How often Americans use AI predicts their view of it more than party, race, gender, or age – by a 3-to-1 margin.
THE NUMBERS
+57 vs. −42. Daily AI users favor AI by +57 points. Rare or never users: −42. A 99-point gap — wider than the gender gap (26 points), the racial gap (32 points), the age gap (35 points), or the political gap (~14 points) on AI in the same survey. (Data for Progress, Feb. 2026)
73% vs. 23%. Among daily users, 73% expect AI to improve jobs. Among non-users: 23%. (Pew Research)
75% vs. 24%. Daily users who say AI will personally benefit them: 75%. Non-users: 24%. (Pew Research)
39.4% in two years. Generative AI hit 39.4% of U.S. adults in two years — faster than the PC or the internet. (Harvard / Bick, Blandin & Deming)
83% vs. 39%. AI optimism in China: 83%. Indonesia: 80%. Thailand: 77%. United States: 39%. The U.S. ranks near the bottom of 32 countries — but Germany and France are up +10 points since 2022. (Stanford HAI 2026)
67%. Share of Americans who expect AI to reshape daily life within five years. They rank AI as more transformative than smartphones, cybersecurity, EVs, GLP-1s, or robotics. (Ipsos AI Monitor, March 2026)
RONN TOROSSIAN, FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN, 5W – “The people using AI every day are simply living in the future first. Life before AI will soon feel like life before the cellphone, email, or the internet.”
WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS
Power Users are the leading edge of where every American buyer is heading — and where global consumers already are. They are higher-income, higher-education, higher-intent. They make decisions inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — not search alone.
A brand cited inside AI engines is positioned for the curve. A brand absent from them is invisible to the audience already shaping the next era of consumer behavior in Singapore, Mumbai, São Paulo — and increasingly, Manhattan.
5W’s proprietary Power User Audit measures a brand’s Citation Share across major AI platforms and identifies the retrieval signals required to compete in AI-driven discovery — across U.S., LATAM, EMEA, and APAC markets.
METHODOLOGY
The 5W AI Power User Study synthesizes findings from Data for Progress (February 2026, n=1,228 likely U.S. voters), Pew Research Center (April 2025, n=5,410 U.S. adults and 1,013 AI experts), the Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index, the Ipsos AI Monitor (March 2026), and the Harvard generative AI adoption tracker.
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, helping clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research.
