Young Americans Don’t Trust AI CEOs. Here’s What That Means If AI Is Part of Your Pitch.

A new CNBC and Generation Labs poll of over 1,000 Americans aged 18 to 34 found deep, widespread distrust of the people leading AI companies. 81 percent said they do not trust Palantir CEO Alex Karp to act responsibly on AI. Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman all landed in similarly rough territory. Satya Nadella was the only executive tested with net positive trust. 45 percent of respondents said AI will hurt their careers. 60 percent want data center buildout slowed down. If any part of your business talks about AI in your marketing, hiring, or brand positioning, this poll is worth understanding, because it describes exactly the audience many founders are trying to reach.

The Gap Between Industry Optimism and Public Sentiment

Inside the AI industry, the tone is almost uniformly forward-leaning. New capability, new efficiency, new possibility. That tone shapes how a lot of founders talk about AI in their own marketing, because it is the tone they absorb from the products and conversations they are immersed in daily. This poll is a useful reality check. The people you are actually trying to reach, particularly a younger demographic that skews toward early adoption of most technology, are not sharing that optimism about the people running the industry.

That distinction matters. Distrust of AI CEOs is not the same as distrust of AI itself. Plenty of people use AI tools daily while remaining deeply skeptical of the leadership steering the companies that build them. Founders leaning heavily into AI-forward branding should understand that skepticism is aimed at leadership and intent, not necessarily the technology, and that distinction should shape how you talk about AI rather than whether you use it.

Why Younger Audiences Specifically Matter Here

The 18 to 34 demographic in this poll is not a marginal group to ignore. It is the group most founders in consumer-facing businesses are actively trying to reach, hire from, and build long-term brand relationships with. 45 percent believing AI will hurt their careers is a real signal about how this audience is processing the pace of change happening around them, and it is not a signal of excitement.

If your marketing leans on AI as the headline — “powered by AI,” “AI-driven” — as the primary selling point rather than a detail supporting a real outcome, you may be talking past exactly the audience you are trying to win over. The framing that resonates with people building AI products internally is not automatically the framing that resonates with the people using or affected by those products.

What Actually Builds Trust With This Audience

The data points to a specific opening. Nadella’s comparatively higher trust likely reflects perception of steadier, less combative public communication style relative to some of his peers, though the poll itself did not isolate the exact cause. What is clear is that trust in this space is not being won through bold claims about AI’s transformative power. It is being won, where it is won at all, through a track record that reads as measured rather than aggressive.

For founders, the practical version of this lesson is straightforward. Lead with the outcome your customer actually experiences, not the technology producing it. Be specific and honest about what AI is and is not doing in your business, rather than inflating the role AI plays to sound more cutting-edge. Avoid language that implies AI is replacing judgment or eliminating the need for real expertise, since that framing directly touches the career-anxiety concern 45 percent of respondents named.

The Data Center Connection

The 60 percent wanting data center buildout slowed connects directly to what we covered in last Sunday’s newsletter, growing local opposition to AI infrastructure across politically diverse communities. This poll adds a demographic layer to that story. It is not just communities near proposed data centers pushing back. It is a broad swath of younger Americans generally uneasy about the pace and scale of AI’s physical and economic footprint, regardless of whether a data center is being built anywhere near them.

That combination — local infrastructure opposition plus broad generational skepticism of AI leadership — is a meaningful headwind against the assumption that AI adoption is simply an inevitable, universally welcomed curve. It is not universally welcomed. Founders building AI-forward brands should factor that in rather than assuming enthusiasm is the default public posture.

What to Actually Do With This

Nothing drastic. This is not a reason to strip AI out of your marketing or hide how you use it. It is a reason to audit how you are talking about it. If your messaging currently treats AI capability itself as the selling point, consider whether the actual outcome for your customer — faster service, better results, lower cost — is doing enough of the talking, with AI positioned as the method rather than the headline. That framing tends to land better with a skeptical audience than leading with the technology and hoping the benefit is self-evident.

If you want to think through how this connects to the infrastructure story underneath it, this is worth revisiting: Google Just Ran Out of Chips for Meta. Here’s What That Means If You’re Building on AI.