Survey Finds 79% of Young U.S. Adults Worry AI Makes People Lazy

Nearly four in five U.S. adults ages 18 to 28 in an October 2025 survey worried that artificial intelligence makes people lazier, even as 52% said they had used a chatbot to help with work.

The nationally representative survey covered nearly 2,500 people. Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation partnered on the research, which asked respondents about their recent use of AI chatbots and their concerns about the technology.

Seventy-four percent said they had used an AI chatbot at least once in the previous month. One in six respondents said they had used AI for work after being specifically told not to.

The concerns were not limited to laziness. Sixty-two percent said they worried that AI makes people less smart. Those figures capture respondents’ views; the survey did not measure whether using AI affects people’s thinking or learning.

The results point to a gap between concern about AI and its use in the workplace. More than half of respondents said they had used a chatbot for work, while a smaller share reported using AI at work despite a specific instruction not to.

“What we find is deep ambivalence on how Gen Z is thinking [about] using AI,” said Benjamin Lira Luttges, a Wharton postdoctoral scholar who led the research. Lira Luttges also said, “You should outsource the crap, not the craft.”

The survey did not measure whether respondents view AI as a way to earn a promotion or whether using it affects career outcomes. Its findings describe reported chatbot use and respondents’ concerns, not the effect of AI on their jobs or abilities.