When a management group sits down to decide something about AI, nobody has measured the mood in the room, but everybody has read about it. Colleagues are uneasy about their jobs. The rules are said to be changing. A neighbour objects to the data centre. We think it helps to look at the actual numbers before the discussion starts, so we collected them.
We opened every source below on 7 October 2026. The figure and the date in each paragraph are what the linked page says. Where a page was blocked, or only a search summary existed, we left the item out.
Fear: mostly about work
In Internetstiftelsen's Svenskarna och internet 2025, published on 29 September 2025, 33% of Swedes expect AI to cause major unemployment by taking over work tasks. A similar share believe it will create new jobs. 40% have used an AI tool in the past year.
A Novus survey for the pension company SPP, reported by Magasinet Lokalguiden on 25 August 2026, found that 46% expect higher unemployment, 17% worry about their own job and 67% expect AI to change the labour market enough to affect future pensions. The two Swedish surveys ask different questions, so their numbers should not be set against each other. The SPP survey shows a gap: more people expect trouble for the labour market than for themselves.
Europeans are mostly positive. In the Eurobarometer on AI and the future of work, published by the European Commission on 13 February 2025, 84% say AI requires careful management, and over 60% view robots and AI positively at work. Almost as many want it managed carefully as are positive about it.
In the US a majority now leans towards concern. In a Pew Research Center survey fielded 22 to 28 June 2026 and published on 16 September 2026, 52% of US adults are more concerned than excited about AI in daily life. Democrats are at 56% and Republicans at 49%, so Democrats are now more concerned than Republicans. Only 9% say they are more excited than concerned. In the same Pew analysis the share more concerned in 2021 was 37%.
The young are the most wary. Pew's analysis of the same survey, published on 18 August 2026, finds that for the first time a majority of US adults under 30 are more concerned than excited: 55%. 73% of them expect fewer jobs over the next 20 years, up from 61% in 2024.
Fear and use sit side by side in these numbers. People use the tools and worry about what they do to work, both at once.
Politics: the rules keep moving
The European Commission's implementation timeline for the EU AI Act, read on 7 October 2026, gives these dates. The Act came into force on 1 August 2024. Prohibitions and AI literacy applied from 2 February 2025, and the rules for general-purpose AI from 2 August 2025. The rest was scheduled for August 2026. The high-risk rules now sit at 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028.
The move came through the Digital Omnibus on AI, as the European Parliament's Legislative Train tracks it. The Commission proposed it on 19 November 2025, citing late standards and national authorities that were not ready. Parliament voted for it on 16 June 2026, with 423 for, 57 against and 174 abstentions. The Council adopted it on 29 June, and it was published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026. High-risk rules were pushed back to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028.
EUinsider reported on 23 June 2025 that the Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson had become the first EU government leader to ask publicly for a pause in the AI Act. He called the rules confusing without common standards and said he would raise it at the European Council. The Commission's tech chief said a pause was possible if technical guidance was not ready.
Sweden's AI Commission delivered its roadmap, SOU 2025:12, in February 2025, and it was published on 4 February 2025. It names political leadership as one of the biggest challenges for the Swedish AI ecosystem and says the lack of strategic planning and coordination slows development. It asks the government to adopt the roadmap as a national AI strategy.
The US has its own version of the fight. In July 2025 the Senate voted 99 to 1 to remove a ten-year ban on state AI regulation from the budget bill, Nextgov/FCW reported. The amendment was bipartisan. States kept the right to regulate AI.
Five months later the president tried the same thing by executive order. Executive Order 14365, of 11 December 2025, sets up a Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws and lets agencies withhold some federal funding from states with laws the administration calls onerous. It sets 30 days for the task force and 90 days for the state law review. The order says it will not preempt state laws on child safety, data centre permitting or state procurement.
The pattern is the same in the EU, Sweden and the US. The rules are not settled, and the argument is about who sets them and how fast. A company that plans around one date for when the rules arrive is planning around a date that has already moved once.
Data centres: the argument moves to the grid
Data centres account for 6,984 MW of the 25,992 MW of consumption requests in Svenska kraftnät's pending connection cases, at 1 September 2026. The queue shows applied-for capacity, not what will be built.
The politics has followed. Interpellation 2025/26:414 by Isak From of the Social Democrats, dated 24 March 2026, asked energy minister Ebba Busch how the government will stop new data centres from pushing up electricity prices for families and local industry, and whether it will propose a national plan. Busch pointed to the February 2026 AI strategy, instructions to Svenska kraftnät on connections, and waste heat requirements as steps towards one. The interpellation was debated on 13 April 2026.
Denmark has gone further. The grid operator Energinet paused new grid connection agreements for large consumers, according to Kromann Reumert, which relayed the announcement on 2 March 2026. About 60 GW of new demand is waiting, against a national peak of about 7 GW. Data centres, batteries and Power-to-X are named as the drivers. The pause is for three months at first.
In Finland, a citizens' initiative on data centres reached the 50,000 signatures it needs and goes to parliament, Demokraatti (STT) reported on 18 September 2026. It asks for conditions on grid connection and operation, to keep electricity sufficient and affordable for households, and for a data centre fee that covers environmental impact. Unprocessed initiatives lapse at the April 2027 election.
In the US, the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania reported on 11 August 2026 that 61% oppose new data centres in their own area, up from 49% in March 2026, while 14% support. Opposition runs across parties, with Democrats at 69% and Republicans at 54%. It is strongest among people under 30, at 70%.
The tax side is part of the fight. Good Jobs First, on 19 February 2026, counted at least 12 US states with data centre moratorium bills in the 2026 session. Its estimates of yearly losses to data centre tax incentives are about $2.5 billion in Georgia, $1.6 billion in Virginia and about $1 billion in Texas.
Water is part of it too. The European water utilities' association EurEau warns, in Dagens VA's report of 2 July 2026, that EU plans to speed up data centre building could strain local drinking water. It wants local water availability to be a clearer criterion when areas for faster permitting are chosen. The report gives no consumption figure.
In Sweden the question is the queue and the price. In Denmark it has already become a pause. In Finland and the US it has become signatures, bills and polls.
What this means in the room
In our experience a management group does not argue about surveys. It argues from them, without saying so. We use the numbers above in four ways when we plan AI work with a company.
Name the fear before the plan. The people in the room have probably read the same headlines as you. Fewer worry about their own job than expect unemployment overall, so the useful thing is to say what the project does to their jobs, in plain words. We scope our work as automating tasks. Your people stay in your company, and the work becomes more efficient and different.
Do not plan around one date. The high-risk rules have moved once, and Sweden's prime minister asked for a pause in 2025. Build so that the answer to any new rule is already on the shelf: what the system does, who owns it, what it can touch. Tests, review and isolation are what GuardRails and SafeZone give you, whichever date the rules end up with. This is a way of staying ready. It is not legal advice and not a compliance claim.
Know where the compute runs. If your use of AI means a large model in a data centre somewhere, someone on your board, in your municipality or among your customers will ask about electricity and water. Have a plain answer: which workloads call a model, how often, and where it runs. The token count on the bill is the first honest measure of that.
Plan for a mood that moves. The Annenberg numbers on local data centres changed between March and August 2026. A rollout that depends on goodwill staying put is fragile. Start with one use that people can see helps them, give it an owner, and show them the result.
Fetched 2026-10-07. Figures date quickly: read the date next to each number, and open the source before you quote it.