Young people have grown increasingly skeptical of artificial intelligence, even those who use it daily, according to a new Gallup poll of more than 1,500 people aged 14 to 29.
There is no decline in AI use among Gen Zers, but there is also no increase since the same poll was conducted in 2025. The latest poll found that AI use was plateauing among young users, accompanied by rising concern about the technology’s consequences.
The findings are significant because Gen Z is “the generation most likely to enter or grow within the workforce over the next decade,” the report notes, meaning that their adoption could determine the trajectory of broader societal AI adoption. Gen Z has already overtaken Boomers in the workforce. Right now, the AI world is preparing for a massive jump in expected demand, and the top tech and financial companies are investing billions upon billions of dollars into building out the supply. Experts have warned that if demand does not pan out exactly as expected in the short term, then it could have disastrous consequences for the economy.
My kid never really thought it was useful from the onset for fact based material and/or understood that the point of the work was to actually learn something and that the output doesn’t matter and is utterly meaningless if AI generates it.
I have used it to accelerate double checking their math homework. If it agrees, I assume the homework was done right. If it disagrees, then I do the math manually myself and of the disagreements, about 70% is the AI getting something wrong.
My kid did however for a time use it for entertainment, but decided pretty quickly that the chatbots added nothing to the experience my kid did not bring to the experience, so stopped that as well.
Very firmly anti-AI slop too.
Caused some friction when my wife got into a GenAI story for a few days but my wife got bored of the concept too.