Meet the AI Natives Who Don’t Want to Be

Just because they’re good at it, doesn’t mean they like it. Growing up with algorithmic feeds and AI-generated content, Gen Z is one of the most AI-fluent generations, but increasingly, they’re the most skeptical of it. It’s a paradox playing out in the workplace, on social media, and even on the stages of this year’s commencement ceremonies, where VIP-speaker references to the promise of AI were met with choruses of boos.Many employers have assumed that because Gen Z grew up alongside these tools, they’re both comfortable and confident using them in professional settings. But the reality is far more complicated, and to understand how Gen Z is actually navigating this moment, From Day One went straight to the source.A Label That Might Not FitFirst, the roots of the label. An AI native “refers to something—usually a product, company or workflow—that was designed from the ground up with AI as a core component, not bolted on later as a mere feature,” according to an IBM explainer. In some cases, Gen Z has been given this title simply due to the timeline of AI’s emergence in the workforce and education. Having been early adopters in terms of their age, they’re generally not getting into a deeper commitment. According to a Gallup poll, “Gen Z’s use of generative AI in everyday life has been largely stable since March 2025. About half (51%) of 14 to 29 year olds continue to say they use AI either daily (22%) or weekly (29%), while 11% report using it monthly, 20% every few months, and 19% say they never use it.” But use doesn’t necessarily equate to trust or excitement. “In most of these cases, Gen Z-ers have become increasingly skeptical, increasingly negative—from a place where even last year, they weren’t particularly positive about it,” Zach Hrynowski, a senior education researcher for Gallup, told the New York Times.Rocki Rockingham, chief HR officer at GE Appliances, notices that younger employees aren’t more trusting of AI than their older counterparts, but on the other hand, they are “more willing to take chances. To try new things, to do things differently,” she said at From Day One’s Miami conference. It’s a distinction worth making at a time when Gen Z’s feelings about the new technology grow more complicated. The Pipeline ProblemRecruiters and hiring managers are increasingly flagging AI fluency as a core qualification in the workforce. It’s no longer a differentiator, but table stakes. An ominous new corporate cliché has even been propagated: AI won’t take your job, but someone who knows how to use it will. Postings that once listed tools like Google Suite and Canva are now leading with ChatGPT and prompt engineering. The message to Gen Z candidates is clear: you were born into this, so you should know it.The expectation of AI fluency creates uneven ground for those early in their careers who may not have hands-on experience with the technology, widening the gap between candidates before they’ve even had a chance to compete. Dani Monaghan, the SVP of global talent enablement at Expedia Group, worries about the access. “If you’re not taught AI at school or in university, and you don’t have the means to access technology, I think the gap is bigger than it will ever be before,” she said at From Day One’s Seattle conference. It’s a gap that’s leaving members of Gen Z increasingly wary. One member of Gen Z, Alec Gautier, a graduate of Marist University’s class of 2023 and now a retention specialist at Saatva, says his attitude toward AI “is one of skepticism.” At root is his distrust of its creators. “I am not inherently opposed to the idea of generative AI, but its current architects and proprietors have, to put it lightly, dubious motives,” he said. This skepticism seems to be a trend, with 14% of Gen Z reporting a decline in excitement in AI since 2025, and 48% believing the risks in the workforce outweigh the benefits, according to Gallup data. Even if Gen Z realizes that AI will have to be part of their working lives, they don’t like the side effects and don’t want to wear the label.Their Role in Leading AI ResistanceWhile Gen Z is being cast as the face of AI prodigy in the workplace, they are also the ones leading the resistance against it, or at least, being the loudest about their unease with it. At graduation ceremonies this spring across the U.S., many graduates hooted at distinguished commencement speakers who spoke of AI, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the University of Arizona. He acknowledged that graduates feared “that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.” But he told them, essentially, that if they don’t like it, they should just fix it. Alvarado, records management specialist at the Jefferson County Clerk's Office in Watertown, NY, shared her thoughts on the AI boom (photo courtesy of Alvarado)Indeed, students, new graduates, and those early in their careers are experiencing existential concerns about AI’s ethics and its impact on their life and work. They worry about how it affects our ability to connect and be creative, and also the mere amount of “slop” being brought into the world. “AI is just being used way too commonly across all fields, including art, music, fashion, writing, anything that takes a little bit of creativity or brainpower,” Hailey Alvarado, a St. Lawrence University class of 2022 alumna, told From Day One. “When we have an automated intelligence that is programmed to affirm everything we say to it, there is no actual intelligence. It’s just a robot designed to agree with us,” she said.Gen Z also worries about their ability to find early-career roles at a time when entry-level jobs are being stripped away. “Companies are citing A.I. as the reason for mass layoffs; according to the Alliance for Secure A.I., there have been almost 120,000 A.I.-linked job losses in the United States just since last year. Recent college graduates are facing a brutal job market as entry-level positions disappear and A.I. renders the application process inhumanly opaque,” according to the New York Times. And those fortunate enough to get jobs may be arriving just in time to find that “AI is unraveling the social fabric of work,” as Aki Ito, chief correspondent at Business Insider, reported last month. Perhaps most importantly, the generation fears the technology’s environmental impact as its ubiquitous data centers gobble up resources and spew pollution. Having grown up in a world marked by environmental disasters and an escalating climate crisis, Gen Z has long been associated with sustainability activism, and their skepticism of AI is no exception. “While I do have some personal and professional concerns about AI, they are wholly secondary compared to my environmental concerns about the technology,” said Gautier. “The environmental implications of AI I find deeply troubling. The proliferation of data centers and the damage they’ve already done to local ecosystems, public spaces, and fresh-water sources in vulnerable communities is extremely distressing,” he said. The Future of Connection, Creativity, and WorkNo generation can be reduced to a single trait or defining point, but when a crowd of graduates erupts in unanimous boos when their supposed role models mention AI, it’s hard to dismiss it as anything other than a distress signal. Whether it’s a trend, a backlash, or something more lasting, one thing is clear: Gen Z’s relationship with AI is far more portentous than the “AI native” label suggests.The frustration for many isn’t just about the technology itself, but also about what gets lost when we rush to adopt it. Said Alvarado: “We need more true, genuine connections, more creative expression, more critical thinking. Not less. Not from a robot.”Erin Behrens is an associate editor at From Day One.(Featured photo by PeopleImages/iStock)