In Germany, 37% of adults agree that products and services using AI have more benefits than drawbacks, down from 49% a year earlier, according to the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026. That 12-point fall is the largest among the 28 countries Ipsos surveyed in both 2025 and 2026.
Ipsos counts falls in 17 of those 28 countries. By our arithmetic, the 17 falls add up to 71 points and the seven rises to 18 points. The same report finds that people under 35 are both the most excited and the most nervous about AI.
Business Pill · Distribution Advantage
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on distribution advantage. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss the Ipsos survey.
The key insight: As we read it, the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026 shows a broad but mostly small slide: the share of adults who see more benefits than drawbacks in AI products fell in 17 of 28 countries, and Germany, from 49% to 37%, accounts for the largest single fall. By our arithmetic, the falls add up to 71 points against 18 for the rises.
Ipsos interviewed 23,532 adults online in 32 countries between 20 March and 3 April 2026. On average across the 32, 55% agreed that AI products and services have more benefits than drawbacks, and 33% disagreed.
China, at 85%, and India, at 80%, top the 2026 list, but neither has a 2025 figure in the table, and nor do Israel and New Zealand. The lowest agreement was in Canada at 34%, Germany at 37%, and Great Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands, each at 38%.
By our count, as many or more people disagreed as agreed in seven countries: those six and Belgium, where the split was 41% to 41%. In Germany, 44% disagreed. Ipsos’s own summary reads: “In 17 of the 28 countries surveyed this year and last people are less likely to think AI brings more benefits than drawbacks.”
Share of adults who agree that products and services using AI have more benefits than drawbacks, 2025 and 2026, for the 28 countries with both years in the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026 (online survey of 23,532 adults, 20 March to 3 April 2026). The counts and point sums are our arithmetic.
Where the Drop Was Largest
After Germany, the largest falls were in Indonesia, from 85% to 77%, and Canada, from 40% to 34%. Singapore, Great Britain and the Netherlands each fell 5 points. Thailand, Mexico, Australia and the United States each fell 4 points.
Seven countries rose. Colombia gained 5 points, to 63%, and Sweden 4 points, to 47%. Peru, South Africa, Japan and Hungary each gained 2 points, and Spain 1. Malaysia, South Korea, Italy and Belgium were unchanged. The median country moved down 1.5 points, by our arithmetic.
Germany had risen in the two earlier waves Ipsos prints, from 42% in 2023 to 47% in 2024 and 49% in 2025. Its 2026 reading is below its 2023 level. Germans did not become more nervous: the share saying AI products and services make them nervous fell from 46% to 41%.
The Age Split
Ipsos says people under 35 have “the strongest nervousness (52%) AND excitement (56%) around AI”. Across all ages, the 32-country averages are 51% excited and 50% nervous.
The two under-35 shares add up to 108%. Shares of one group can only exceed 100% together if some people give both answers. By our arithmetic, that means on average at least 8% of under-35s said AI products make them both excited and nervous. Ipsos’s report puts it this way: “In many cases, it’s the same people feeling both emotions!”
The report’s summary page reads the age data differently. It says that “the younger age cohorts are more nervous, less excited and more likely to agree that technology is destroying the world”. We read all 49 pages, and the report does not print a full table of excitement and nervousness by age, so the two statements cannot be checked against each other from the report itself.
The generational figures it does print are on time saved at work. Gen Z workers, at 68%, and Millennials, at 65%, are more likely than Gen X, at 57%, and Baby Boomers, at 46%, to say AI has saved them time. That is a 22-point gap between the youngest and oldest groups, by our arithmetic.
The Sample Behind the Ranking
Ipsos says its samples in 15 countries, including mainland China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Singapore, are “more urban, more educated, and/or more affluent than the general population”. Samples in the other 17, including Germany, the United States, Canada and Great Britain, can be considered representative of adults under 75.
By our count, 9 of the 16 representative-sample countries with both years fell, and 8 of the other 12. Ipsos puts the precision of its online polls at plus or minus 3.5 points for samples of about 1,000, as in Germany, and 5.0 points for samples of 500, so several of the 1- and 2-point moves may not be meaningful.
Why It Matters
This is the second measure in the same survey to fall in most countries. Our earlier piece on the Ipsos excitement figures found the share excited by AI down in 19 of 28 countries, with 83% excited in China against 33% in the United States.
Two stories from our coverage this week sit in countries on the chart. In Australia, where agreement fell 4 points to 43%, the Reserve Bank’s Sarah Hunter said AI is lifting demand before it lifts supply. In Argentina, where agreement slipped 1 point to 56%, Pope Leo XIV said AI and unregulated automation can put countless jobs at risk.
The survey measures attitudes, not use or spending, and it does not say what drove the change in any country.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the German figure stands out because it reverses two years of gains in Ipsos’s own table, while German nervousness about AI products fell over the same year. The report gives no reason for either move.
Ipsos AI Monitor 2026
“In 17 of the 28 countries surveyed this year and last people are less likely to think AI brings more benefits than drawbacks”
Three Implications
FOR AI COMPANIES The six countries with the lowest agreement, from Canada at 34% to Great Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands at 38%, each had more people disagreeing than agreeing.
FOR THE AGE STORY Ipsos says under-35s have the strongest nervousness (52%) and excitement (56%); by our arithmetic, on average at least 8% of them feel both.
FOR READING THE MOVES Ipsos puts its precision at plus or minus 3.5 points for samples of about 1,000 and 5.0 points for samples of 500, so many 1- and 2-point moves may be noise.
The framework says: “The first is what your underlying technology can do. The second is what your users can actually do with it. They are not the same curve.”
As we read it, the Ipsos benefits measure tracks how people judge the second curve, and in 17 of 28 countries that judgement slipped this year. The framework predates this survey and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
Ipsos does not give a reason for the falls, and the report does not tie the German drop to any event. It also does not publish full-population results for the 15 countries with urban or affluent samples, so the size of any sampling effect is unknown.
The 32-country average is not weighted by population. Ipsos says it “has not been adjusted to the population size of each country or market”.
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In the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026, the share of adults who see more benefits than drawbacks in AI products fell in 17 of 28 countries, led by Germany, from 49% to 37%. By our arithmetic, the falls add up to 71 points against 18 for the rises, and on average at least 8% of under-35s told Ipsos AI makes them both excited and nervous.
A note on sourcing. Every survey figure and Ipsos quotation is from the Ipsos AI Monitor 2026 report (pages 2, 5, 6, 13, 15, 16 and 48), read in full; the page-13 and page-15 tables were read from the rendered pages. The Reserve Bank of Australia and Pope Leo XIV lines are from our earlier pieces linked in the text. Counts of countries, point sums, the median change, the 22-point generational gap and the minimum overlap of 8% are our arithmetic, unweighted, from Ipsos’s published rounded figures.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
