Most Young Americans Are Now More Concerned Than Excited About AI

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday life, but enthusiasm is not necessarily growing with adoption.

For the first time, a majority of U.S. adults under 30 say they are more concerned than excited about the increasing use of AI. According to new Pew Research Center data, 55% of 18- to 29-year-olds now feel this way, compared with 31% in 2021. Only 11% say they are more excited than concerned.

Perhaps more strikingly, young adults are increasingly worried about what AI will mean for employment. Almost three-quarters (73%) believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the United States over the next 20 years, up from 61% just two years ago.

The numbers complicate a familiar assumption about technological change: that younger generations will naturally be its most enthusiastic supporters.

Familiarity Is Not the Same as Optimism

Young adults are hardly disconnected from AI.

Pew’s previous research shows that most adults under 30 use AI chatbots. Yet this familiarity has not translated into greater confidence about where the technology is heading.

In fact, concern among this age group has risen considerably. In 2024, 39% said they were more concerned than excited about AI. By 2026, that figure had climbed to 55%.

This is an interesting reversal of the usual technology adoption story. Younger consumers are often described as early adopters who embrace new digital experiences before older generations. With AI, using the technology and trusting its broader impact appear to be two different things.

Perhaps that should not be surprising.

The generation entering and establishing itself in the workforce today is also watching AI become capable of performing tasks that traditionally belonged to entry-level knowledge workers. Writing, research, coding, customer support, design, analysis, and administrative work are all areas where automation is developing quickly.

For someone at the beginning of a career, the productivity promise of AI can look very different from that of someone already established in one.

Job Anxiety Is Becoming Mainstream

Concern about employment is not limited to young people.

Overall, 71% of U.S. adults now believe AI will result in fewer jobs over the next two decades, compared with 64% in 2024. Only 5% expect it to create more jobs.

The gap between age groups has also narrowed. Adults under 30 are now almost as likely as people aged 30 to 49 to predict job losses from AI.

This matters because the public discussion around AI often emphasizes productivity. Businesses are told that AI can make employees faster, automate repetitive tasks, reduce costs, and allow people to concentrate on more valuable work.

All of those outcomes are possible. But employees may hear the same productivity argument differently: if fewer people can produce the same amount of work, what happens to the people no longer required? Businesses adopting AI cannot entirely separate those two interpretations.

AI Adoption Has a Human Side

This creates a challenge for companies integrating AI into everyday operations.

Successful adoption is not simply a matter of choosing the right model or automating the most tasks. Companies also need people to understand why the technology is being introduced, where human judgment remains necessary, and how roles will change as a result.

This is particularly relevant in e-commerce, where AI is entering content production, product enrichment, customer service, search, recommendations, marketing, logistics, and catalog management.

Automation can eliminate repetitive tasks in these processes. However, the strongest applications often combine machine efficiency with human knowledge rather than attempting to eliminate people entirely from the workflow.

Product content provides a good example. AI can help generate, translate, classify, and enrich information at enormous scale. Yet accurate source data, quality control, brand knowledge, and human oversight remain essential when that information reaches customers.

The question is therefore not simply which tasks AI can perform. It is how businesses redesign work around what AI does well and what still requires human responsibility.

Trust May Become a Competitive Factor

There is another lesson in the Pew numbers for companies building customer-facing AI.

Young consumers may use AI frequently without being uncritical of it. Pew’s wider research indicates that adults under 30 are particularly skeptical about AI’s effects on society, human connection, and creativity.

That means adding an AI feature does not automatically make a product or shopping experience more attractive to younger customers.

An AI shopping assistant that genuinely helps someone compare products can create value. An automated customer-service system that prevents someone from reaching a human when they need help can create the opposite experience.

As AI becomes commonplace, customers may care less that a service “uses AI” and more about whether the technology is accurate, transparent, useful, and appropriately deployed.

The AI Generation May Also Be Its Most Demanding Critic

There is a temptation to frame resistance to new technology as a generational issue. The latest numbers make that explanation difficult.

Young adults are not rejecting AI because they have not encountered it. Many are using it while simultaneously becoming more skeptical about its consequences.

That may ultimately be healthy for the technology.

AI is moving beyond the experimental phase and into workplaces, commerce, education, and everyday decision-making. At that point, excitement alone is not enough. People are beginning to ask harder questions about employment, accuracy, privacy, creativity, and control.

For businesses, those questions should not be treated simply as resistance to innovation.

The companies that build lasting value from AI may be those that can answer a more difficult question than “What can we automate?”

They will also need to explain what AI improves, what remains human, and who ultimately benefits from the change.