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Gen Z's Evolving Attitudes Toward AI with Gallup's Zach Hrynowski | GSVtv Podcast
00:15:59
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:07]
B
This is David Harris with ASU gsv. And I'm thrilled to be here. And I thought actually maybe we should title this podcast today is the Bloom off the Roads in Terms of AI. But before we get to that point, if you could talk a little bit about the study that you did with GSV and the Walton Family foundation to kind of measure Gen Z's attitudes towards AI and maybe give a little bit of your background too.
- [00:33]
A
Yeah, absolutely. David, thank you so much for having me. And again, for your role in your partnership in this research that has really gone gangbusters for, you know, the reasons we'll get into and the findings kind of being counterintuitive and maybe a little bit of a counter narrative to what a lot of folks have heard about AI and Gen Z's relationship with it. But as you mentioned, this is part of a larger body of work in partnership with the Walton Family foundation to study the attitudes, the life choices and the direction of Gen Z in both their schooling, their education and the workplace. And so this is really a capstone on the work that we've been doing with the Walton Family foundation that's really revealed some important truths about their relationship with this new and emerging technology. And I think a lot of people assume that because Gen Z is perhaps the most digitally native generation that we have, that they would be the earliest and most excited adopters of the technology. And what we found in this research with you and the Walton Family foundation is that Gen Z is certainly adopting the technology to an extent, but they're doing so with some hesitance, with some reticence, because they're just a little bit unsure of the implications for using this technology on education and work. And so, you know, we'll talk a little bit about what some of those detailed findings are, but I think again, they run a little bit counterintuitive to what you might expect because we normally
- [01:48]
B
think, oh, Gen Z, they are adopting this technology in incredible numbers. Everything must be fantastic. It's a green field, so to speak. So what in the data really stuck out to you? Almost like an aha moment.
- [02:03]
A
Yeah, well, one of the benefits of this particular piece of research is it's started a trend. We conducted this research in partnership with you all last year, and so we had a little bit of a baseline around things like usage rates, attitudes and sentiments towards it, the extent to which it's being integrated into the classroom and into the workplace. And of course now by having repeated that survey this year, we see which direction the trends are moving in terms of usage and attitudes. And what we found is that over the last year, we haven't seen a lot of upticks or increases in the extent to which Gen Z is using artificial intelligence in their daily lives. If you ask them how often they're integrating it into their daily lives, about half of them in 2026 say that they're using it on a daily or weekly basis. What's interesting about that is that's about statistically in line with their usage rates. Last year it was about half of Gen Z were using it daily or weekly a year ago. So we have not seen usage increase, despite the fact that we've seen it being integrated more frequently into their schools and their workplaces. So they're not adopting it even though they're being more exposed to it. The really interesting finding that we took away though is as these usage rates have kind of flattened out and plateaued, their attitudes towards it have not. Their attitudes have actually shifted in a pretty radical way. And so when we asked these questions for the first time last year, we found that when we asked Gen Z how AI makes them feel, they were most likely to say that it made them feel anxious. About 4 in 10 Gen Zers say AI makes me feel anxious, but that was followed by excitement and hopefulness. Those are the two next most prevalent sentiments. And then at the very bottom of the list was anger. Last year, in 2025, this year, in 2026, when we've re asked those questions, we found that anxiety has stayed the same. 4 in 10 gen zers say AI makes them feel anxious, but we've seen significant declines in hopefulness and excitedness around AI and a commensurate rise in anger. So at this point in time, we find that Gen Z is most likely to say that AI makes them feel anxious and angry, and least likely to say that it makes them feel excited and hopeful.
- [03:57]
B
Well, that's really shocking because AI tends to be very sycophantic and kind of make you feel good.
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A
Sure.
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B
But so in that regard, I'm not sure how well it's working. Let's drill a little bit into that anger. Can you look at that from an age range within the Gen Z or from a cultural background, Are there any significant differences that I think people should know about?
- [04:21]
A
Yeah, really good question. And the answer is yes. So broadly speaking, when you look across the age spectrum of Gen Z, which by the way, if you're not familiar with kind of generational research, is the cohort of Americans born between 1997 and 2012 so these gen Zers right now are between the ages of 14 and 29, which of course is a very broad age range and it encompasses and encapsulates a lot of different places in life. Some of them are in middle school and high school, many of them are now nearly 30 and in their mid career. Broadly speaking, when you look across that age spectrum, we find that the older you get within that Gen Z cohort, the less likely they are to be favorable towards the technology. Whether that's feeling more anxious and more angry towards it, less excited and less hopeful, more concerns about the trade offs of AI and potentially the harms that it's doing to their cognition. So specifically regarding anger, we find that the cohort of Gen Z who feel the most anger towards artificial intelligence are those older users, those in that sort of 25 to 29 year old age range, but also even within that 21, 22, 23. And what's particularly important about that sort of younger 20s group of gen Zers is they're probably the most likely to be breaking into the workforce. They've either just graduated college and are maybe looking for that first post college job, or they only have a high school diploma or non bachelor's degree certification or type of credential and have maybe been in the workforce for a couple of years, but are still probably considered entry level. When you think about certainly the narrative around Gen Z, but I also think to an extent the reality on the ground of the way that that AI is impacting Gen Z in the workplace, there's a lot of concern about how that's impacting those entry level jobs. Is it eliminating them outright? Is it reducing the number of them that are available? So when you think about maybe why that anger has increased over the course of the last year, especially among this age group, my working hypothesis is a lot of that is tied to the extent to which they believe that AI is disrupting their pathways to the workforce and maybe jeopardizing certainly if you went to college and got this four year degree, invested a tremendous amount of time and money into earning that degree, and are now coming out and graduating into a world in which those jobs have kind of evaporated, that could potentially be driving some of that back.
- [06:30]
B
And this is certainly true, I think in not in all areas, but certainly the data reveals like in computer science, yes, those students who rushed in there because they were going to get the $150,000 job, they make the investment and they get out and they're replaced by the bot. Right. I think that would make anybody angry. I think it would make the parents angry too.
- [06:48]
A
I think it certainly would. And especially to your point when they were told this is the most sure fire pathway to a job and then the rug's sort of been pulled out from under them after again that tremendous investment by them and their parents.
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B
So, you know, I think so I think anger's a major, you know, signal here. Another signal that I thought was very interesting in the study was the students recognizing that it might have an impact on their cognitive load and their deeper learning. Can you, can you drill into that for a little bit?
- [07:18]
A
Absolutely. So we asked in a variety of ways to sort of quantify this trade off that Gen Z sees between using AI, which by the way, they do acknowledge that there are benefits of AI. It can make them more efficient in their work, they can get their work done more quickly. They do believe that there are benefits in terms of accessing information more quickly and having some benefits on especially their learning. But what we increasingly are finding over the course of the past year is they are keenly aware of the trade offs and they are now more likely to believe that AI will harm their ability to think critically than they do to to believe that it will help their ability to do so. The same is true of their ability to think creatively and come up with new ideas. If you look into the workplace and you ask Gen Z employees the extent to which they trust AI produced work, they are twice as likely to trust work products that are completed only by humans without the intervention of AI. And that's not just work that's solely produced by AI. Even work that's touched by and augmented by AI, they trust less than that human only work. They are also three times as likely to believe that the risks of AI in the workplace outweigh its benefits. And so while they do acknowledge that this is a technology that can benefit them, and by the way, they also acknowledge is here to stay, about half of Gen Z agree that either in college or in the workplace, they're going to need to know how to use this technology. So they have again reticently accepted it. They're really flagging for folks then. I think, you know, a lot of the folks at this conference should probably take note and realize that they're keenly aware of the risks and the trade offs.
- [08:48]
B
I think this is a fascinating point because you look at the rate of which AI tools and AI apps are being flooding the zone, if you will, in education, but we don't really know what the long term impacts are and that's no one's fault. It's just because it's still so new. But I guess what my question would be, what you, you get this information around anger, anxiety, they know that it doesn't help them in learning. Should you dive more quickly into it? Should you put off guardrails? What, what do you, what are you thinking about in that regard?
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A
That's another great question. And one of the things that I've been sort of mulling over is when you think about Gen Z and again, what their lives have been when you're born between the ages or between the years 1997 and 2012. So that's the generation that was probably most acutely impacted by social media. And we didn't know the extent to which social media could potentially damage their mental health and some of their relationships with their peers and in society. And we're hearing in some ways, when you think about the Surgeon General's recent report about the negative implications of social media and how that impacted Gen Z. So on the one hand we're talking about, look at all these unintended and unknown consequences that 15 years after the introduction we're just now learning about, at the same time as we're asking Gen Z to adopt this new technology and integrate it with both feet into their education and into the workplace. I think a lot of them are thinking, you know, hold on a second, we just went through this exercise with social media and so before we completely turn over our learning and our work to this technology that we don't fully understand the implications of, maybe we should pump the brakes. And to your point, we just don't know yet. And so I think they are looking to educators, managers in the workplace, developers of AI technologies that before you ask me to adopt this, you know, let's know what the implications are and maybe some of the trade offs. And if I may turn the tables for a bit, you know, you're someone who's, you know, intimately familiar with how this is being integrated into classrooms and workplaces. And on the developer side, when you saw these results, you know, how did you process it? And if at all, you know, how would you advise some of the folks that you work with that are really themselves grappling with what's the best way to integrate this and reap the benefits of this new technology?
- [11:04]
B
Yeah, great question. Well, I would, first of all, I take a deep breath and I wouldn't make hasty moves without some efficacy data.
- [11:12]
A
Sure.
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B
Because the problem is we don't know what the risk is. And why should you make major moves when you have risk. Recognizing that. You talked about the need for AI literacy, that students need these skills as they enter the workforce. That's a tension. The other big tension in the market is the major AI producers are in a war for market share to get the next generation of users. Now, of course, learning is a priority for them, but if they were going to stack those priorities, where would they put it? So that puts incredible pressure on the sector. So what would I do if I were putting my higher ed hat on? First thing I would do is I would establish principles. Core principles around responsible deployment of AI, core principles around metrics, what needs to be achieved, core principles around accessibility. You know, do all students get access or only those that can afford it? And I think those principles are very important because the strategies will change, the technology will change. But if those principles are kind of like grounded in the value of your university, you'll be able to weather the storm. You'll still make mistakes, and that's fine, but at least they'll be grounded in principles. So I think that's. That would be a major takeaway for me.
- [12:34]
A
Well, it's such an important point because we've seen in the data that there is a relationship between the extent to which a student or an employee utilizes and even to an extent trusts the output of AI and the benefits of it, and the extent to which they're being advised and giving clear policies and guidelines. If you're a student in the classroom thinking about, how do I integrate AI? Well, the first step is knowing, is this allowed or is it not? And we do find that there is a fair lack of clarity for both students and employees in their understanding of what is in bounds and what is out of bounds. Am I going to get in trouble in the classroom if I use AI in this way? Am I allowed to create a work product in my particular workplace using AI, or is that something that's not permitted? So that's another piece of advice.
- [13:14]
B
I think this is a critical point, and I would encourage anyone listening. If you're a leader of a higher education institute, you must have guidelines and you must communicate your standards around AI to every student, often and at the course of it, not just in fine print on a syllabus. It needs to be a regular part of that conversation because that because of faculty agency, there is great variability from course to course. But the problem for the students if they're not communicated, that what they're doing in one course could be acceptable and the other course it could be accused of an academic violation. So over communicate when it comes to AI expectations, I agree 100%. So in closing, are you optimistic or are you pessimistic or are you neutral?
- [14:02]
A
That's so. It's such a good question. I'm always optimistic when I talk with Gen Z because of again I through the course of this over three years of research, one thing I've always found with Gen Z is how critically they're thinking about a lot of these big issues from such a young age. When we first started this research, the youngest gen zers were 12 years old and they were often talking about these types of really big issues around their education and their workforce in such commanding terms. They understand the stakes, they're very thoughtful about these types of issues. So when I think and I look at the results and how Gen Z is building their relationship with this technology, they're very sanguine about it. They understand that it's here to stay. They're not rejecting it outright. They know that they're going to have to integrate it. But again, they've thought about this so deeply and they understand the way that some of these prior journeys with technology have gone for them. And they're doing their best to signal to folks in these positions of authority who should be expected to be the guideline setters. You know, we understand the implications, we understand the imperative. We need your guidance, we need your help. And so I'm optimistic because in some ways they're holding our feet to the fire in a way that I think really needs to be done. And I hope that folks who are listening to this podcast and reading the report are starting to build those considerations into their decision making so that we can leverage this really powerful new technology in a positive way. So I'm optimistic if for no other reason than because Gen Z is forcing me to be.
- [15:28]
B
And I think that is a great way to close and I think it's a very strong signal, loud and clear is be student centric and listen because they have a great sophistication around this and if we do that and we're cautious and we apply research to it, we should come out the other end. Okay, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it.
- [15:52]
A
My pleasure. David, thank you so much for your partnership.