About half of US adults now use AI chatbots, up from a third in 2024, and AI users now rank trust and privacy above ease of use, two 2026 surveys show. Companies are expanding their privacy programs because of AI, and the industry is answering with confidential computing.

About half of US adults use AI chatbots

Pew Research Center surveyed 5,119 US adults from 17 to 23 February 2026. About half of them use AI chatbots, up from a third in 2024, and about a quarter use them every day.

Menlo Ventures and Morning Consult surveyed 5,067 US adults in July 2026 and found that use is deepening: daily use of AI rose from 19% to 25% in a year. Of the people who use AI, 55% pay for at least one AI product.

Users rank trust above ease of use

  • In Pew's survey, 71% of US adults said the growing use of AI will make their personal information less secure, and 3% said it will make it more secure.
  • In Menlo's survey, AI users ranked accuracy (45%), trustworthiness (40%), and security and privacy (36%) ahead of ease of use, which fell from 38% to 32%. "Trust is becoming the gatekeeper for consumer AI," Menlo wrote.
  • Of the Americans who do not use AI, 76% told Menlo they worry about data privacy.

Companies expand privacy programs because of AI

Cisco's 2026 Data and Privacy Benchmark Study surveyed 5,200 IT, technology, and security professionals with privacy duties in 12 markets. In the study, 90% of organizations said their privacy programs have expanded because of AI, and 95% said their privacy investments have helped them build loyalty and trust with their customers.

The industry answers with confidential computing

In confidential computing, a model runs inside a trusted execution environment (TEE), which is built so that even the operator of the server cannot read its memory. The TEE proves which software it runs with a remote attestation, which the user's device can verify before it sends anything.

Between 14 September and 19 October 2026, Apple, NVIDIA, Google, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft each made a move in confidential computing, as we report in Five weeks, seven giants. And open-weight models that run in TEEs now outscore the closed flagships of early 2026 and in 2026 trail the best closed models by about four months.

What it means for you

An AI chat holds what you are still thinking through, so where it runs matters as much as the model behind it.

Thinkr's private lane is the default. Before your browser sends a word, it verifies the enclave's remote attestation; then every chat is encrypted on your device and decrypted only inside the enclave. You can try it free, with no account.

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