63% of the American public and 67% of institutional investors and analysts believe AI-driven profit gains should be reinvested in workers. Corporate leaders instead prioritize reinvesting in R&D (72%) and delivering returns to shareholders (54%).
“Our research suggests some sizeable gaps exist between how corporate leaders think about AI deployment and what the public and investors would like to see,” said Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “The public understands the economic upside AI helps to create – but they need convincing that they stand to benefit from the gains. Companies that are able to do that will be rewarded with greater trust and a stronger overall license to operate. As the impacts of the AI transition continue to take shape, this will be extremely valuable.”
Public optimism on economic growth climbed 12 points (47% Fall 2025 to 59% Summer 2026).
Worryingly, the share of corporate leaders expecting large-scale job losses within the next 2–3 years nearly doubled, from 13% in Spring 2026 to 22% in Summer 2026. The public remains equally concerned about large-scale job loss and fewer entry-level positions.
The share of corporate leaders willing to dedicate more than 5% of AI investment to support displaced workers has more than doubled in the past six months (9% in Fall 2025 to 17% in Summer 2026).
The analysis above comes from the third wave of Just Capital’s unique quarterly survey of the American public, investors, and corporate leaders, which is designed to offer executives insight from key stakeholders as they aim to build trust, manage risk, and unlock AI’s upside potential. By measuring how perceptions and priorities shift across these groups over time, Just Capital aims to help business leaders make fully informed decisions as the AI landscape evolves. The inaugural wave was conducted in Fall 2025, and the spring wave was released in April 2026
As business leaders continue to transform their companies and strategies around AI, they face a new and largely unmapped set of stakeholder expectations. Calls for responsible development and deployment continue, yet leaders lack an organizing framework that objectively defines responsibility and enables consistent and comparable practice across companies. Just Capital’s ongoing AI-focused polling initiative aims to fill this gap.
In early 2026, Just Capital conducted its second quarterly survey of the American public, investors, and corporate leaders. The ongoing initiative is designed to offer a roadmap for companies looking to build trust in the AI era and a framework to begin to define what responsible business leadership in the age of AI really means. The inaugural wave of this research initiative was conducted in the fall of 2025, and quarterly surveys will continue through 2026 and beyond to track perceptions as the technology evolves.
The organization today published its second full report Spring 2026 American Public, Investor, and Corporate Leader Perspectives on Responsible AI Deployment: AI Optimism Rises but Concerns Remain. The research revealed key changes between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026:
Findings from the second wave of Just Capital’s AI-focused polling suggests we are entering a period of growing confidence, but also one that demands continued focus on transparency, accountability, and broad benefit-sharing. Recent analysis from Just Capital on the state of corporate disclosure reveals that just 37% of the 110 companies analyzed disclose responsible AI principles or guidelines.
“There’s no shortage of ambition around AI, but there is a shortage of clarity on what responsible deployment actually looks like in practice. That’s a gap we aim to fill,” said Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “This research is designed to give leaders a clear, data-driven starting point for building the kind of trust that earns and maintains long-term social license to operate.”
Methodology
In January 2026, Just Capital surveyed 1,000 American adults in partnership with Harris Poll, 103 corporate executives (84 c-suite executives and 19 board members or senior-level executives) in partnership with Gerson Lehrman Group, and 100 institutional investors and analysts in partnership with NewtonX. This survey was the second wave of an ongoing quarterly polling initiative.
About Just Capital
Just Capital is the foremost independent organization advancing responsible business leadership. We translate insights from public polling, performance data, and financial analysis into actionable intelligence leaders can use to drive long-term business success and shared prosperity for people across America.Our flagship product Just Intelligence is designed to offer a comprehensive view of public expectations, stakeholder performance, and sector realities in order to drive responsible decision-making. When companies make better decisions, they can create lasting value for shareholders, contribute to stronger communities, and help drive broader economic and societal progress. For more information, visit justcapital.com.
Recent research on public attitudes toward AI reflect a rising level of unease and concern about the technology and its potential impacts on the workforce, relationships, and education. A closer look at public priorities suggests the views of the public are more nuanced than other polls may indicate and the path forward for AI-focused corporate leaders is clearer than overall sentiment polling implies.
In March 2026, Just Capital prompted the American public to prioritize AI-related issues rather than measure general sentiment. The results reveal that public support for AI is not absent but conditional: it depends on whether companies can demonstrate how they are managing risk responsibly while delivering on AI’s greatest potential to improve society. An early review of corporate disclosure suggests most companies have not yet made that case clearly or consistently.
When asked to rank priorities rather than express general views, Americans reveal a more balanced perspective than headline sentiment polls suggest. They highly prioritize the use of AI to advance innovations in health, education, and engineering to solve complex societal problems, even ranking this above concerns around workforce disruption and environmental impacts.
At the same time, the three highest-ranked priorities are focused on safety concerns: preventing harm, deception, and manipulation; keeping humans in charge; and protecting personal data and privacy. This suggests public support would be bolstered by companies articulating the guardrails around the technology. Americans are watching to see whether companies can deploy AI responsibly.
We reviewed AI-related disclosures at six hyperscalers and 104 additional companies that rank highly in the organization’s measure of overall responsible business practices. Even among these 110 companies, most with strong disclosure track records across workforce, community, environment, customer, and governance issues, AI-related reporting is inconsistent and lacks common definition.
Two of six hyperscalers publish dedicated AI Transparency Reports. Fifty percent of companies disclose board-level involvement in AI risk oversight, but just 37% of the 110 companies analyzed disclose responsible AI principles or guidelines. Among those that do, disclosure is uneven on the issues Americans rank highest: only 16 companies mention preventing harm, deception, and manipulation; 27 mention human oversight; and 37 mention customer privacy and data protection.
Across Just Capital’s broader analysis of 933 public American companies, the picture is even less clear. The share of companies committing to not selling user data in any context dropped 3.5% year over year, and 3% fewer companies commit to not using user data for advertising. The average number of employee training hours fell from 24.34 per employee in 2024 to 21.96 in 2025, despite calls for more AI-focused training and reskilling opportunities. Among the smaller group of 110 companies analyzed further, 39 disclose formal AI training programs for employees.
As companies accelerate AI deployment, clearly and consistently defining responsible AI development and deployment will be a meaningful point of distinction for the American public. This analysis suggests the public will be more likely to extend trust to companies that demonstrate they are using AI to deliver genuine social benefit while protecting people from the greatest risks.
The full list of public priorities identified by Just Capital is below. These priorities are being translated into trackable metrics for ongoing analysis.
Methodology
Just Capital regularly conducts independent surveys to track Americans’ priorities, values, and expectations for corporate behavior, which serve as a foundational input into its Just Intelligence tool, rankings, and research products. Priorities weights were determined via maximum-differential (Max-Diff) to quantify the relative importance of each of the AI-related issue statements.
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Just Capital from March 12–16, 2026 among 2,012 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. Data from this survey have been weighted to align with known population parameters from the U.S. Census Bureau on key characteristics including [age, gender, geography, etc.]. While weighting adjusts for demographic imbalances, this survey is based on a non-probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Findings should be interpreted accordingly.
1. Only 53% of Americans believe large U.S. companies are very or somewhat just, the lowest percentage since we began this polling in 2019. Only 35% believe our current form of capitalism is working for the average American.
2. This is at odds with the expectations of the public. 80% believe business can be a force for positive social change and 89% agree it’s important that companies promote an economy that serves all Americans.
3. When we dig deeper, Americans care most about worker-related issues such as providing a fair and living wage, supporting worker well-being, and offering advancement and training opportunities, alongside employee benefits.
4. As AI and automation become even more dominant in 2026, leaders have a significant challenge ahead to innovate and grow their business while continuing to invest in and cultivate their workforce. Our recently released research on perceptions of AI amongst corporate leaders, investors, and the American public aims to help them identify key considerations for responsible AI deployment at scale.
Perceptions of performance on just business behavior peaked during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Since then, the gap between those who view companies as just versus unjust has narrowed to its smallest margin in seven years, suggesting declining confidence in corporate behavior.
The public indicates belief that companies are overwhelmingly focused on shareholders at the expense of their workers and customers. The shift since 2020 is stark: while shareholder prioritization has remained constant or even intensified in the public’s view, they believe attention to workers and customers has languished.
76% of Americans say companies positively impact shareholders compared to other stakeholders, to society, and even compared to quality jobs. The starkest gap appears in perceptions of impact on the financial well-being of a companies’ lowest-paid workers.
Over time, the erosion of public confidence has accelerated, with Americans increasingly convinced that companies prioritize investors to the exclusion of all other stakeholders.
When asked whether capitalism is working for the average American, the majority of respondents say no. This negative sentiment has persisted for four years, with 2021 marking the narrowest gap between those who agree and disagree that the system is working.
This sentiment is remarkably consistent across demographics. In nearly every group — regardless of age, income, race, or political affiliation — the majority believe capitalism is NOT working for the average American. The exception is Conservatives, who have a lower, yet still substantial share who express doubts about capitalism’s effectiveness to generate shared prosperity.
Eighty percent of Americans think that business can be a force for positive change. The public also has high expectations of corporate America across a variety of factors, such as the ethical use of AI in business operations, the relationship between transparency and trust, and the desire for companies to operationalize value creation rather than simply making public commitments. What is additionally striking is the consistent level of agreement on these sentiments across political ideologies.
Although the public is looking for action over verbal commitment, there is an opportunity for leaders to better communicate how they are positively serving their workers, customers, and communities.
While a quarter of Americans say that CEOs should stay away from taking a stand on any societal issues, three-quarters say that they do have a role to play in societal issues, especially when they concern issues related to their business.
While 70 to 93 percent of Americans say it’s important for companies to engage in various responsible business practices, their evaluations of actual corporate performance indicate skepticism that expectations are being met. The largest gaps between expectation and perceived performance emerge in two critical areas: ensuring equal pay for equal work and contributing to an economy that serves all Americans.
Overall, Americans continue to prioritize worker-related issues, with four of the five worker issues ranking in the top six out of 17 total issues. Customer-related issues are also prioritized in the top 10.
When we dig deeper, we find a remarkable consistency across demographic groups in the three highest-ranked Issues: Pays a fair, living wage, supports worker well-being, and acts ethically at the leadership level. These findings signal that the public continues to be united around the issues they want companies to prioritize.
Over the past seven years, “Pays workers fairly and offers a living wage that covers the cost of basic needs at the local level” has consistently ranked 1st across nearly every demographic cohort. At 11.5%, this issue’s weight remains relatively stable from last year, but is lower than at its peak of 21% in 2023, suggesting that while a fair, living wage continues to be fundamental to public perceptions of just corporate behavior, its degree of importance has declined in favor of other worker issues.
“Supports worker well-being and provides safe and healthy working conditions,” which rises to the second-highest ranked issue. This elevation likely reflects heightened concern about maintaining positive, supportive work environments that prioritize workers’ humanity.
Likewise, “Invests in its workforce by providing training, education, and career development opportunities” takes the #5 spot, and comprises 7.2% of the model, up from 6.9% the year before. The rise in worker training priorities likely reflects the growing desire among workers for upskilling in an AI-driven economy — a trend corroborated by findings in our AI survey.
“Conducts business ethically and honestly, and takes responsibility for wrongdoings” ranks #3 overall, followed by “Honest and transparent in communications with customers about its products, services, and operations,” at #4. Both issues made the top 4 last year, and their sustained prominence takes on new significance in the age of AI. As systems become more opaque and complex, the public’s insistence on ethical conduct and transparency suggests a fundamental demand: companies must demystify their AI practices and be accountable for decisions that affect their stakeholders’ lives.
Finally, the biggest mover this year is “Protects the privacy of customers, including their data,” which moved to #8 from #10 last year. As we found in our AI survey, the public fears that rushed AI adoption, combined with weak security protocols, could expose personal information to breaches, misuse, or unauthorized access.
The results of the survey reflect an ongoing call from the American people for a “back to basics” business approach. The public clearly defines just business behavior as companies paying fair wages, providing good benefits and training, creating safe and fulfilling workplaces, offering opportunities to advance, treating customers fairly, and supporting the communities in which they operate.
As AI and automation become even more dominant in 2026, leaders have a significant challenge ahead to innovate and grow their business while continuing to invest in and cultivate their workforce. Our recently released research on perceptions of AI amongst corporate leaders, investors, and the American public aims to help them identify key considerations for responsible AI deployment at scale.
Americans’ Views on Business Survey
Since 2015, JUST Capital has surveyed close to 200,000 Americans to assess how well they think companies are doing when it comes to creating value for all their stakeholders and building a more just economy that truly works for all. The 2025 Americans’ Views on Business Survey was fielded among 2,004 Americans – a sample representative of the U.S. adult population – between August 18 through September 2, 2025. Our quantitative research partner is SSRS, an objective, nonpartisan research institution that provides scientifically rigorous statistical surveys of the U.S. population.
The People’s Priorities Survey
Just Capital’s definition of just business behavior begins by hearing from a diverse, representative sample of Americans through small-group qualitative discussions to understand what they expect from a “just” business. This year, the major themes we translated into issues came from open-ended responses to the following question:
Q1. Think now about the largest companies in the U.S., with hundreds or thousands of employees. We would like to know what you would consider to be “just” business behavior for these companies as it relates to various groups of people. By “just” we mean “fair or good” behavior.
Before answering this question, however, we provide respondents a clear definition of the concept: A just company demonstrates a commitment to doing right by its workers, its customers, the environment, the community, its shareholders, and the business itself.
Respondents were prompted to answer this question from the point of view of one of five stakeholders (Workers, Customers, Communities, The Environment, or Shareholders).
Q1.1 For example, actions you would expect a just company to take related to its Workers
Our polling team then distills the major themes from these discussions into discrete statements, which we define as “Issues.” Subsequently, we conduct a quantitative survey of 2,000 U.S. adults in which they rank the relative importance of these 17 Issues.
We conducted the survey online with a probability-based sample attained through the statistical sampling methods employed by SSRS. The SSRS Opinion Panel is a nationally representative probability-based web panel, and findings are generalizable to the general adult population.
The survey is drawn from a probability sample, ensuring we capture diverse perspectives from a cross-section of Americans. This includes representation across demographic dimensions (race/ethnicity, gender, income, and age), as well as other characteristics such as political ideology.
The full survey was conducted from August 18 through September 2, 2025 among a general population sample of 2,004 English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults ages 18 and older, with an oversample of 470 Hispanic and 253 non-Hispanic Black respondents. Panelists were sent an email invitation to take the survey online as well as up to eight reminder emails throughout the field period. The survey program was optimized so that respondents could complete it using a desktop or laptop computer as well as a mobile device. In total, 610 respondents completed the survey on a computer and 1,394 completed it on a mobile device.
The margin of error is +/- 2.0% at the 95% confidence level. Results were weighted to U.S. census parameters for age, gender, education, race/Hispanic ethnicity, and census division to ensure representativeness of the U.S. population. All margins of error include “design effects” to adjust for the effects of weighting.
AI deployment has become a defining strategic priority for the private sector, promising to enhance productivity, innovation, and competitiveness. Ensuring the technology drives prosperity and progress for every American is a top national priority. As companies race to adopt AI, significant questions are emerging about what it means to pursue these new business imperatives in ways that empower American workers, strengthen local communities, create good jobs, protect consumers, and build trust in business and capitalism.
Today, Just Capital released new findings from a survey of corporate leaders and a combined report of these corporate perspectives alongside previously released surveys of investors and the American public. The inaugural American Public, Investor, and Executive Perspectives on Responsible AI Deployment report and the organization’s ongoing research initiative aim to identify key considerations for responsible AI deployment at scale.
Just Capital will conduct quarterly pulse surveys through 2026 and beyond, providing ongoing insight for corporate leaders, investors, and policy makers as perspectives continue to evolve on what exactly responsible AI deployment means and how to pursue it.
The research identified key areas of agreement between the three audiences:
Majorities of all three groups believe AI will be a net positive for society within the next five years. Corporate leaders’ enthusiasm (93%) outpaces the general public (58%) and investors (80%).
Majorities or pluralities of each group rate AI safety and security a top concern (general public: 53%, investors: 62%, corporate leaders: 46%).
Significant majorities of the general public (90%) and investors (97%) say it is critical that companies ensure that AI training and development is available to employees, and roughly three-quarters of corporate leaders say they are planning to implement AI training to support their workers.
Some diverging views also emerged including:
The Degree of Expected Investment in Safety and Workforce Support: Investors and the public expect companies to spend more than 5% of total AI investment on safety, while corporate leaders say they plan to allocate between 1 and 5%. When asked about how they plan to redistribute AI-related profitability gains, executives evince less emphasis on worker training efforts (17%) than on delivering gains to shareholders (28%) and reinvesting in R&D (30%).
Environmental planning: Roughly a third of both the public and corporate leaders say increased corporate AI usage will have negative impacts on the environment. Currently, only 17% of leaders are including environmental impact planning in their AI roadmap, and 42% say it is not a part of their strategy.
“This is a defining period for every business leader. How to deploy AI the right way in order to create value for their companies, their shareholders, and all their major stakeholders – not to mention for society at large – is the strategic question of the moment,” says Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “The insights in this initial report and the quarterly tracking we will do moving forward are designed to help leaders navigate this transformation, make responsible decisions, and ultimately win in an AI-powered economy.”
The surveys were conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll, Robinhood Foundation, and Gerson Lehrman Group. The complete report, including detailed findings and methodology, is available here.
NEW YORK, NY October 28, 2025 – As executives across industries race to deploy AI’s transformative potential, another urgent question looms: What do the people who determine a company’s success — employees, consumers, communities, and investors — actually expect from corporate AI implementation?
Today, Just Capital released new survey findings as part of a comprehensive effort to define responsible AI deployment through the eyes of the key population groups. Drawing on a decade of polling the American public, this research, conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll and Robin Hood Foundation, reveals areas of alignment and divergence across two core audiences: the American public and investors.
Just Capital will be tracking these perceptions quarterly as the technology evolves, offering leaders a real-time compass as they navigate a rapidly changing business landscape. The organization will also begin surveying business leaders this fall to compare stakeholder and corporate expectations.
“We’re at an inflection point. Every day, leaders are grappling with both the opportunities AI creates and the risks it poses at scale. What responsible AI leadership looks like is being defined in real time,” says JUST Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “Our research aims to equip corporate leaders with additional insights to realize AI’s full promise including the business value it can unlock and the wider prosperity we all need it to deliver. If we can get this right, everyone wins.”
1. Expectations of productivity
The vast majority (96%) of investors believe AI will have a net positive impact on worker productivity. However, only 47% of the public say AI will result in a net positive impact on productivity.
2. Distribution of AI-related gains
The public is in favor of distributing AI-driven corporate profits across several efforts, including lower prices for customers, workforce supports including for laid-off workers, and investments in safety and security. Investors believe the majority of gains should be allocated to shareholders, but do believe in gains going to other efforts including lower prices for customers.
1. AI safety as a top concern
Despite recent emphasis on an AI race between the United States and international rivals, both the American public and investors are more concerned about preventing accidents, misuse and other consequences of AI. Both groups also see impacts on social stability as a greater concern than U.S. competitiveness.
2. A significant amount of spend toward safety
The majority of the public and investors believe companies should be spending more than 5% of total AI spend on the safety of these tools and platforms. Given recent capital allocations to AI investments, 5% represents a dollar amount in the hundreds of billions. According to JUST Capital tracking to date, top AI developers and users have not publicly disclosed the amount spent on safety.
Are you a corporate executive? Please take our AI-focused survey here to inform how we continue to define and measure AI leadership.
