Gen Z uses AI just as much as last year. They like it a lot less.
A Gallup survey commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation found that 51% of Gen Zers (ages 14 to 29) use generative AI at least weekly, a rate basically unchanged from March 2025. But excitement about AI dropped 14 percentage points over the past year, falling to just 22%. Anger surged 9 points to 31%. Anxiety held steady at 42%.
That shift isn't limited to people who barely use it, either. Among Gen Zers who use AI every single day, excitement still fell 18 points year over year. That breaks the usual pattern for technology adoption, where the more people use something, the more they tend to like it. Gen Z is doing the opposite.
Gallup senior researcher Zach Hrynowski noted the oldest Zoomers are the most skeptical because they're "acutely aware" of AI's power to reshape their world without a second thought. The workforce data backs him up: 48% of employed Gen Zers now say AI's risks outweigh its benefits, up from 37% a year ago.
Their concerns go deeper than losing a job. Gen Z is making pointed judgments about what AI does to the way they think:
- Critical thinking: 42% say AI is harmful to their ability to think carefully about information, versus 25% who call it helpful.
- Creativity: 38% say AI hurts their ability to come up with new ideas on their own.
- Learning: 80% believe using AI tools will make it harder for them to learn in the future.
That skepticism is already showing up at work. Kevin Chung, Chief Strategy Officer at Writer, noted in Writer's 2025 Enterprise AI Adoption Report that two years ago, nine out of 10 employee complaints were about displacement: "Why am I training the robot that's going to take my job?" Today, that specific fear has faded, but the resistance hasn't. Instead, he sees employees actively ignoring AI tools or quietly working around them because they don't believe in the strategy behind them.
It doesn't help that tech leaders keep raising the temperature. Anthropic's Dario Amodei has warned AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs. Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman has suggested all white-collar work could eventually be automated. For a generation watching the ground shift beneath them, those kinds of statements feel more like threats than forecasts.
"Employers are making room for AI investments," researcher Alex Hanna told Fortune. "They want to show that they can lay off people and do what they're currently doing with a decrease in headcount."
The tech industry assumed Gen Z would adopt AI like they adopted everything else: fast and with minimal friction. What the Gallup data shows is a generation fluent enough in technology to see exactly what AI threatens, and they're watching it reshape a job market they haven't fully entered yet. Companies building their AI strategies around the idea that younger workers will naturally lead adoption might want to check whether that assumption still holds. The workers who grew up on the internet aren't afraid of new technology. They're just not convinced this particular technology is on their side.
