In the age of Artificial Intelligence, even the most sacred, human-based art forms have been infiltrated, including the literary arts. “Writing is dead,” and “Reading is dead” are two phrases that have been thrown around in public discourse in the past year.
A new study from Medium just found that a majority of writers now use AI. However, despite being the ones using it, most writers also claim to distrust it.
An online Harris Poll survey of 1,175 American writers, conducted for Medium from August 12-17, found that 71% of respondents use AI in some capacity in their writing. The study also found that 60% of respondents felt distrustful toward AI-supported writing, including their own, and 69% are unable to trust AI writing produced by other writers. Medium commissioned the survey to gain a better understanding of where the writing industry’s relationship with AI stands.
Medium’s Scott Lamb interpreted the results as a statement against the idea that AI is pushing out the author. While AI use in writing appears to be growing, the survey found that writers’ trust in it isn’t keeping pace. The majority of respondents described still feeling passionate about their work as writers. Of the surveyed group, 12% worked as professional writers, seeking to earn a living through their writing, while the remaining respondents wrote primarily for themselves as an outlet of self-expression.
The study, orchestrated in August 2026, found that 71% of the responding writers had used AI in their work in the last three months. AI writing assistants were the only tool in the survey with rising use. A year ago, writing assistants were found to be used by 19% of respondents, whereas this year’s survey found that 24% of the respondents used them.
Regarding the AI writing assistants’ usage, 33% stated that they used the tools to edit for grammar, clarity, or tone. Next, 26% of respondents used it for generating topic ideas, 20% used it as a mode of feedback on their pre-existing writing, and 19% used it to aid with generating a first draft.
Writers appear to be primarily using AI to polish their work, rather than produce a finished draft. The study also asked respondents about the reported benefits of integrating AI writing tools into their work. Of the respondents utilizing AI, 41% claimed that the tools aided them in producing stronger drafts, and 30% felt that it helped them increase their willingness to experiment with their craft. Additionally, 28% noted that AI writing tools helped them cut down on time lost during the production of their work. Finally, 27% felt that these tools had helped them gain confidence in the work they were publishing.
While the study revealed an upswing in AI usage among the writing community, it also underscored a growing sentiment of distrust toward AI-produced writing. Among the writers who responded that they had used AI in the last 3 months to supplement their work, 60% admitted to distrusting the work of AI even when they had produced it themselves, and 69% said they distrusted it when someone else produced it.
This skepticism follows writers into their reading as well. The study also found that three-quarters of writers believe that at least some of the writing they read is generated by AI, while a third of writers felt that most of what they read is the product of AI. This marks a noticeable shift in the way that writers now approach media, as they consider whether a piece of writing’s origins are authentically human.
The overarching effects of AI writing assistance vary in positivity across the board. The survey found that 24% of respondents argue that AI has altered their style or voice to some extent. The use of AI in writing has also caused 19% of writers to feel more pressure to produce more writing, and 14% felt that it lowered their confidence in their own ideas or voice. Overall, 88% of AI users stated that the tools affected their process in some form, good or bad.
Despite the anxiety at the edges, the overall tone of the survey is positive. Over 75% of respondents stated that they continue to like or love writing, despite the introduction of AI into the writing world, with only 8% feeling more negatively about it. Approximately half of the surveyed writers found that their writing skills have improved this year.
As AI usage continues to seep into various industries and art forms, studies like this one help track public sentiment, and uncover whether these new innovations are being positively received, or if they appear to be detrimental to human craft.