TLDR:
- Generation Z shows stable AI usage rates, with about half using generative AI weekly, but sentiment has shifted sharply negative.
- Excitement fell 14 points to 22% between 2025 and 2026, while anger rose to 31%.
- A separate enterprise survey found 44% of Gen Z workers admit to actively sabotaging their company’s AI rollout.
- Economic pressure shapes much of this skepticism.
- Gen Z workers are more than three times as likely to see AI risks outweighing benefits than the reverse, and 69% trust human-only work over AI-assisted output.
- Curiosity, measured at 49%, remains the strongest positive signal, particularly among daily users.
Generation Z is the most digitally native age group in history. It is also, according to the latest available research, the most hostile to artificial intelligence in the workplace.
Two surveys published in 2026 offer the clearest picture yet of why.
The numbers behind Gen Z AI adoption
The Voices of Gen Z study, conducted by Gallup in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures, surveyed 1,572 young adults aged 14 to 29 across all 50 US states between February and March 2026 using a probability-based panel.
Usage of generative AI among this age group has remained broadly stable. Around half of Gen Z (51%) report using it at least weekly, a figure essentially unchanged from 2025. Sentiment, however, has shifted sharply across every positive emotion measured.
| Emotion | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
| Excited | 36% | 22% | ▼ 14 pts |
| Hopeful | 27% | 18% | ▼ 9 pts |
| Angry | 22% | 31% | ▲ 9 pts |
| Anxious | 41% | 42% | ▲ 1 pt |
| Curious | N/A | 49% | New measure |
The daily-user data is particularly interesting. Among Gen Z respondents who use an AI tool every day, excitement dropped 18 points year-on-year and hopefulness fell 11 points. Anxiety and anger among daily users remained statistically similar to last year’s levels.
A separate study from enterprise AI vendor Writer, conducted with independent research firm Workplace Intelligence between December 2025 and January 2026, surveyed 2,400 knowledge workers across the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia, split evenly between C-suite executives and non-technical employees.
That study found 44% of Gen Z workers admit to actively sabotaging their company’s AI rollout, through entering proprietary data into public tools, refusing to use approved systems, or intentionally producing low-quality AI outputs.
This finding presents serious challenges to the launch of new AI products and enterprise AI adoption more broadly. Besides investing in more AI tokens or on how to write better AI prompts, perhaps older generations need to spend more time on building trust among Gen Z employees.
Gen Z attitudes toward AI tools and learning
Gallup’s data shows Gen Z respondents hold specific, detailed concerns about what AI usage does to their cognitive development over time. Eight in ten say it is very or somewhat likely that using AI will make it harder for them to learn in the future.
More say AI will harm than help their ability to think carefully about information (42% harmful vs 25% helpful). Concerns about overreliance on AI are consistent across the age group regardless of how frequently respondents use it.
| Capability area | % expecting AI to harm | % expecting AI to help |
| Critical thinking | 42% | 25% |
| Coming up with new ideas | 38% | 31% |
| Searching for accurate information | 39% | 37% |
| Learning and completing tasks | N/A | 56% (down 10 pts yr-on-yr) |
Employed Gen Zers are more than three times as likely to say AI risks outweigh the benefits (48%) as to say the reverse (15%), with 37% viewing risks and benefits as roughly equal.
This reflects a more negative outlook than a year ago, when 37% saw greater risks and 20% saw greater benefits.
Gen Z workers place substantially more trust in human-only output (69%) than in AI-assisted work (28%). Only 3% trust work produced solely by AI. These figures are statistically similar to last year’s.
The workforce concern of young people
Several public statements from technology leaders have put direct job displacement on the table for this age group.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said AI could displace half of entry-level white-collar jobs, the junior roles young adults are currently competing for. (He and Sam Altman walked back those claims ahead of their expected IPOs.)
Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleiman issued a similar warning earlier in 2026, saying all white-collar work could be automated within 18 months.
The Writer survey found 60% of companies plan to lay off employees who won’t adopt AI, with many executives saying non-proficient employees may not be considered for promotion.
Among different generations in the workforce, Gen Z talent sits at the sharpest end of this pressure. Economic concern is driving AI skepticism among the younger generation.
They hold the fewest established roles, have the least accumulated seniority, and face the highest demand for AI skills before they’ve had the opportunity to develop them on the job.
Meanwhile, Gen X, Baby Boomers, and older Millennials occupy more senior positions with greater institutional protection.
“48% of Gen Z K-12 students think they will need to know how to use AI in their future jobs or career.” — Gallup
There’s a mental health aspect here too. While neither the Gallup data nor Writer study explore this element directly, the AI anxiety figures (steady at 42%) sit alongside broader research and social media commentary documenting elevated stress levels in this age group.
Organisations asking Gen Z to enthusiastically adopt yet another technology, on top of existing digital overwhelm, should factor that context into how they design AI enablement programmes.
The one positive signal among Gen Z adults
Curiosity, newly measured in Gallup’s 2026 Gen Z report, sits at 49%, making it the most prevalent positive emotion recorded toward AI in the study. It is higher among daily AI users (69%) than among those who never use AI (28%).
Curiosity doesn’t require economic security or institutional confidence. It just requires a low-stakes environment where gen Z talent and other young adults can explore real-world applications without professional concern about what it signals to older generations of managers.
Among Gen Z K-12 students, 52% now agree they’ll need to know how to use AI in postsecondary education, up from 47% in 2025. The share whose schools have AI rules jumped from 51% to 74% over the same period.
The AI adoption gap
On the enterprise side, the Writer data documents a persistent and widening return-on-investment problem across different generations of leadership.
- 97% of employees report personal benefit from AI, yet only 23% of companies report significant organisational ROI.
- 54% of C-suite executives say AI is fracturing their organisation, and 56% report internal power struggles over AI strategy and AI deployment decisions.
Among the concerns most frequently cited by executives are lagging ROI, strategy gaps, security risks, and the growing split between a small group of high-productivity AI users and a larger group of laggards.
The Writer report refers to this as an emerging “AI elite,” with 92% of C-suite respondents saying they’re actively cultivating a distinct class of high-performing AI users within their organisations.
For any organisation deploying AI tools with a mixed-age, multi-generational workforce: the frame that generates the most traction across different generations isn’t “AI will transform your productivity.”
It’s closer to “here’s a low-risk space to try something and see what happens.”