Four in Ten Americans Would Let an AI Agent Run Errands Even Though Few Trust It

A new national survey captures the contradiction at the heart of the AI agent era. About 40 percent of Americans would let an AI agent handle at least one everyday task, yet only 18 percent call AI agents a good idea.

The findings come from Channel V Media’s State of AI Adoption in America report, published Oct. 8 and based on a Prosper Insights and Analytics survey of 7,675 U.S. adults.

Restaurant booking, grocery buying and smart home management top the list of tasks people would hand off. But majorities still want a person for healthcare and banking, at 84 and 83 percent respectively.

Sixty percent said they are worried about AI entering their banking, careers and shopping, the report found.

More than half of generative AI users now search with AI, and nearly half use it for research and summaries, according to the report.

The survey was commissioned by a public relations firm that sells AI visibility services to brands, which is worth keeping in mind. The numbers describe attitudes, not a controlled experiment.

The tension matters for Philadelphia consumers because banks and retailers are already deploying agents. JPMorgan is barring outside AI agents from customer accounts while building its own, a fight over who controls the agent layer.

People are handing AI the keys to small errands while keeping the vault locked. The industry’s bet is that convenience will eventually win the bigger rooms too.