Asian Americans more optimistic than pessimistic about AI, survey finds

Asian Americans are embracing artificial intelligence at higher rates than any other major racial group in the United States and remain the only group whose positive views of AI outweigh negative ones, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

The study found that 70% of Asian adults use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, compared with 49% of Hispanic and Black adults and 46% of White adults. Asian Americans also reported the highest levels of daily AI use and were more likely than other groups to believe the technology will have a positive impact on society and their own lives.

Pew’s survey of 5,119 U.S. adults found that Asian Americans are using AI tools at substantially higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups. Seven in 10 Asian adults reported using AI chatbots, while nearly half said they use them daily. By comparison, daily usage rates stood at 26% among Hispanic adults, 24% among Black adults and 20% among White adults.

The gap extended across nearly every category of chatbot use measured by researchers. Asian adults were more likely than other groups to use AI for information searches, work-related tasks, creating or editing images and videos, obtaining medical advice, fitness and diet guidance and consuming news. Sixty percent of employed Asian adults said they use AI chatbots for work, compared with 36% of White adults, 36% of Black adults and 37% of Hispanic adults.

Researchers found that awareness of AI tools was also highest among Asian Americans. Ninety-five percent said they had heard at least something about AI chatbots and 68% said they had heard “a lot” about them. Pew noted that these differences remained even after accounting for factors such as age, gender, education and income.

Asian Americans were also the only racial group in the survey whose positive expectations for AI exceeded negative ones. Thirty percent said AI will have a mostly positive impact on society over the next 20 years, while 24% said it will have a mostly negative effect.

Other groups expressed considerably more skepticism. Among White adults, 43% said AI will negatively affect society while 15% expected a positive impact. Black adults were similarly cautious, with 35% expressing negative views and 15% expressing positive views. Hispanic adults were also more likely to see harm than benefit, with 36% holding negative views and 18% holding positive views.

The pattern was even more pronounced when respondents considered AI’s effect on their own lives. Forty-one percent of Asian adults said AI would personally benefit them, compared with 20% who expected negative consequences. Among every other racial and ethnic group, positive and negative expectations were either roughly balanced or leaned negative.

Asian Americans’ higher rates of AI use come as they face some of the highest levels of workplace exposure to the technology. A separate Pew Research Center study found that 24% of Asian workers held jobs highly exposed to AI, compared with 20% of White workers, 15% of Black workers and 13% of Hispanic workers. Occupations such as technical writers, budget analysts, web developers and data entry workers were among those identified as having high exposure to AI systems.

The disparity reflects Asian Americans’ outsized presence in STEM and professional occupations, where AI tools are increasingly being adopted. While exposure does not necessarily mean workers will be replaced, the findings highlight a notable contrast: Asian Americans are both among the workers most vulnerable to AI-driven disruption and the only racial group in Pew’s latest survey whose optimism about AI outweighs their concerns.