Gen Z: using AI, losing faith
Roughly half of Gen Z uses AI, but their feelings are souring — younger users are becoming less hopeful and more skeptical about the tech even as they keep using it. (nytimes.com) That ambivalence shows up in where they go for information too: surveys find large shares turning to platform-native sources like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for finance and other topics, suggesting discovery and creator context matter as much as accuracy. (thestreet.com)
A lot of young people are still using artificial intelligence every week, but the mood has flipped fast: in a new Gallup, Walton Family Foundation, and GSV Ventures survey, 51% of Gen Z said they use it weekly, while anger rose to 31% and hopefulness fell to 18%. (waltonfamilyfoundation.org) The shift is recent, not gradual. The same survey says excitement dropped by 14 percentage points from last year, hopefulness fell by 9 points, and weekly use grew only 4 points, which means adoption kept moving while enthusiasm stalled. (waltonfamilyfoundation.org) The split gets sharper when work enters the picture. Among Gen Z workers, 48% now say the risks of artificial intelligence in the workplace outweigh the benefits, even though 56% also say the tools help them finish work faster. (waltonfamilyfoundation.org) That speed is exactly what makes many of them uneasy. Eight in 10 Gen Z respondents said using artificial intelligence to finish tasks faster will probably make learning harder later, which is a blunt way of saying the shortcut may eat the skill. (waltonfamilyfoundation.org) Schools are trying to catch up with rules. Nearly 74% of Gen Z kindergarten-through-12th-grade students said their schools now have policies on artificial intelligence and academic work, up 23 points from a year earlier, but the same release says students are also getting more skeptical about classroom use and more likely to see dishonesty around it. (waltonfamilyfoundation.org) College looks similar: Gallup reported on April 2 that a majority of United States college students use artificial intelligence in coursework at least weekly, while about half say their schools discourage or prohibit it. That leaves students in the familiar 2026 position of using a tool constantly while being told not to trust it too much. (gallup.com) The same ambivalence shows up in where Gen Z looks for advice. Wells Fargo’s 2026 Money Study found 44% of Gen Z adults rely on YouTube for financial information, 34% turn to Instagram or TikTok, and 25% use online communities. (newsroom.wf.com) That pattern makes more sense once you look at their finances. The same Wells Fargo study found 46% of Gen Z describe their financial lives as “messy,” and 64% of parents with Gen Z children ages 18 to 28 say those children still depend on them financially. (thestreet.com) So the picture is not “young people love artificial intelligence” or “young people reject artificial intelligence.” It is a generation using fast tools under pressure, doubting what those tools do to learning and trust, and getting advice from places that feel native to their lives even when those places were not built to be the cleanest source of truth. (waltonfamilyfoundation.org) (newsroom.wf.com)
