44% of Gen Z are pushing back on AI. What that means for work

Rachel Kasa
May 5
3 min read

Team, I am pro-anything that makes my life easier. This includes AI.

And, to be transparent, I use AI at work allllll the time.

AI has been increasingly present in our conversations, our work, and our lives generally. Most of us can't get through a workday - or even scroll our social media of choice - without being confronted with AI in some form or another. This is the case whether we're:

Writing a new procurement policy;
Seeking help with the "tone" of an email;
Checking our kids' homework; or
Looking at a funny video of a cat on TikTok and wondering if what we're seeing is real.

Honestly, there's a significant chance that it's not real. I love Reddit, and my new favourite subreddit is Is This AI - a place for people to post pics, videos, etc. and learn more about discerning the reality of what we're seeing. You will be astounded at how much AI has advanced. And, it will make you question everything you see online, and start to wonder at what point AI becomes more of a liability than it's worth. Which, at this point, is absolutely a good thing.

I came across an article recently called Gen Z is Turning Against AI in an Incredible Way. Who is Gen Z, you ask? The lovely people in our lives born between 1997 and 2012, give or take. Currently, they are the youngest people in our workplaces.

The article is specifically focused on our Gen Z folks working in the tech industry, but has takeaways regardless of your professional context. It's also fascinating how generational differences can impact our view of AI, and what this tells us about the values of folks at different life stages in our workplaces.*

The article mentions several key points that affect folks of every age and in most Western workplaces:

"Recent polling shows that "only 18 percent of Gen Zers said they felt 'hopeful" about AI, a nine percent drop since 2025."
"A major reason for the disillusionment among young people is their ability to identify the many shortcomings of the tech, from rampant hallucinations to the dangers of 'cognitive offloading,' the term for when people start to outsource mental tasks to AI."

And, most compelling to consider:

"44 percent of polled Gen Z workers said they’re “sabotaging their company’s AI strategy in at least one way,” from entering proprietary company information into chatbots to refusing to use AI tools outright."

I don't even mind the sabotage; although I would love for more open communication and psychological safety in the workplace so folks felt that they could handle the situation differently. It's sending a strong but important message, especially for leaders and decisions makers around tech:

We need to assess our expectations of use of AI at work, and to what extent people are even comfortable with this tool.

Like any tool, AI has limitations and flaws. And, it's clear that some folks in our workplaces are deeply uncomfortable with AI.

What do we do with that information? Stop using AI? Speak with people to understand how to support their ethical use of AI? Create more learning opportunities and conversations for transparent usage in the workplace?

Big questions. Watch this space.

*Keen to hear more on this? Our June Tea & Toast webinar is on Our future workers: Gen Z and Gen Alpha.