tracking studies can illuminate the trends shaping your product category, schedule a consultation with Conjointly’s research team.