Gen Z grows resentful of AI as adoption stalls and concerns mount

Gen Z is increasingly frustrated with artificial intelligence. New polling data and a growing number of firsthand accounts suggest that young people are not embracing AI as enthusiastically as tech companies have claimed. Instead, many are angry, anxious, and skeptical about where the technology is headed.

A Gallup survey released by the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures found that while 51 percent of Gen Zers still use AI tools weekly, growth in adoption has slowed sharply, rising only four percentage points over the past year. At the same time, excitement about AI dropped 14 percentage points, and hopefulness fell by nine. Anger toward the technology rose from 22 percent to 31 percent in a single year.

The concern is especially strong around work. Nearly half of Gen Z workers, 48 percent, now believe the risks of AI in the workforce outweigh its benefits. That figure increased by 11 percentage points in one year. While 56 percent acknowledge that AI tools help them finish tasks faster, eight in 10 say that relying on AI will make actual learning more difficult in the future.

Many young people feel caught in a contradiction. They are told AI will eliminate millions of jobs, while also being told they must use it to stay competitive. Sharon Freystaetter, a 25-year-old who left a Silicon Valley cloud infrastructure job over ethical concerns, told The Verge that she now avoids AI tools entirely. “When I came back and started to look around for tech jobs, suddenly everything was saying you need to use AI to get this job,” she said.

Universities are adding to the pressure. Schools across the country are signing deals with AI companies, rewriting curricula, and pushing students to adopt chatbot tools, often without clear guidelines. The editorial board of the University of Pennsylvania’s student newspaper criticized their administration for embracing AI without clear rules, writing that the technology “cannot coexist with education.”

Alex Hanna, director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute, told The Verge that universities are not adopting AI because it has proven useful. “They want Gen Z to show them where the value-add is,” Hanna said.

Concerns about learning and critical thinking are backed by research. A study from the MIT Media Lab found reduced brain activity in people who wrote essays using AI tools. Researchers describe this as “cognitive offloading,” a process that can weaken a person’s ability to think critically and detect misinformation.

Even among those who use AI regularly, trust is limited. Emma Gottlieb, who works in technical sales, uses AI to search through documents but always double-checks the results. “It’s just like fast food,” she told The Verge. “It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it’s there.”

Fewer than 20 percent of Gen Zers say they would choose AI over a human for services like tutoring, financial advice, or customer support, according to the Gallup survey.

Sources: The Verge, Walton Family Foundation