Gallup survey of 37 countries: in 34, positive AI sentiment outweighed the negative; 90%+ of people in China and 66%+ in Nigeria say AI will improve daily life
A Gallup poll found that a majority of people surveyed across 37 countries said they were curious or excited about artificial intelligence, more than scared or worried.
New York TimesDamien Cave
Context & Ripple Effects
Gallup’s cross-country result adds a counterweight to earlier polling that found a more ambivalent public: a 2025 multinational survey showed concern and excitement often coexisting, while a Gallup survey of US people aged 14 to 29 recorded falling hopefulness about AI. The variation is geographical as well as generational; a 2022 survey found markedly higher trust in AI companies in China and India than in France, the UK, and the US.
The key fault line is not simply optimism versus pessimism. A survey published a week earlier found people in 34 of 37 countries expected net job losses from AI, meaning Gallup’s positive expectations for daily life sit alongside widespread concern about employment displacement.
First-order effects
Gallup gives AI providers a clearer signal that consumer-facing AI may encounter especially receptive audiences in China and Nigeria, where respondents strongly expect improvements to daily life.
The poll makes sentiment harder to treat as a single measure of acceptance: positive expectations for AI’s everyday utility do not erase public concern about its effect on jobs.
Second-order effects
Employers rolling out AI will face pressure to distinguish productivity gains for users from workforce reductions, particularly where job-loss expectations are already widespread.
Policymakers assessing AI adoption gain evidence that public legitimacy will depend on both visible consumer benefits and credible responses to labor disruption, rather than on broad approval alone.
Third-order effects
If this split persists, AI markets will be shaped less by a global pro- or anti-AI consensus than by national differences in trust, perceived usefulness, and exposure to labor displacement.
The resulting policy debate is likely to shift from whether AI is welcomed in principle toward who captures its benefits and who bears its employment costs.
The trend: AI adoption is moving into a phase where enthusiasm for everyday uses and anxiety over labor-market consequences advance in parallel across countries.
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