When it comes to Big Tech and AI, consumers have high expectations

The Big Tech antitrust battleground is expanding. European regulators have historically led the charge to rein in the tech industry, tackling Google’s ad and search businesses, Meta’s data privacy policies, and a tangle of Amazon issues impacting both buyers and sellers.

But the United States is gaining ground when it comes to earning its monopoly-bashing badge, and according to data from decision intelligence company Morning Consult, US consumers are on board with those efforts.

Responses collected between September 2022 and June 2023 from either 2,200 or 4,400 US adults per month indicate Big Tech is facing strong consumer headwinds, with nearly twice as many US adults supporting efforts to break up major tech companies as those that oppose them.

Big Tech regulatory headwinds, however, seem to have taken a back seat to artificial intelligence:

In the US, AI companies face higher demand for regulation than major tech companies. According to Morning Consult, demand for AI regulation has risen 9 percentage points in the last few months alone. That bump comes in part from Republican consumers—42% of Republicans said they supported more AI regulation in April, compared to 52% in June. Republicans now nearly align with Democrats: 52% of Dems said AI companies required more regulation in April, a figure that rose to 55% in June.

More broadly, a majority of consumers in the US and Europe want AI to be “heavily regulated by the government”—that holds true in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. British and Spanish consumers feel particularly strongly about AI regulation: Nearly two-thirds support the creation of a new government agency dedicated to AI.

Zooming out: Industry-wide, there are a few key areas where tech is falling short of consumer expectations. Taxes, for one—73% of US consumers said tech companies should pay their “fair share of taxes,” but only 52% believe they already do. Similarly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s also a trust gap when it comes to data privacy: 72% of US adults believe tech companies should keep user data private and secure, but only 57% say that’s happening today.

While regulatory and trust issues are likely to continue playing out in coming months and years—including through litigation in the US over Google’s business practices in various fields, Meta’s use of minors’ data, and a potential dispute between Amazon and the Federal Trade Commission—positive sentiment in the US about tech, which has been relatively lackluster, seems to be on the rise (except around AI, whose supporters have fallen since March).

The number of US adults who reported a “favorable impression” of major tech and social media companies increased between April and June, Morning Consult’s surveys found—though the number who view major tech companies positively is still well below where it was at the end of 2022—and half of respondents agreed that tech’s “best days” are still to come.