AI is creating anxiety.
This project creates clarity.
AI is being built into work, school, and daily life faster than most people have been given time or guidance to evaluate.
Some people see real value. Others feel anxious, skeptical, or overwhelmed.
AI On Human Terms is an independent, crowdfunded research project designed to explore what people actually want from AI, what gives them pause, and what would make it genuinely worth using.
Learn more about the project and how you can help fund research that belongs to everyone.
You don't have to feel excited about every new AI product announcement.
You are not supposed to naturally trust a technology that keeps changing.
You are allowed to want AI to work for you rather than feeling pushed to adopt something that wasn't designed around your actual needs.
Our research will put people's perspectives at the center and map what they want from AI, what their real reservations are, and what would make it feel useful on their own terms.
Why This Needs Public Funding
People Need AI Guidance That Is Not Trying To Sell Them AI.
Large companies can hire consultants, run pilots, and commission private research. Most people cannot.
Small businesses, independent workers, students, job seekers, parents, educators, and everyday professionals are often left to figure out AI through trial and error. That is not good enough.
Public support helps create independent research that gives people a clearer way to understand AI before it becomes even more deeply embedded in everyday life.
An independent study of what people actually want from AI
What This Research Will Help Answer
Most AI research measures adoption rates, productivity gains, and enterprise ROI. This project measures something different: what people actually want.
What would make AI feel genuinely useful — not just marketable?
What would make it feel trustworthy — not just technically capable?
What are people's real conditions for engaging with AI willingly, rather than reluctantly?
Research Questions
1. What do people actually want AI to do for them?
Not what AI can do — what people want it to do. We'll identify whether people are looking for speed, confidence, reduced mental load, creativity, learning support, practical help, or something else entirely. Their goals, not the technology's capabilities.
2. Where are people in their relationship with AI?
Some people are avoiding it. Some are curious but cautious. Some are experimenting. Some have found real uses. We'll map where people actually are — not to push them to the "right" stage, but to understand what each stage feels like from the inside.
3. What would meaningful support look like for each type of person?
Different people need different things: better examples, more control, clearer privacy protections, peer proof points, or simply time and space. We'll identify what actually helps — including for workplace contexts.
See our methodology page for the full list of Research Questions and more in-depth details about the project
We'll Deliver publicly available research and interactive tools to help you navigate AI.
1. Report on AI Adaptability Trends
A publically available White Paper that reports on what drives successful AI adoption — and what doesn’t.
2. Find out how you work with AI
An online quiz to understand your AI adoption patterns and what tools make sense for you.
3. See if your organization is ready for AI
An online assessment tool of your organization to know where AI fits, what to prioritize, and what to fix first.
A Typing Tool That Turns Research Into
A Personal Roadmap
Most AI tools ask what you can do with AI. This one asks what you want from it — and what conditions would need to be true for it to actually work for you.
You'll learn:
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Which uses feel realistic for your situation
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What your personal conditions for trusting AI actually are
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What are the best tools and approaches for getting the most out of AI in your job
Our Stretch Goals
If we exceed our funding goal, we can expand the project and make the findings even more useful.
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125% funded: Create short video series summarizing key findings for maximum shareability
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150% funded: Add a social listening phase to examine themes in AI discourse on platforms such as Reddit and X
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175% funded: Publicly available dashboard featuring basic analytics of data w/ integrated chatbot to provide insights
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200% funded: Add a qualitative research phase to interview AI users to inform the survey and develop AI chatbots that adopt the personality of each Adapter Segment
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250% funded: Expand the study to include international comparison (additional countries or languages)
Why This Project Is Different
Almost every piece of AI research is funded or produced by someone with something to sell: a platform, a consulting practice, a tool, an ideology. The findings reflect those incentives — even when the authors don't intend them to.
This project has no product to promote. No vendor funding. No agenda beyond understanding what people actually want from a technology that is being built at scale, without anyone asking the people it's being built for.
Sponsors can support this research. They cannot shape it.
In other words, supporters do not control the questions, methods, findings, interpretation, or recommendations.
Who benefits from this research
People are overwhelmed. Small businesses are confused. Enterprises are stuck in pilot purgatory.
See our enterprise sponsorship tiers if you think your organization would be interested in this work.
How The Research Will Work
The project will use survey research to study how people think about, use, resist, and adopt AI in real work contexts.
The survey will examine:
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AI Adoption Stage: Where people are on the journey from resistance to leveraging.
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Desired Outcomes: What people actually want AI to help them do.
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Adoption Barriers: What slows people down or keeps them from using AI effectively.
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Use-Case Interest: Which AI applications feel useful, safe, and realistic.
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Trust Conditions: What makes AI feel more reliable, understandable, and controllable.
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Support Needs: What training, examples, safeguards, or guidance people need next.
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Ideal AI Experience: What kind of AI experience people actually want.
This project is lead by
Meet the Research Team
See who are leading the project
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How you can support our research
AI is moving fast. The public needs clearer, more independent guidance on how people actually adopt it, what holds them back, and what helps them move forward.
Your support funds the full research process: survey design, data collection, analysis, segment development, report writing, public tools, data visualization, and project updates.
Every contribution helps turn AI confusion into independent public research that people, small businesses, contractors, and teams can actually use.
Support the project. Share it. Help build clarity in a noisy AI world.
Make a donation
See this page for detailed descriptions of the supporter tiers
$0 raised
0 donations
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Amount
Curious
$3
Interested Observer
$15
Research Supporter
$35
Research Partner
$75
Data Explorer
$150
Co-Investigator
$500
Other
0/100
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You don't have to figure out AI alone
1
Course — "Thinking About Thinking Machines"
Thinking About Thinking Machines is a 5–6 video course created by the research team, exploring AI through the lens of cognitive science and design thinking. It won't give you a prompt library or a tool checklist. It will give you an intellectual foundation to think clearly about the technology reshaping everything — so you can engage with AI on your own terms, not just follow someone else's.
Available to AI Insider supporters ($50) and above.
2
Community Spaces
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LinkedIn Group and Discord Community (AI Enthusiast, $10+) — Connect with other AI-curious people, follow research updates, and join discussions as findings are released publicly. A good place to see how others in your field are thinking about AI.
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Private Slack Channel (AI Insider, $50+) — More in-depth discussion tied to the course videos and early research findings. A smaller, more focused group for people who want to go deeper.
3
Workshop
For those who want to go further, the Pioneer Workshop ($500) is a small-group, hands-on session that applies research findings directly to something real in your life — a task, a problem, a decision. Not a lecture. Not a demo. A working session where you leave having actually made progress.
Independence & Transparency Charter
This charter is the backbone of the project.
It’s how we ensure the world gets something it can trust.
1. No sponsor or backer can influence the research
No enterprise, vendor, or individual can edit, shape, cancel, or bias the findings.
2. All funding flows are transparent
Through Open Collective, every dollar in and out is publicly visible.
3. All methods are published openly
Sampling, analysis, frameworks, and limitations are shared publicly.
4. All deliverables are public
The benchmark report, segment profiles, tools, and assessments are free and accessible.
5. No data is sold
Backer data, survey data, and research data are never sold or shared with vendors.
6. No hidden agenda
We are not selling a product. We are building a public resource.
7. No enterprise influence
Enterprise backers receive early access — not editorial control.
8. No vendor involvement
This project is not funded by AI companies, tool vendors, or consultancies.
9. No pay‑to‑play
No one can buy their way into the findings.
10. Radical transparency
We build in public, publish updates, and show our work as it develops.
Help build an honest picture of what people want from AI
An independent study of what people actually want from AI
AI is moving fast.
The public narrative is dominated by the people building it and selling it.
This project will give everyone else a voice — and turn it into independent, public research that people, businesses, and teams can actually use.
Support it. Share it. Help shift the conversation.