Even young people who used AI daily, and who generally view the tools more favorably, have become less positive over the past year.<\/p>\n
Yet, despite the generation souring on AI, the frequency with which it used the tool remained more or less the same. Just over half of 14- to 29-year-olds say they use AI either daily (22%) or weekly (29%), while 19% say they never use it \u2013 findings that were statistically similar to 2025.<\/p>\n
Why Usage Persists Amidst Growing Skepticism<\/p>\n
So, why does Gen Z continue to use AI at the same rates despite feeling increasingly skeptical of the technology?<\/p>\n
Zach Hrynowski, senior education researcher at Gallup and author of the report, says it might be tied to a sense of inevitability. He sums up their thinking this way: \u201cEven if it makes me anxious, even if I think it\u2019s potentially harming my cognition, it\u2019s here to stay. It\u2019s being integrated into my schools, it\u2019s being integrated into my workplaces, and I\u2019m going to need to know how to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hrynowski points out that older Gen Zers (roughly 22- to 29-year-olds) are most likely to say AI makes them angry. \u201cThe further on along you get on the spectrum of age, the more skeptical, the more angry, the more anxious you tend to see Gen Zers get,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
A possible reason for the increase in anger toward AI is the perceived disruption to Gen Z college students\u2019 job prospects, he says. Another Gallup report<\/a> from April 2 found that about half of college students have considered changing their majors due to AI\u2019s impact on the job market, and about 1 in 6 say they\u2019ve already changed their major.<\/p>\n Unconvinced: Gen Z Questions AI\u2019s Workplace Value<\/p>\n When it comes to perceptions about AI in the workforce, younger members of Gen Z appear unconvinced that they will need the tool for workplace success.<\/p>\n Just under half of Gen Zers who are pre-college students, or 48%, believe AI skills will be necessary for their future careers.<\/p>\n Nearly half (48%) of young adults in the workforce say the risks of using AI for work outweigh the benefits \u2013 up from 37% with the same belief in 2025.<\/p>\n Among Gen Z workers, less than 3 in 10 trust AI-assisted work and virtually none trust work done with AI alone.<\/p>\n \u00a0Gen Z workers are also less inclined to think AI tools can accelerate work (down 10 points to 56%).<\/p>\n Kostakis plans to pursue a career in government and diplomacy, a field she thinks cannot be fully overtaken by AI. AI in Education\u00a0<\/p>\n Just over half of Gen Z pre-college students believe they will need to know how to use AI for postsecondary education, according to the survey.<\/p>\n That said, they remain skeptical about how the tool can impact their education. Eight in 10 say it is very or somewhat likely that using AI tools now will make learning more difficult for them in the future.<\/p>\n Younger, Black and male Gen Zers were less wary of AI negatively impacting their learning compared to other groups.<\/p>\n \u00a0The Usage Gap: Gender and Age<\/p>\n Use of AI isn\u2019t equal among male and female Gen Zers, or even among younger and older members of the generation, according to the survey.<\/p>\n Males in Gen Z continue to report more frequent AI use (54%) than females (50%), although the gap has shrunk since last year.<\/p>\n Gen Z pre-college students report more weekly AI use than Gen Z adults, who are more likely to say they occasionally or never use AI than the grade schoolers.<\/p>\n Parental use is a major factor in young Gen Z AI use, as the children of frequent AI users are more likely to become frequent users as well.<\/p>\n Sign Up for U.S. News Decision Points<\/p>\n Your trusted source for breaking down the latest news from Washington and beyond, delivered weekdays.<\/p>\n By clicking “Sign Up”, you will receive the latest updates, including emails, from U.S. News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors, and you agree to our Terms and Conditions<\/a> & Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earning Back Gen Z\u2019s Trust<\/p>\n This survey sends the message to schools, workplaces and creators of AI that Gen Z will not blindly adopt these technologies, says Hrynowski.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are a school trying to integrate AI into the classroom, or a manager trying to get your team to adopt these tools, or a founder trying to pitch an AI product to new users, you cannot just assume that this digitally-native generation is going to automatically gravitate to it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to earn their trust and prove that using AI is not only going to help young people work more effectively or efficiently; you have to demonstrate that the benefits of doing so outweigh the many risks that Gen Zers are worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sasha Kostakis, a sophomore at the University of Maryland, College Park, recalls toiling over math homework as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,2065,2064,1539,1247,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-1848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-davi-schulman","12":"tag-gallup","13":"tag-national-news","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cAI is truly impersonal, and in a job where the goal is to make a connection with another country, with other leaders, AI will never be able to take that job,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/static\/img\/usn-logo-large.svg\"){kind=logo}
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