Roughly half the people in Gen Z use artificial intelligence at least weekly, but anger and anxiety over the technology is growing, according to a new Gallup survey.
“Gen Z’s relationship with AI is stabilizing but not deepening as adoption is plateauing, enthusiasm is declining, and skepticism is rising,” concludes the “The AI Paradox” report. “The data paint a picture of a generation that is neither wholly rejecting AI nor fully embracing it—including those who use it every day.”
Gen Z is made up of those born between 1997 and 2012 and who are currently ages 14 to 29. The new survey is part the Voices of Gen Z series conducted by Gallup, the Walton Family Foundation, and GSV Ventures. About 44 percent of the 1,572 Gen Z members surveyed in late February and early March of this year are 14- to 18-year-old students, and the report offers several conclusions based on that segment.
Nearly three-quarters of K-12 students in the survey reported that their schools have adopted rules about using AI for schoolwork, up from just 51% a year ago. And 65% say their schools allow them to use AI for their school assignments, up from 55% in 2025. And 49% say they are permitted to access AI tools on school computers, up from 36% in 2025.
One general survey result not broken down by K-12 versus older members of Gen Z indicates that negative sentiment about AI has increased among the generation.
Excitement about AI has dropped 14 percentage points since 2025, to 22% this year, and hopefulness has fallen 9 points, to 18%, while anger has increased 9 points, to 31%.
Education Week spoke with Zach Hrynowski, a senior education researcher at Gallup and a lead author of the report, for insights about what these survey findings mean for schools.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What surprised you most about these survey results?
Most of the things that surprised all of us were the changes in some of those year-over-year metrics. So you found, first of all, that usage had remained pretty much steady. So even though AI has been around for an additional year, we know that it’s being integrated more frequently by schools and workplaces.
But what we did see change pretty meaningfully year over year was the way they feel toward AI. So last year, in 2025, you would have seen that the most frequently felt sentiment around artificial intelligence was anxiety.
But after that, you would have seen the next most frequently felt sentiments were excitement and hopefulness. So they were kind of balancing, right? It’s this new technology. We are a little bit nervous about it, but there’s also some excitement about the possibilities.
And how have those dynamics changed more recently?
Fast forward to this year, you saw that those positive emotions—the excitement, the hopefulness—those declined pretty meaningfully year over year. And at the same time, we saw anger increase year over year, such that in 2026, now the most prevalent emotions are anger and anxiety, and the least commonly felt sentiments are excitement and hopefulness.
What are some of the biggest takeaways for educators?
We see that schools and workplaces are using this technology more. More students say that their schools have a policy. And about two-thirds of students say that they’re allowed to use AI in the classroom.
So, year over year, we’ve seen schools encouraging it more, and a similar trend is happening in workplaces where [they] are more likely to implement policies on appropriate uses.
I guess if you were to look at the overall trend, Gen Z is not adopting it more frequently. But at the same time, their schools and workplaces are.
Therefore, if I’m a student, even if it makes me nervous, even if it makes me angry, I recognize that this is a technology that I have to be familiar with for the future of my education and my work.
[N]ow the most prevalent emotions are anger and anxiety, and the least commonly felt sentiments are excitement and hopefulness.
The survey does show that more schools are allowing students to use AI. What did you think of that finding?
This may be a case where schools, especially those that are struggling with resourcing, are saying, “Look, if you can get your hands on a free version of ChatGPT or Claude, or your family has a subscription to it at home, go ahead and use it, but we don’t have the resources to buy licenses for every student or something like that.
But I also think that schools are struggling themselves to figure out what the rules are. When you look at that increase year over year, it’s great that we see more schools providing these guidelines for students. So, from the standpoint of a policy, you better get one in place, because the students are using [AI].
If you are a teacher or a school, you’re probably better off telling them what an appropriate or inappropriate use is in trying to get them to adhere to that rather than it being the Wild West.
Do you think some of the teachers are asking their students about AI instead of the other way around?
We had a whole [earlier] survey about artificial intelligence in the classroom from the perspective of teachers. And teachers are expressing a lot of the same concerns as students. If you ask, for example, do you think that your students should be allowed to use AI in the classroom or not, it’s a pretty close split. Teachers are divided about it.
I do think that teachers, in some ways, are in the same boat as their students, and looking to their students, and learning from them about how to use AI.
Did the survey ask students if they are using AI to do their work for them?
Well, interestingly enough, we did in a bit of a roundabout way. There’s a question that asks: How many of your classmates do you think use artificial intelligence for their schoolwork when they aren’t supposed to? So we’re not asking the student directly, because as you can imagine, there’s probably a little bit of desirability bias in there and not wanting to admit to wrongdoing.
But if you ask the students, what about your classmates? How many of them are using AI when they aren’t supposed to? We do find that 41% of K-12 students say that all or most of their classmates are using AI when they aren’t supposed to.
And, ultimately, do you believe schools should serve as a primary guide on how to use AI responsibly?
We know that, to a certain extent, when schools and teachers are guiding students in the classroom on how to use it, it does build trust and comfort among the students to make them feel a little bit more liberated.
You see higher rates of adoption of AI, you see them become a little bit less anxious, a little less angry, a little more excited, and hopeful when some trusted adult, like a teacher, tells them, “Hey, here’s a good way to use AI to help you learn.”
