Gen Z is still using AI, but the mood has shifted from excitement to skepticism

Adoption without enthusiasm

Artificial intelligence is still firmly embedded in the routines of younger users, but the emotional climate around the technology is shifting in a more skeptical direction. A new Gallup poll of more than 1,500 people aged 14 to 29 found no decline in AI use compared with 2025, but no continued surge either. Usage has plateaued, while concern about the technology’s broader effects is rising.

That combination matters more than a simple yes-or-no measure of adoption. Gen Z is moving into a period where its habits will help shape how AI settles into workplaces, classrooms and everyday consumer products. If the generation most likely to live with these systems over the next decade is neither rejecting them nor embracing them with much confidence, the long-term challenge for the industry may not be access. It may be legitimacy.

Gallup’s summary captured that ambiguity directly: young people are not fully turning away from AI, but they are also not moving toward it with the kind of optimism the sector has often assumed. Curiosity remains the most common response. Yet anxiety and anger are close behind, while excitement and hope have slipped.

What the numbers suggest

The most striking shift in the poll is emotional rather than behavioral. Excitement about AI fell 14 percentage points from 2025, and hopefulness dropped nine points. Anger rose by nine points, while anxiety remained steady at a high level. Gallup said four in 10 Gen Z respondents are anxious about the consequences of wider AI adoption.

The split between users and nonusers is also revealing. Among people who do not use AI, 60% reported anxiety and only 2% said they felt hopeful. Daily users were less negative, but not overwhelmingly positive: 28% still reported anxiety, while 38% said they were hopeful. That means familiarity appears to reduce fear somewhat, but it does not erase unease.

This is not the pattern of a technology that has simply won over its youngest mainstream audience. It is the pattern of a tool that many people now treat as useful and unavoidable, while still questioning whether its larger social impact will be good for them.

Why the backlash is taking shape

The poll points to a reason that is bigger than product design or chatbot quality. As AI use has spread, so have reports of harm or disruption tied to the technology’s wider deployment. Gallup said Gen Z respondents increasingly associate AI with adverse effects on mental health, war, government, the job market and the environment.

Those concerns sit alongside a broader public backlash against the massive infrastructure buildout designed to support AI demand. If data centers, automation strategies and new digital services are sold as progress while young people mainly experience anxiety about work, distrust of institutions and social harms, then adoption alone will not produce enthusiasm.

The findings also land at an awkward moment for companies and investors. The AI sector is preparing for a major jump in expected demand, and leading technology and financial firms are pouring vast sums into compute capacity and supporting infrastructure. Gallup’s warning is that demand may not be a simple function of access. If a crucial demographic keeps using AI but stops believing in it, that creates a credibility problem for the industry as much as a consumer one.

The labor-market question

Work is central to the tension. Gen Z has already overtaken Boomers in the workforce, and many of the tasks AI handles well overlap with early-career work. That has fed fears that the technology is being introduced most aggressively in the very parts of the labor market where younger workers traditionally build experience. In that context, a plateau in usage does not look like indifference. It looks more like a pause in trust.

The poll’s broader significance is that it separates exposure from belief. Young people are clearly exposed. Many use AI every day. But daily contact has not produced a wave of optimism. Instead, it has produced a more measured and sometimes more hostile response, in which usefulness coexists with anxiety.

For the companies building AI products, that should be a warning. The next stage of adoption may depend less on convincing people to try the tools and more on proving that the systems improve work, learning and daily life without deepening social costs. Gen Z, at least for now, is signaling that it is still watching closely before granting that trust.

This article is based on reporting by Gizmodo. Read the original article.