Among young Americans, concern about AI is outweighing excitement. According to a survey released by Pew Research Center on August 18, 55% of 18-to-29-year-olds said they feel "more concerned than excited" about the increasing use of AI in daily life. That's up 24 percentage points from 31% in 2021, marking the first time this age group has crossed the 50% threshold.
Views on employment are similarly stark. In the same age group, 73% predicted that AI will reduce the number of jobs in the U.S. over the next 20 years. Younger people also report higher rates of chatbot use and more frequent use than older generations. Even so, the assumption that widespread use translates into optimism is weakening.
Looking at two surveys Pew conducted in 2026 side by side, a pattern emerges: many young people use AI as an everyday tool, yet their views on its impact on society and jobs remain grim. That said, neither survey measured personal job insecurity or actual changes in employment.
A First-Time Majority at 55%, Up 16 Points in Two Years
Among 18-to-29-year-olds, the share saying concern outweighs excitement moved from 31% in 2021 to 29% in 2022, 42% in 2023, 39% in 2024, 47% in 2025, and 55% in 2026. In just the two years since 2024, the figure has risen 16 points. Meanwhile, the share saying excitement outweighs concern fell from 25% in 2021 to 11% in 2026.
Among older age groups, concern about AI rose sharply from 2021 to 2023 but has largely leveled off or declined since then. Younger adults, by contrast, have seen concern climb for two consecutive years since 2024, narrowing the gap between age groups. Across all U.S. adults in 2026, 52% said concern outweighs excitement, while 9% said excitement outweighs concern.
It should be noted that the 2021 question on sentiment included an explanatory passage about AI, so the wording is not identical to that used from 2022 onward. Long-term trend figures should be read with that caveat in mind. Still, the rise among young adults since 2024 and the decline on the excitement side can both be confirmed within the same consistent question series.
73% of 18-to-29-Year-Olds Expect Job Losses
Among 18-to-29-year-olds, 73% said AI will reduce the number of jobs in the U.S. over the next 20 years—up 12 points from 61% in 2024. Among 30-to-49-year-olds, the figure was 74%, and among 50-to-64-year-olds, 72%, putting young adults' outlook roughly in line with other working-age groups.
Across all adults, 71% said AI will reduce jobs. Only 5% said it will increase jobs, 10% said it won't make much difference, and 14% were unsure. The view that AI's impact on the labor market will be negative rather than positive is now widely shared across age groups.
The question asked specifically about the outlook for the total number of U.S. jobs over the next 20 years—not whether respondents themselves felt at risk of losing their jobs or expected it to become harder to find work. As such, the 73% figure should not be read as a measure of young people's personal fear of job loss.
High Usage and Skeptical Views Coexist
In a separate survey Pew conducted in February 2026, 66% of 18-to-29-year-olds said they had used an AI chatbot, and 31% said they use one regularly. Another 31% described themselves as "very confident" or "somewhat confident" in their ability to use AI tools—with young adults outpacing older generations on usage experience, frequency, and confidence alike.
In that same February survey, 48% of 18-to-29-year-olds predicted AI will have a negative effect on society over the next 20 years, and 37% predicted a negative effect on themselves personally. A sense of competence in using AI does not necessarily align with a positive view of its broader impact.
However, the February usage survey and the June attitudes survey differ in timing and respondents. These two surveys cannot establish that heavier AI users are more concerned, or that usage itself generates concern. What they do show is that high usage and strong concern were observed as separate facts among young adults.
Reading the Numbers Requires Understanding the Survey's Limits
The June survey was conducted among 3,488 non-institutionalized U.S. adults aged 18 and older, from June 22 to 28. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level; for the 18-to-29 age group, the unweighted sample size was 569, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 points. This makes it ill-suited for treating small differences between age groups as a meaningful ranking.
Additionally, the time-series data does not track the same individuals' attitudes over time—it reflects responses from U.S. adults surveyed at each respective point in time. While Pew weights its data by factors including age, education, and party affiliation, opinion polling inevitably carries some margin of error stemming from question wording and nonresponse. For this survey, the response rate was 86%, and the cumulative response rate was 3%.
Young people's views on AI won't necessarily move in one direction as adoption spreads further. Whether this wariness persists can only be judged by tracking responses to the same questions from 2027 onward. Meanwhile, employment rates and hiring trends for entry-level positions will offer real-world data against which to measure how closely these job-loss predictions align with actual labor market outcomes.