How Californians Feel About AI – Findings From the 2026 AI Compass
TechEquity’s mission is to ensure the tech industry is responsible for building widespread prosperity and is held accountable for the economic harm it creates in our communities. AI is the clearest test of that mission we’ve faced yet: a technology reshaping who has power over jobs, housing, and daily life faster than almost anything we’ve worked on before. That’s why we commissioned this project two years running—not as an academic exercise, but as evidence for the fight we’re already in.
This is the second year of the AI Compass Research Project in California. Twelve months after our first survey, we commissioned Daniel Stone of Diffusion.Au and Lake Research Partners to go back and ask many of the same questions to a new sample of over 3,000 California adults, in both English and Spanish, so we could measure change rather than guess at it. That second reading matters and where views held, we now have real evidence of their staying power; where they moved, we can say by how much, and among whom.
We found that Californians are using AI more than ever, and trusting it less than ever.
Catherine Bracy Founder & CEO, TechEquity
More Californians than ever are using AI (79%)—but their trust in the people and companies building it keeps falling, and their appetite for strong laws hasn’t budged.
Other key data points include:
- 60% of Californians believe AI’s benefits will flow to the wealthiest households and corporations, versus just 22% who think working people will benefit.
- 70% of Californians favor mandating strong AI laws over letting companies “innovate responsibly” on their own—essentially unchanged from 2025.
- Only 31% think AI will create new jobs—fewer than the 35% who believe AI will end up with some control over nuclear weapons.
- 58% are concerned AI will make essentials like housing and electricity more expensive.
- 43% have personally been stuck in an automated system that wouldn’t let them reach a human being.
- Every one of the six protective AI policies we tested—covering automated firings, workplace surveillance, AI-driven job cuts, and personalized pricing —won by net margins of +42 to +67. The one proposal offering looser guardrails was rejected nearly 3 to 1.
- The strongest single result: 75% of Californians support requiring a human, not an AI system alone, to make the final call when a worker is disciplined or fired (SB 947)—including +70 net support among Republicans and +82 among seniors.
- 22% said they’d be much less likely to support a candidate funded by “tech billionaires like Sam Altman and Peter Thiel.”
These findings show a public that has drawn a conclusion, largely on its own, faster than our laws have caught up to.
TechEquity 2026 California AI CompassDownloadThe federal government has so far avoided comprehensive national AI regulation, citing a focus on maintaining global tech dominance, fears of stifling innovation, and a desire to preempt a chaotic patchwork of conflicting state rules. This report is the second piece of evidence, gathered a year apart, that Californians see it differently.
This project also goes beyond the daily horse race of polling. Using experiments and analytical techniques, we explored not just what Californians believe, but what drives those beliefs, and whether their support holds up under pressure. We sorted the state into five mindsets, defined by what people value, expect, and fear and found common ground between constituencies where a purely political reading might predict division, not by party or age alone.
We hope legislators, organizers, and coalition partners will use these findings as they decide what to fight for next.
Catherine Bracy
CEO, TechEquity Collaborative
Want to learn more about AI policy that puts people first? Check out our People-First AI page for more resources.
How Californians Feel About AI
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