Last year, researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University uncovered surprising evidence about how the use of AI influences how people think, and how hard they work, finding that over-reliance on AI tools like ChatGPT was associated with poorer critical thinking skills among more than 300 knowledge workers.
The study echoes findings from an MIT-led study published last year, which suggests that even using AI for low-risk tasks such as proofreading “can lead to significant negative consequences in high-risk situations” such as creating legal documents, the study authors wrote.
The fear that technology will make people stupid dominates the fear that technology will make people stupid, as young digital natives struggle with AI anxiety about keeping up with their technology peers and AI taking their jobs. But we couldn’t stop using AI. Even if you are explicitly instructed not to use it.
A new Wharton-led study conducted in partnership with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation finds that young people are increasing their use of AI, despite persistent concerns that it may induce lazy thinking. A survey of approximately 2,500 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 28 completed in October 2025 found that 79% of respondents believed that AI would make people lazier, and 62% said they were concerned that AI would make people less intelligent.
“What we found is a deep ambivalence about how Gen Z thinks. [about] It’s powered by AI,” said Benjamin Lila Rutges, a postdoctoral researcher at Wharton who led the report’s research. luck.
Despite these concerns, Gen Z is increasingly using AI. The survey found that 74% of respondents had used an AI tool, such as a chatbot, at least once in the past month, compared with 58% of young Americans who said they had used a bot as of February 2025, according to Pew Research Center data. One in six respondents reported using AI at work, even though they were specifically instructed not to use it.
The paradox of Gen Z’s willingness to use AI in the office, despite deep-rooted concerns about the technology’s impact on critical thinking, reveals younger generations’ mixed feelings about AI, the report’s authors said. After all, Gen Z’s thorny relationship with AI runs deep. Almost a fifth of the generation is worried about being replaced by AI in the workplace, yet they are still leading the way in implementing AI in the workplace.
Although some deciphering is required, Gen Z’s complex attitudes towards AI could be important in designing a future path for the technology to be optimally integrated into the workplace more broadly, suggested Lila Rutges.
“Young people are leading the way in the adoption of new technologies, and many things that are often considered non-mainstream and non-mainstream are adopted by young people and eventually become part of the mainstream,” he said. “So in some ways… when you focus on Gen Z, you’re looking at the future of work.”
Understanding Gen Z’s mixed feelings about AI
Lila Rutges posits that the biggest psychological factor determining Gen Z’s attitude toward AI is simply a bias toward immediate gratification, which is more pronounced among younger, developing minds.
“There are legitimate trade-offs between the benefits and costs of using AI,” he said. “Our brains are wired to prefer small, immediate rewards over long-term, delayed rewards.”
As Gen Z grapples with finding, keeping, and climbing the career ladder, enhanced work performance powered by AI may be more appealing than the invisible threat of losing critical thinking skills. Similarly, even if employers don’t want their employees to use AI in certain tasks, Lila Rutges pointed out that employees may think it’s more important to perform their tasks efficiently, especially if they’re young and especially if the risk of getting caught is low.
Anyone, not just Gen Z, can fall victim to the “above-average effect.” This is a statistically impossible phenomenon in which most people generally believe that they are above average at a particular task. For example, Gen Z survey respondents may consider themselves power users of AI, Lila Rutges said. Yes, AI can shrink critical thinking skills and make other people lazy, but not the people filling out the survey.
How Gen Z will shape the future of work
To maximize the use of AI in the workplace, the report authors argued, employers need to embrace ambivalence about AI, rather than banning it. Research shows that respondents who say they use AI more frequently are less worried about its impact on intelligence and motivation, suggesting that concerns about AI may subside over time.
However, simply addressing concerns about AI does not address the issue of how its use impacts critical thinking. Some future of work experts, including Mark Beasley, professor and director of North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management, believe that the critical thinking gap, rather than the AI skills gap, poses a serious threat to organizations’ pipelines and business operations. Mr Beasley said: luck The threat AI poses to entry-level jobs last month could mean a lack of training and experience for mid-level and even upper-level jobs in the near future.
“The biggest risk an organization faces is simply being stagnant,” he says.
But as long as workplaces are intentional about how they implement AI, the technology won’t have a significant impact on critical thinking, Lila Rutges said.
“There are two types of effort in every task,” says Lila Rutges. “There’s effort that goes hand in hand with work, and it’s inherent in what you’re doing, and that kind of effort is effort that you put in, and it translates into learning. But there’s just so much effort that’s there, and it’s just like friction, and it doesn’t really teach you anything.”
“You should outsource the crap, not the technology,” he added.
