AI Safety Outranks Competitiveness as Top Concern Among American Public, Investors, and Corporate Leaders

Fourth quarterly Just Capital research reveals public holds AI developers and AI deployers equally responsible for AI safety, corporate investment lags expectations

New York, NY, Sept. 23, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just Capital released its fourth quarterly survey of the American public, investors, and corporate leaders designed to track each audience’s expectations around AI development and deployment. Over the past year, the survey has identified declining predictions of large-scale job losses and increased concern about environmental impact. One area of consistency among all three audiences is the persistent prioritization of AI safety and security. 

“The American public sees clear benefits of an AI-powered future, and they also have very real anxieties,” said Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “Frontier labs and government both have immense responsibility to facilitate broader access to opportunity and to protect against the greatest harm. Yet, there’s a role for other CEOs and corporate leaders to help the public understand how AI is adding value while explicitly addressing key issues like model safety, data protection, and human oversight. Concrete actions and transparency are how trust is built.” 

Key Findings

Safety and security is more of a concern than US competitiveness among all three audiences

• 53% of corporate leaders, 49% of the public, and 58% of investors believe safety and security is a top concern, exceeding concerns about competition and growth.
• This trend has remained consistent over the past four quarters. 

According to a snap poll, the public wants the U.S. and China to work together on AI safety

• Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say the U.S. and China should work together on AI safety, including 64% of Republicans.
• Asked directly whether AI or China is a bigger threat, 52% say AI compared to 32% who say China. 16% are not sure.
• If China does not want to cooperate, 51% of Americans think the U.S. should still put comprehensive safety regulations in place.

The public holds AI developers and enterprise deployers as nearly equally responsible for AI safety

• Should humans lose control of an AI system, 79% of the public assign responsibility to companies that build that system, while 77% assign responsibility to the companies that use it. 69% assign responsibility to the government. 
• If there is an erosion of human oversight, 76% of the public assign responsibility to companies that use AI systems, compared to 74% who build the systems. 

Expectations diverge on how much companies should spend on AI safety

• Nearly two-thirds of the public (64%) and a majority of investors (56%) say companies should devote more than 5% of their AI investment to safety.
• Only 22% of corporate leaders report their company spends 5% of their total AI investment on safety.
• Two-thirds of corporate leaders (65%) put current safety spending at 5% or less.

Most of America's largest companies do not publicly report on how they addressing the public’s concerns

• Just Capital’s analysis of corporate disclosure among Russell 1000 companies finds only 10% of companies disclose a policy or set of principles that explicitly addresses preventing harm, deception, and/or manipulation. 
• Only 14% disclose a policy or set of principles that specifically mentions keeping humans in charge, human oversight, or maintaining human-in-the-loop.

By measuring how perceptions and priorities shift across the American public, investors, and corporate leaders 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, the Spring wave was released in April 2026, and the summer wave was released in June 2026.

Explore the Fall 2026 Report.

About the Research

This quarterly survey of the American public, investors, and corporate leaders was designed by Just Capital as part of its broader polling and public-opinion research program. We received responses from 128 institutional investors in collaboration with NewtonX, 104 corporate executives in collaboration with Gerson Lehrman Group (66 C-suite executives and 38 board members or senior level executives), and 1,000 US adults aligned to population benchmarks in collaboration with The Harris Poll. Data were collected July 20–27, 2026. 

The survey tracking perceptions on AI safety and China was conducted online among 2,000 U.S. adults using Harris Quest DIY. The survey was conducted on September 14-15, 2026. Respondents were recruited from opt-in online survey panels. Quotas were set on gender, age, region, income, and race to ensure proper balance. To adjust for nonresponse, data are weighted to American Community Survey estimates for gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, and region. Party identification is weighted using Gallup’s 2026 party identification estimates. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. 

Disclosure data was collected in August 2026 for 1,002 of the largest US-based companies, including hyperscalers, across nine AI-related disclosure areas that were selected based on the priorities of the American public: Board oversight of AI, C-suite AI leadership, AI data protection, AI human oversight, AI harm prevention, employee AI upskilling, AI impact on jobs, community AI investments, and anti-surveillance and personal data protection commitment.

Evangeline DiMichele
Just Capital
edimichele@justcapital.com