By Brooke Thomson
President & CEO

The 2026 Bentley University-Gallup Business in Society survey offers valuable takeaways for business leaders – including insights into how Americans view businesses and what they expect from companies today.

It’s encouraging that the data shows – by and large – Americans believe business has a positive impact on their lives. This year the study of 3,270 U.S. adults finds that 61 percent say businesses have a positive impact, that’s up from 55 percent recorded when the survey launched in 2022.

That 61 percent slipped from 65 percent in 2025. Positive views declined most among adults aged 30 to 59, particularly those aged 45 to 59, among whom the percentage rating businesses’ impact as extremely positive fell from 30 percent to 18 percent.

The survey was released on October 8. Bentley and Gallup will discuss the results as part of an event entitled The Business of AI: Opportunity, Trust and What Comes Next on October 29 at CitySpace in Boston.

“The Bentley-Gallup survey results over the last five years show that Americans are becoming more aware of the role that business plays in our lives,” said Cynthia Clark, John W. Poduska Professor of Governance at AIM-member Bentley University.

“People recognize that businesses can influence everything from the economy to the environment and even how much they trust AI or the government. Understanding these changing expectations is crucial for CEOs and other executives to lead their own businesses in a way that benefits their bottom lines and our society, too.”

Bentley and Gallup say concerns over inflation and adoption of artificial intelligence drove the year-to-year decline in sentiment toward business.

The survey found that nearly nine in 10 Americans (89 percent) say the prices of the products and services they buy rose over the past year, including 62 percent who say prices increased significantly. Eight in 10 believe businesses raised prices a great deal (47 percent) or somewhat (33 percent) more than necessary to increase profits.

Trust in businesses to use AI responsibly fell from 31 percent to 27 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage who believe AI does more harm than good climbed from 31percent to 39 percent; just 9 percent say it does more good than harm. Concern about jobs rose for the first time since the survey began tracking it, with 79 percent expecting AI to reduce the number of U.S. jobs over the next decade, up from 73 percent in 2025.

Separately, Bentley and Gallup find that support for businesses taking a public stance on current events fell from 51 percent to 47 percent, roughly where it stood in 2022. The drop was driven by a nine-point decline among Democrats. Among employees, 56 percent say their own employer should not communicate a stance to them, down from 60 percent in 2025.

Results are based on a Gallup Panel web study conducted May 4–11, 2026.

The Bentley/Gallup survey paints a complex picture of the relationship between business and the public. On the one hand, attitudes toward business appear driven by developments in the economy such as inflation and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, business has a responsibility to be a positive force for change in helping create a more prosperous world.

That’s what we’re about at AIM and we value the opportunity to represent thousands of hard-working employers in that endeavor.