How individuals understand Artificial Intelligence (AI) affects whether they can interact with AI assistants appropriately. To foster the appropriate use of AI assistants, individuals require realistic perceptions of what AI can or cannot do. However, perceptions (which we refer to as AI narratives) depend on individuals’ AI literacy and their emotional attitudes regarding AI assistants. To investigate how literate individuals are and their emotional attitudes when dealing with AI assistants, we suggest developing a better understanding of their different AI narratives. Through a qualitative online survey, we explore differences in AI narratives among individuals with positive, ambivalent, or negative emotional attitudes regarding AI and among those with low, medium, or high levels of AI literacy. This work provides two research-guiding propositions on an individual’s AI understanding and two recommen-dations for managing realistic AI perception-building.