The technology industry is betting big on AI. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says executives may be misreading the public mood.
On a recent episode of “Lenny’s Podcast,” Spiegel warned of growing dissatisfaction with technology and said consumers may not adopt it as quickly as tech leaders hope.
He said that could lead to an “enormous amount of social blowback” as people grapple with its impact on jobs and their energy expenses.
“We’re in an industry where a lot of the conversation is about technology,” he said. “People are vastly underestimating the role that human adoption and human comfort with advances in artificial intelligence will determine their implementation. I think technology leaders think that people will just blindly adopt new technology as it emerges.”
Spiegel is not alone. In March, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI was becoming less popular, citing concerns related to layoffs and growing energy demand. An NBC News poll in March asked registered voters across the United States if they had a favorable opinion of AI; only 26% of respondents said yes.
The only issues with a lower favorability score in the survey were the Democratic Party and Iran.
Still, Snap continues to invest heavily in AI. The company has integrated technology into Snapchat, including personalized chatbots and AI-powered imaging tools. In November, Snap signed a multi-year, $400 million deal with Perplexity AI to implement a search tool.
That push has also coincided with job cuts. In mid-April, the company said it would lay off 16% of its global workforce. In an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Spiegel pointed to AI-driven productivity gains as part of the company’s broader shift.
“We have already witnessed small teams leveraging AI tools to drive significant progress on several important initiatives,” he wrote in the memo. “To everyone continuing on this journey: change of this magnitude and at this speed is never easy and it will not be perfect.”