Our latest research reveals a wide gap between the public’s concerns about critical AI safety, oversight, and governance issues and the level of public disclosure among 1,002 of the largest US-based companies on how these issues are being addressed. A large majority of AI users support a slowdown on AI development, but say it will help build trust in the models.
“AI developers and their enterprise customers are becoming increasingly aware that earning the public’s trust on AI is the key to success,” said Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “This study adds to the body of research we’ve been building to help business leaders understand how to go about doing that.”
Corporate leaders can now explore where they stand and take action to build trust. Through Just Capital’s flagship Just Intelligence product, Russell 1000 companies can now see how their public reporting meet the expectations of the American public, compare to industry peers, and stack up against leading practice.
This study is part of the organization’s ongoing research on how companies can build trust with the American public as they develop and deploy AI.
The survey was conducted online on August 18, 2026 among a national sample of 1,000 US adults age 18 and older, weighted to align with population benchmarks. Because this is an online survey based on a non-probability sample, no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
Disclosure data was collected in August 2026 for 1,002 of the largest US-based companies, including nine hyperscalers (Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle), across nine AI-related disclosure areas that were selected based on the priorities of the American public: Board oversight of AI, C-suite AI leadership, AI data protection, AI human oversight, AI harm prevention, employee AI upskilling, AI impact on jobs, community AI investments, and anti-surveillance and personal data protection commitment.
Additional details on methodology are available upon request.
This week Anthropic said it will embed invisible, machine-readable watermarks in text generated by Claude, along with signed provenance metadata on the files it produces. The announcement was in response to Article 50 of the EU AI Act, whose transparency obligations took effect on August 2. But the company is applying the marking everywhere Claude is offered, not just in the EU.
This may be a wise strategic move. In our spring polling, 81% of the American public said companies should use a watermark to indicate when AI-generated content is in play. Among investors, agreement hit 93% — about as close to unanimous as we see.
Every business deploying AI at scale may soon come to field a version of this question from their customers, their employees, and even their investors: how do we know what came from a person and what was generated by AI?
I got the chance to explore this theme last week when I sat down with Madison West, Head of Sustainability at Intel and President of the Intel Foundation. Intel established responsible AI principles years ago to guide the company in building safety, transparency, and societal impact “as part of the development process, not at the end.” Her framing of why that matters commercially has stayed with me: “Innovation moves faster when people trust it.” You can catch up on our full conversation on LinkedIn.
Be well,
Martin
51% of workers believe that widespread use of AI at work will only or mostly benefit business owners and executives, compared to just 6% who say most or all the benefits will go to workers. Explore the data in the latest report by Groundwork Collaborative.
The Washington Post looks at the growing surge of rural, Republican voters blocking data center projects in the south.
Meta announces a $1 billion “Future is For Everyone Fund” to assist areas impacted by the development of AI data centers. Yahoo Finance has the story.
Axios writes that OpenAI is pausing the release of its Astra model to expand safety testing of its potentially “critical” cyber capabilities.
Fortune looks at data that shows Boomers and Gen X are actually unhappier about the economy than younger generations – and the reasons why are different for both groups.
Reuters reports on the unexpectedly poor July jobs report revealing that the U.S. lost 23,000 positions over the month. At the same time, The Washington Post reveals that many signs of unemployment improving are actually driven from people leaving the job market entirely.
The New York Times reports that Meta will have to pay $567 million in a case arguing that the company knowingly attracted children to its platforms while knowing they were unsafe.
Axios’ advice to business leaders? Stay consistent. At least according to recent polling that shows Americans are increasingly skeptical of companies that react suddenly to the political moment.
This chart comes from our latest polling from the American public, investors, and corporate leaders and backs up the research from Groundwork Collaborative featured above. Corporate leaders continue to feel that AI has improved their job satisfaction, while workers and investors have plateaued.
Companies today are desperately searching for growth, better margins, and market-beating returns, especially amid ongoing AI-driven transformation. Our latest research offers clues where to look.
We scored 767 companies over five years on how they treated their workers, their customers, their communities, their shareholders (on governance factors), and the planet, then evaluated what happened in subsequent years to their revenue growth, margins, and excess returns.
TL;DR: the results suggest that strong stakeholder performance can indeed presage future financial and market performance, but not always. It varies by industry, by stakeholder, and over time. When the connections were statistically significant, positive links beat negative ones by nearly two to one, with strong clusters around the twin goals of revenue growth and alpha.
The key to success at the individual company level appears to be knowing when, how, and where the stakeholder-financial performance connections occur, anticipating future shifts and executing better than others; precisely what the new Financial Opportunity feature in Just Intelligence facilitates. In technology, for example, the firms that invested most in communities, environment, and governance went on to grow fastest.
None of this was a surprise to Jen Huffstetler, Chief Sustainability Officer at HP Inc. — our top-ranked company of 2026 — who joined me for a conversation last week. Culture, trust, and innovation, she argued, are essentials for overall leadership today. At HP, whose stock is up over 30% YTD, culture is grounded in accountability – a feature that can be traced back to the firm’s founders. You can read the full summary of our conversation on LinkedIn.
In a volatile market obsessed with AI-driven growth, profitability and returns, the stakeholder model might offer more value than expected.
Be well,
Martin
P.S. Just Intelligence now contains additional AI-focused insights. Explore them here.
79% of investors feel AI should face significantly more regulation than social media has, alongside 78% of corporate leaders. Explore the data here.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang speaks to Axios about how AI is creating more jobs, pointing to how its use in radiology is creating demand for more radiologists.
Mark Zuckerberg writes an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal outlining his optimistic vision for an AI-driven future.
The New York Times looks at AI companies’ search for more electricians and plumbers for their data center build-outs, and how many are investing in the trades.
Inc. reveals that 55% of leaders regret AI-related layoffs, and more companies are hiring back roles they thought they could do without.
The Wall Street Journal looks at how after-tax wage growth has improved for low-income Americans, but those gains are likely being swallowed by rising gas prices and overall inflation.
Forbes takes a surprising look at why engineering majors are struggling to find jobs at higher-than-expected rates.
More companies than ever are turning to older and retired CEOs when their business is in need of stabilization. The Wall Street Journal has the story.
This chart comes from an Associated Press investigation on how the increase in food prices is affecting U.S. families, showing that prices have risen 33% since 2019.
The ROI of frontier AI models is a topic of hot debate in corporate America right now, primarily centered on the cost of compute. To understand what other dynamics might be at play, we did what we do best: we asked the American public.
In a poll fielded this week, 34% of workers say their workload has increased since their company started using AI, including 10% who say it’s increased significantly.
There are many factors that could be driving this. It could be that AI is not yet generating meaningful productivity gains on the individual level, or that the time saved by AI is used to complete even more work. Perhaps workers are taking on more work if their teams have reduced headcount. Respondents said the added workload comes mostly from managing and checking AI output – reviewing drafts, catching errors, and re-doing work the model got wrong. It’s the unglamorous labor of quality control, and right now, it appears to be landing squarely on employees’ shoulders.
Interestingly, it’s not a story of frustration or distrust. Among workers who say AI has changed their job, 88% call that change positive. Put together, the data suggests companies may be in an early training period, where the labor costs required to teach AI are currently more significant than the costs saved by the technology. What’s more, workers seem to sense that the tradeoff is worth it.
As business leaders race to deploy AI, they may want to consider how they’re rewarding workers for the extra elbow grease that’s making that transformation possible.
Be well,
Martin
57% of institutional investors and analysts believe AI will have a negative impact on the environment.
Axios reports that Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is calling on the U.S. to establish an AI watchdog group comprising world-class technical experts.
Meanwhile, Common Sense Media finds Google’s AI search failed safety tests and scored poorly on seven of the organization’s eight AI safety principles.
CNBC investigates former Meta employees’ accusations that the company unfairly used AI in recent layoffs.
New York became the first state to put a temporary ban on data centers until standards are created that address environmental impacts, energy demands, water usage, and other factors. NBC News has the story.
A group of economists from Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab released a statement calling for urgent preparation for the economic impacts of powerful AI models. The statement has been signed by over 200 economists including 16 Nobel laureates and the chief economists of OpenAI and Anthropic.
Covista and the Covista Foundation committed $10 million and 50,000 volunteer hours to build and sustain the healthcare workforce over the next five years.
Gallup finds that confidence in U.S. institutions remains near all-time lows.
Fortune reports that the growing national debt may result in a smaller job market with lower wages for Gen Z in particular.
This chart comes from Gallup and looks at Americans’ confidence in large technology companies. Among the institutions rated this year, large technology companies experienced a surge in Americans expressing very little or no confidence.
The question of who shares in the wealth AI creates is a defining one. Should there be an “AI tax” for hyperscalers? Or an AI-based sovereign wealth fund? Maybe you think no special measures are needed. What’s clear is that most of the debate is happening among the people building the technology and the people who will regulate it, not the people it will potentially impact the most. So, this week, we fielded a national survey to ask Americans directly whether the wealth AI generates should be shared, and how.
The headline finding represents a point of agreement across demographics. Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 65%, say everyone should receive a direct financial benefit from the wealth AI companies generate. That view holds across the political spectrum, with 75% of Democrats, 62% of Republicans, and 57% of Independents in agreement. It runs strongest among the 25-to-44 year-olds most exposed to AI in the workforce, where support reaches a massive 78 to 80%, and it stays steady across income levels and gender.
What people want done with that wealth is more revealing. Across nearly every group, a direct cash payment funded by a tax on AI profits is the first choice. The exception is the youngest cohort. They lean instead toward structural mechanisms like public ownership stakes and sovereign-wealth-style funds, share transfers, and investment in worker retraining and AI safety.
I find this striking. The generation most likely to be impacted by AI, and with the most working years ahead of it, is not asking for a check. It wants a stake in the future and the means to compete. Business leaders and politicians seeking to win the favor of young Americans should pay close heed.
Be well,
Martin
For the last three quarters, Just Capital has been polling the American public, investors, and corporate leaders on AI deployment, tracking where perceptions converge and where gaps are widening.
Our third installment of quarterly polling on responsible AI deployment is now available in Just Intelligence for all registered users.
This research is designed to offer a roadmap for companies looking to build trust in the AI era and make informed decisions as the AI landscape evolves. It is the first iteration of an ongoing series that will continually surface insights from key stakeholders as companies aim to build trust, manage risk, and unlock AI’s upside potential for workers, customers, communities, and shareholders.
Axios examines new polling that shows data centers are turning into the focal point for anti-AI sentiment across the nation.
Reuters reveals that despite the fears, AI proliferation is having a muted effect on wages and workers.
At the same time, Gallup writes that while downsizing is continuing across the U.S., laid-off workers are only citing AI as the primary reason 1% of the time.
The Wall Street Journal speaks with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about his belief that we “can’t let AI giants eat the economy”. Read the full interview.
While they are experiencing a harder job search, The Guardian reveals that Gen Z employees who managed to snag a job are actually making more money than millennials did right after college.
Fortune takes a look at why men continue to drop out of the workforce at higher rates.
Yahoo! Finance holds a magnifying glass to CEO pay, and how more CEOs than ever are making more than $100 million a year.
The Washington Post teams up with the Brookings Institute to examine which jobs are most-and-least vulnerable to AI-driven displacement.
Our third quarterly AI survey of the American public, investors, and corporate leaders is out this week and the results are striking.
Twenty-seven percent of corporate leaders report providing advance notice of AI-driven layoffs, 31% say they are offering transition support to laid off workers, and only 13% report contributing to an industry-wide fund to support displaced workers. Nearly a quarter of corporate leaders — 23% — say none of these support mechanisms exist at their organization, despite the fact that 22% now believe large-scale job losses are on the horizon (compared to 13% just one quarter ago).
We think one possible explanation for these wide-ranging responses is that most companies don’t anticipate or aren’t yet laying off at the scale that would trigger displacement programs, so those programs haven’t been built. Only 19% of corporate leaders report significant job cuts to date. Nevertheless, the gap between investor and public expectations and corporate action is widening. Sixty-four percent of the public and 57% of investors expect advance notice of workforce changes. Seventy-two percent of investors say companies should fund training and skill development. These stakeholders are concerned about widespread layoffs even if they’re not yet materializing.
Other interesting datapoints: The share of company leaders who believe business should spend over 5% of total AI investment to support displaced workers has more than doubled since Fall 2025 from 8% to 17%. And nearly 75% agree companies should invest in local communities through training and workforce development programs.
Are business leaders getting more concerned about what’s to come? Or more committed to building support with key stakeholders? Maybe both.
Be well,
Martin
This newsletter was written mostly by humans with a bit of help from AI.
We are expanding Just Intelligence to track how America’s largest companies are deploying AI responsibly and we want your feedback.
Through polling conducted over the last year, we have identified several AI issues that matter most to the American public and developed new data points that capture how corporate disclosures meet those expectations. We plan to incorporate these data points into our 2027 Rankings methodology.
If you belong to a company being measured, your perspective is essential to ensuring this research is relevant and actionable.
Please submit your feedback by July 8, 2026.
View the Data Points and Provide Feedback
Fortune highlights comments from Vista Equity Partners CEO Robert Smith imploring companies who are expanding their AI capabilities to continue to invest into intern programs for the next generation, saying “that’s an important part of bringing people along and, honestly, of creating optimism and a new group of technologists and thinkers who can carry this world.”
NBC News covers a historic bill that just passed in Illinois that would require AI companies to have 3rd party safety audits.
Fortune examines Goldman Sachs data showing new college students are shifting majors to those that are less at risk for AI automation.
Our CEO Martin Whittaker joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the findings in our latest AI polling.
The New York Times reports on the UK’s social media ban for children under 16, and the worries from company executives that other countries may follow suit.
Yahoo Finance examines the “30% rule” – the idea that Americans should only spend 30% of their income on housing – to see if it’s actually still feasible in this era of slowing wages and hyperinflation.
Axios looks at rising CEO optimism despite the current headlines.
Axios looks at how, for the first time, a majority of U.S. households have both parents working full-time.
