A certain type of story about Gen Z AI is told a lot. Artificial intelligence has been quickly accepted by a generation that grew up with smartphones, TikTok, and instant answers. They see it as just another tool in their already full digital lives. They are the locals. They understand. Everyone else is getting caught up. The data are making that story a lot more difficult to follow.
The Walton Family Foundation, GSV Ventures, and Gallup did a survey earlier this year and found that 51% of Gen Zers (people born between 1997 and 2012) say they use generative AI at least once a week. Since 2025, that number hasn’t changed much. Adoption is stable, almost like it’s on a plateau. There is a flat line on the graph, but the emotional picture has changed in ways that are worth noticing. In just one year, anger toward AI has gone up by nine percentage points. The level of excitement has dropped by 14 points. Hopefulness has dropped by nine. And anxiety hasn’t changed much from 42%, which was already very high.
So the rate of use stays the same, but the feelings behind it get worse. It’s a strange mix, and it makes me wonder about something. Why are they more upset about it if they’re using it about the same amount?
Part of the answer could be that getting used to something makes you more aware of the trade-offs. Typing a question and getting a polished paragraph back might not be as exciting as it used to be for a generation that uses these tools all the time at work and in school. The early excitement wears off over time. There’s now something more complicated: a tool that works often enough to keep using but not well enough or safely enough to trust completely. Gen Zers are most likely to say they are curious about AI right now (49%). That seems fair. Want to know more about something but not sure what it is? Feel curious.
There is more to the doubt than just general unease. Eight out of ten Gen Zers think that using AI tools will make it harder for them to learn in the future. This is a very high percentage for a group that uses these tools several times a week. About half of workers (51%) say that the risks of AI in the workplace are greater than the benefits, while only 15% say the opposite. And when asked which they trusted more—a person doing the work by themselves or a person using AI to help them—69% of working Gen Zers chose the person doing the work by themselves. Three percent of people didn’t trust work made by AI on its own.
Gen Z doesn’t seem to be really thinking about whether AI is useful. That call has been made by most of them. It’s whether useful and good are the same thing, and they don’t seem to be sure that they are any longer. More people think AI will make it harder to think carefully about things than they think it will help. More people believe it will slow down the growth of new ideas than speed them up.
This does not mean that Gen Z is not interested in AI. Based on the number of uses, that doesn’t seem to be happening. There is, however, a generation of heavy users who are becoming more and more skeptical of what their habits cost them. This is a more interesting and complex situation than the “digital native” frame usually allows. Keep an eye on where this tension goes, especially as these people move into more advanced jobs and colleges while still figuring out how to use technology properly.
