Youth Attitudes Towards AI: Usage, Trust, and Fears in 2026
Updated: June, 2026
Published: August, 2025
AI is no longer a future prospect for young people: it is already embedded in their daily routines. From AI-generated content to virtual assistants and smart recommendations, 15–30-year-olds across Europe are interacting with artificial intelligence whether they seek it out or not. But adoption does not equal acceptance, and usage does not equal trust.
Wave 4 (Q2 2025) and Wave 5 (Q1 2026) of our Youth Pulse study tracked how Gen Z and younger millennials in Europe feel about AI across five dimensions: how widely they use it, where they want it to help, how much they trust it with real decisions, what worries them most about its rise, and how they feel about the emerging phenomenon of AI influencers. The picture that emerges is one of cautious, pragmatic adoption – a generation that is genuinely embracing AI tools while drawing clear lines around where it belongs in their lives.
AI Usage Among Youth: Gender and Country Breakdown
AI tool adoption among European youth is now firmly mainstream. In Wave 4, 68% of 15–30-year-olds reported using AI-powered tools, with a further 14% open to trying them. By Wave 5, that overall usage figure held steady at 67%, suggesting the market is approaching saturation among early and mid adopters rather than continuing to expand rapidly.
Q: Do You Use AI-Powered Tools?
Source: Opeepl Youth Pulse Study, Wave 4 (Q2 2025) and Wave 5 (Q1 2026). Q: "Do you use AI-powered tools (e.g., virtual assistants, AI in social media apps, AI-generated content)?"
The gender split is modest but consistent. In Wave 5, 24% of males report using AI regularly compared to 19% of females, a 5-point gap that has held steady across both waves. Occasional usage is close between genders (45% male, 47% female), and avoidance is similarly close (16% male, 19% female).
Country-level differences are more pronounced. Spain stands out as the market with the highest rate of regular AI use at 29%, compared to an average of around 20% across the other four EU5 markets. Germany presents an interesting contrast: it has one of the lower rates of regular use (19%) but the highest share of youth who don't currently use AI but are open to it (20% vs. an average of 13% elsewhere), suggesting a large pool of potential adopters who haven't yet made the leap.
The proportion of Gen Z and younger millennials who prefer to avoid AI altogether sits at 18% in Wave 5, virtually unchanged from Wave 4. This group is not growing — but it is also not shrinking. For brands, this represents a stable ceiling of resistance that is unlikely to be overcome by product features alone.
Q: Do You Use AI-Powered Tools?
Source: Opeepl Youth Pulse Study, Wave 5 (February 2026). Q: "Do you use AI-powered tools (e.g., virtual assistants, AI in social media apps, AI-generated content)?"
Where Young People Want AI to Help
The areas where youth see the most potential for AI reveal a generation more focused on self-improvement and productivity rather than convenience or entertainment.
Areas Where Youth Believe AI Could Improve Their Experience
Source: Opeepl Youth Pulse Study, Wave 4 (Q2 2025)
Education and productivity dominate by a significant margin: nearly four in ten youth see AI as a genuine asset for learning, and almost the same proportion want it to handle administrative and workflow tasks. This is not about shortcuts: it reflects a generation under real academic and professional pressure that sees AI as a tool for doing better, not doing less.
The relatively low appetite for AI in shopping (10%) is telling. Despite the rapid growth of personalised recommendation engines and AI-driven e-commerce, Gen Z and younger millennials remain sceptical about AI guiding their purchase decisions. They want utility, not manipulation, and they are increasingly able to tell the difference.
Discover more about 15–30-year-old consumers and AI in our Youth Pulse Report
Trust in AI for Important Decisions
Widespread usage has not translated into deep trust, particularly when the stakes are high. When asked whether they would trust AI to help make important life decisions – career advice, health recommendations, financial choices – the responses across both waves are consistently cautious.
Level of Trust in AI for Important Decisions Among 15-30 y.o.
Source: Opeepl Youth Pulse Study, Wave 4 (Q2 2025) and Wave 5 (Q1 2026)
The headline figure, 15% fully trusting AI with important decisions, has not moved at all between waves, despite growing overall AI usage. What has shifted is the distribution of scepticism. The share of youth who are actively undecided dropped 5 percentage points between Wave 4 and Wave 5, while both the "maybe with human oversight" and "no" categories grew. Gen Z and younger millennials are forming clearer opinions about AI, and those opinions lean toward caution.
The +3pp rise in those who would want a human to double-check AI advice is particularly significant. It suggests an emerging middle ground: young consumers who are not opposed to AI input but insist on human accountability at the end of the process. For brands deploying AI in advisory or decision-support roles, this is an important design principle: AI as a tool that augments human judgment, not one that replaces it.
AI Concerns on the Rise
High usage and persistent scepticism coexist because young people are not naive about AI's risks. Across both waves, the top concerns have remained remarkably stable, but the direction of travel is worth watching.
Job automation and misinformation remain the joint top concerns, both holding at 27% across waves. The fear that AI will displace human workers and the fear that it will accelerate the spread of false information are deeply embedded in how this generation thinks about the technology, and neither appears to be fading.
Two shifts are worth highlighting. Privacy and data security rose 3 percentage points between waves, climbing from 23% to 26% and closing the gap with the top concerns significantly. As AI tools become more integrated into daily life, awareness of what that means for personal data appears to be growing. Reducing personal agency and control also rose 2 points, reflecting a broader anxiety about algorithmic decision-making eroding individual autonomy.
Fewer young people are indifferent. As AI becomes more visible and consequential in their lives, the share with no concerns at all dropped from 10% to 7%, a small but meaningful shift suggesting that experience with AI is sharpening, rather than softening, awareness of its risks.
Concerns About the Rise of AI Among Youth
Source: Opeepl Youth Pulse Study, Wave 5 (Q1 2026)
AI Influencers: The Newest Frontier and Its Limits
Wave 5 introduced a new dimension to the AI landscape among Gen Z and younger millennials: the rise of AI influencers – virtual personalities created entirely through artificial intelligence that post content, build followings, and partner with brands just like human creators.
The data is unambiguous: this is still very much a fringe phenomenon, and trust is extremely limited.
Only 8% of young consumers currently follow an AI influencer. At the other end, 42% report no interest, and a striking 23% were entirely unaware that AI influencers existed before being asked about them in the survey. Awareness itself is still a barrier.
On trust in AI influencer content, the data is stark. Only 5% of young consumers would trust information shared by an AI influencer completely. A further 26% said they would consider trusting it, but only if it was independently verified or fact-checked first. That conditional trust is significant: it means even those nominally open to AI influencers are not willing to take their word for anything without a human layer of accountability sitting on top. On the other side, 28% said "no, not really" and another 28% said "not at all", meaning more than half of young consumers actively reject AI influencer content as a credible source.
Attitudes Towards Brands Using AI Influencers Among Youth
Source: Opeepl Youth Pulse Study, Wave 5 (Q1 2026). Q: "How comfortable are you with brands that use AI influencers?" (1 = not at all, 5 = a lot)
Comfort with brands using AI influencers tells a similarly cautious story. When asked to rate their comfort on a scale of 1 to 5, 36% of youth chose 1 — not at all comfortable. A further 24% chose 2. Only 12% rated their comfort at 4 or 5. In other words, six in ten young consumers are uncomfortable with brands deploying AI influencers, and fewer than one in eight are genuinely receptive to it.
For a broader look at how this plays out in the influencer landscape, including adoption rates and platform dynamics, read our dedicated post: How Social Media Influencers Are Shaping Youth Buying Habits.
What This Means for Brands
The data across both waves points to four clear conclusions for any brand deploying or considering AI in its products, marketing, or consumer experience.
Adoption is broad but trust has a ceiling. Two thirds of youth use AI tools, but only 15% trust it with important decisions, and that figure has not moved in a year. Brands should not mistake usage for endorsement. Young consumers will use AI features that save them time, but they are watching carefully for signs that the technology is being used against their interests rather than for them.
Utility beats novelty. Education and productivity are where Gen Z and younger millennials see the most value in AI: not entertainment, not shopping. Brands that lead with genuine functional benefit will earn more credibility than those who deploy AI as a marketing signal.
Privacy concerns are growing. The 3pp rise in data security concerns between waves is a warning signal. As AI becomes more embedded in products, transparency about data collection is no longer optional – it is expected.
AI influencers are not ready for mainstream deployment. With 42% of young consumers uninterested and 60% uncomfortable with brands using them, this is not a channel that has earned youth's confidence. Brands that experiment here should do so with full disclosure and realistic expectations.
Final Thoughts
Two waves of data tell a coherent story: Gen Z and younger millennials have integrated AI into their daily lives at scale, but they have not handed over their judgment along with it. They use AI for tasks where the risk of error is low and the benefit is clear. They resist it where human experience, empathy, or accountability matter. And they are increasingly aware of the risks that come with it.
For brands, the message is clear. AI must be deployed in ways that are transparent, useful, and genuinely human-centred. That is not just the ethical approach. According to the data, it is the only approach that will actually work with this generation.
Discover more trends among 15-30 y.o. in Youth Pulse Report
Opeepl Youth Pulse is a bi-annual study that keeps pulse on the latest developments in the youth market. Discover key youth trends in consumer confidence, media habits, attitudes, values, and four major categories: Food, Beverages, Fashion, and Personal Care.