Gen Z opens AI apps faster than any other generation does. The same generation trusts AI the least of any age group measured. Pew Research Center and Gallup each found this in 2026, running separate surveys that landed on one answer.
Ask a 22-year-old if she uses AI, and the answer is probably yes. Follow up and ask if she trusts what it makes, and the answer turns complicated fast.
Use outpaces trust
Generative AI is a tool that writes, draws or composes new material on request. Gen Z uses it the most of any age group measured, and trusts it the least.
Gallup polled 1,572 Americans ages 14 to 29 in late February 2026. Weekly or daily AI use sat at 51 percent4.
Trust told a different story. Respondents trusted work done entirely by a person at 69 percent. They trusted AI-assisted work at 28 percent, and AI-only work at just 3 percent.
Gen Z Trusts Human Work Over AI-Assisted Work by 41 Points
Trust in different kinds of work, 14-to-29-year-olds surveyed by Gallup, Feb. 24 to March 4, 2026
Each bar is one kind of work. The longer the bar, the more of this age group say they trust it, and work made by a person draws far more trust than work an AI helped with or made alone.
Source: Gallup [4]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Made by a person | 69% |
| Made with AI help | 28% |
| Made only by AI | 3% |
Pew found the same split from a different angle. Chatbot use among 18-to-29-year-olds reached 66 percent, the highest of any age group measured2. Yet 48 percent of that same group said AI will hurt society, above the 40 percent average for all adults.
Stephanie Marken studies this gap for Gallup. "Gen Z isn't rejecting AI outright, but they are reassessing its role in their lives," she said5. Her sentence fits both numbers at once: heavy use, growing doubt.
The mood turns in one year
A year of data shows the doubt hardening into something sharper. Gallup asked the same 14-to-29-year-olds how AI made them feel, once in 2025 and once in 2026.
Excitement fell from 36 percent to 22 percent. Anger rose from 22 percent to 31 percent4. Hopefulness dropped nine points, and anxiety held near 40 percent.
Gen Z's Excitement About AI Falls 14 Points in a Year
Share of 14-to-29-year-olds reporting each feeling about AI, Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, 2025 versus 2026
Each pair of columns is one feeling. The left column is 2025 and the right is 2026, and anger grew while excitement shrank over the same year.
Sources: Gallup [4]; Walton Family Foundation [5]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Excitement | 36% | 22% |
| Anger | 22% | 31% |
Romy Drucker directs education work at the Walton Family Foundation, Gallup's partner on the survey. "Gen Z is sending us a strong signal and we must treat it as a call to act," she said5. Her read treats the anger as information worth acting on.
Jobs feed that anger directly. Pew found 73 percent of adults under 30 now expect AI to shrink the job market. That share is up from 61 percent two years ago1.
The case that Gen Z embraces AI
Some of the strongest evidence for embrace sits inside one Envato report. Envato surveyed 1,780 creative professionals worldwide in late 2025. Gen Z led every generation surveyed, with 54 percent using AI daily at work9.
That is a higher daily rate than millennials, Gen X or boomers posted in the same report. Hichame Assi, Envato's chief executive, calls the gap between usage and comfort room to grow. "AI adoption is moving faster than AI literacy. The gap between enthusiasm and preparedness is where real opportunity exists," Assi said9.
Only 37 percent of Gen Z creatives in the same survey called themselves "very prepared" for an AI-driven future9. Assi's argument is that preparedness catches up with adoption, the way it already has with every tool before this one. A generation that uses something daily, on his reading, is a generation already choosing it.
Pew's own chatbot numbers back part of that case. Gen Z's 66 percent chatbot adoption rate beats every other age bracket Pew measured, and 31 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds use a chatbot daily2. Adoption at that scale counts as a kind of vote.
The case that Gen Z is most skeptical in art
Survey data points the other way too. Art is where the gap cuts deepest.
Pew asked 5,023 adults in June 2025 how they would feel learning a favorite painting was AI-made. Sixty-six percent of adults under 30 said they would value it less, against 36 percent of adults 65 and older3. Songs showed the same gap: 53 percent of under-30s said they would value a song less, against 26 percent of seniors.
Adults Under 30 Reject AI Art at Nearly Twice the Rate of Seniors
Share who would value a painting or a song less after learning AI made it, by age, Pew Research Center, June 9 to 15, 2025
Each rod connects two readings for one kind of art. The magenta dot is adults under 30 and the blue dot is adults 65 and older, and young adults react more negatively on both.
Source: Pew Research Center [3]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Under 30 | 65 and older |
|---|---|---|
| A painting | 66% | 36% |
| A song | 53% | 26% |
Music tells the sharpest version of this story. Muse Group surveyed 1,200 working musicians in April 2026. Musicians ages 18 to 24 reported the lowest excitement about AI tools, at 14 percent6. They also reported the highest concern, at 26 percent, the worst mark of any age band in the survey.
Mo Chahdi, the company's chief operating officer, called the picture more nuanced than either extreme suggests. Eighty-two percent of all musicians surveyed still opposed AI generating music outright6.
Radio listeners back the same pattern at far larger scale. Jacobs Media polled nearly 31,000 U.S. radio listeners for its 2026 Techsurvey. Eighty-one percent of Gen Z respondents called AI-made music on the radio a major problem7.
Fred Jacobs, the firm's president, traces the anger to the job market first. "It seems like every article that's written talks about how Gen Z is going to pay the price for AI, and all these entry level jobs are going to disappear," Jacobs said7.
That anger reached a graduation stage too. Scott Borchetta, chief executive of Big Machine Records, addressed graduates at Middle Tennessee State University in May 2026. "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," he told them, and students booed before he finished.
Borchetta pressed on anyway. "I know it. Deal with it. It's a tool. Like I said, you can hear me now, or you can pay me later. Do something about it. It's a tool. Make it work for you," he told the crowd10.
Gen Z's skepticism shows up in spending, too. Daniela Molina, a University of Florida sophomore, buys vinyl and CDs instead of streaming everything. Streaming keeps a large share of its revenue from reaching artists directly8. A vinyl sale carries more weight for the person who made it.
"I just like knowing that I'm supporting artists by paying for their music, it's a really nice collectible," Molina said8. Futuresource Consulting's audio research puts Gen Z vinyl buyers at 60 percent today.
What to do
Read a generational AI headline for which question it answers. Chatbot downloads measure use. Trusting a painting measures approval, and the two move in opposite directions inside the same age group.
Separate those two questions before citing either survey in a pitch, a brief or a hiring plan. A client might assume high Gen Z AI use means low resistance to AI-made creative work. That reading takes one number and skips the other.
By the numbers
- Weekly or daily AI use reaches 51 percent among 14-to-29-year-olds, Gallup, February 20264.
- Trust splits by maker: 69 percent for work made entirely by a person, 28 percent for AI-assisted work, same group4.
- Adults under 30 value an AI-made painting less 66 percent of the time, against 36 percent of seniors, Pew, June 20253.
- Gen Z creatives lead every generation at 54 percent daily AI use at work, Envato, November 20259.
- Jacobs Media's 2026 Techsurvey puts Gen Z's problem with AI-made music at 81 percent7.
- Job fears hit 73 percent of adults under 30 expecting AI to shrink the market, Pew, August 20261.
What to watch
Watch whether Gallup's 2027 wave shows anger still climbing or finally leveling off. One more year of data would turn a swing into a trend. A Gen Z-specific opt-out from AI-made tracks would test the same question commercially, the day any music platform ships one.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, "Young adults in the U.S. are increasingly wary of AI, concerned it will take jobs," Aug. 18, 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/18/young-adults-in-the-us-are-increasingly-wary-of-ai-concerned-it-will-take-jobs/
- Pew Research Center, "How Americans' opinions and use of AI differ by age," June 17, 2026, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2026/06/17/how-opinions-and-use-of-ai-differ-by-age/
- Pew Research Center, "From political speeches to songs: How would Americans react if they found out AI was involved?" Sept. 17, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/17/from-political-speeches-to-songs-how-would-americans-react-if-they-found-out-ai-was-involved/
- Megan Brenan, "Gen Z's AI Adoption Steady, but Skepticism Climbs," Gallup, April 8, 2026, https://news.gallup.com/poll/708224/gen-adoption-steady-skepticism-climbs.aspx
- Walton Family Foundation, "Gen Z Resentment Toward AI Grows as Adoption Stagnates and Workplace Fears Mount," April 8, 2026, https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/about-us/newsroom/gen-z-resentment-toward-ai-grows-as-adoption-stagnates-and-workplace-fears-mount
- Mo Chahdi, "AI Tools in Music: Pros Are on Board, But Gen Z Is Skeptical," Hypebot, April 15, 2026, https://www.hypebot.com/ai-tools-in-music-pros-are-on-board-but-gen-z-is-skeptical/
- Randy J. Stine, "Techsurvey: GenAI Presents a Radio Dilemma," Radio World, May 5, 2026, https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/techsurvey-genai-presents-a-radio-dilemma
- WUFT News, "As music business hits high note, Gen Z is driving a 'record' comeback," May 19, 2026, https://www.wuft.org/business-news/2026-05-19/as-music-business-hits-high-note-gen-z-is-driving-a-record-comeback
- Envato, "Envato Releases First Global 'Beyond Adoption: The State of AI in Creative Work 2026' Report," GlobeNewswire, Nov. 11, 2025, https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/11/11/tmt-newswire/globenewswire/envato-releases-first-global-beyond-adoption-the-state-of-ai-in-creative-work-2026-report-revealing-how-creative-professionals-are-navigating-industry-transformation/2221139
- Whiskey Riff Staff, "Big Machine Records CEO, Scott Borchetta, Booed At Commencement Ceremony For Remarks On AI," May 22, 2026, https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2026/05/22/big-machine-records-ceo-scott-borchetta-booed-at-commencement-ceremony-for-remarks-on-ai-deal-with-it-its-a-tool/