Gen Z didn’t just grow up in the age of social media—we started work during the AI revolution. These conditions impact how Gen Z workers feel about AI and how they use AI at work.

When comparing generations, Gen Z workers know more about AI and are more likely to have used generative AI. According to an Adobe Analytics Survey and exclusive data shared with Fast Company, 75% of Gen Z have used Gen AI, followed by 59% of Millennials, 49% of Gen X, and 39% of Baby Boomers.

This matters because by 2030, Gen Z workers are expected to make up 30% of the labor force and leaders are taking note. “AI is redefining work and it’s clear we need new playbooks,” Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn recently said. “It’s the leaders who build for agility instead of stability and invest in skill building internally that will give their organizations a competitive advantage.”

To better understand exactly how this rising generation is using AI, I interviewed leaders who manage Gen Z workers as well as Gen Z workers. Here’s what they had to say about Gen Z’s adoption of AI in the workplace.

Gen Z is pushing the AI boundaries

Gen Z is using AI at rates far greater than other generations. According to Adobe, in the last year, 36% of Gen Z reported to have used Gen AI for work, including 72% of Gen Z respondents stating that they used Gen AI between two times per week and every day.

Across the Gen Z workforce the “vibe” towards AI is overwhelmingly positive says John Xie, co-founder and CEO of Taskade. Gen Z “is not just open to AI, they are actively seeking ways to push its boundaries further,” states Xie. “They are using AI more than any other generation, adopting it as naturally as they scroll through their social feeds.”

One reason these boundaries are being pushed may be because Gen Z appreciates the time-saving benefits of the tech. “I think the majority of people, Gen Z and other generations alike, need to have a ‘lightbulb moment’ before they truly see the value of AI,” says Danielle Ito, an influencer and podcasts marketing manager at Notion. “That is, finding a use case for AI that resonates best with their creative output. My team and I discuss this a lot when building our influencer marketing strategies to promote Notion. It’s natural for there to be some initial pushback, which is why I focus on helping our users reach their lightbulb moment with Notion AI.”

Dylan Huey, founder and CEO of social media influencer community Reach agrees that “Gen Z’s sentiment towards AI is generally positive. In my experience, and as echoed on panels I’ve spoken on at major conferences like CES and VidCon, AI is often perceived as an underutilized tool that holds the potential to significantly enhance work efficiency and creativity.” According to Huey, “Being the first digitally native generation, we adapt quickly to new technologies, integrating AI into our work seamlessly and effectively.”

Indeed for many Gen Z workers, the challenging part of using AI is not learning how to use it but rather getting buy-in from superiors who may be a bit out-of-touch with the technology landscape, explained George Munguia, co-founder of Coconut VA. “The AI landscape is changing on a weekly basis, and this can be overwhelming for older generations who are not accustomed to integrating new tools into their tech stack,” says Munguia. “But for Gen Z, it’s second nature.”

Munguia figures that while older generations have years of experience using specific technologies and software at work, Gen Z workers have a clean slate ahead of them. Why wouldn’t we use tools that can boost our productivity?

Bring your own AI

The Adobe Analytics Survey also found that 80% of members of Gen Z believe they will be able to accomplish more by using generative AI. But how is Gen Z accomplishing more and boosting productivity? By bringing their own AI tools to work.

According to Microsoft and LinkedIn’s 2024 Work Trend Index, employees across all age groups bring their own AI tools to work, with Gen Z leading the charge. Approximately 85% of Gen Z respondents stated that they have used AI tools at work not provided by their employer.

Xie says that for many Gen Z workers, “AI isn’t just a tool, it’s a teammate. Gen Z workers are not just using AI, they’re integrating it seamlessly into their daily routines. They are making productivity feel like play.”

Bella Rose Mortel, social media strategist at beehiiv says she relies on ChatGPT at work.  “When my first draft of social media captions or copy is too wordy, I write a prompt to rewrite the caption for clarity.” Mortel then edits the output to add her tone of voice but maintains that ChatGPT saves her time. Mortel also leverages Midjourney, which creates images based on written prompts, for social media campaigns. For example, beehiiv tweeted for people to interact with a tweet of theirs and in exchange, beehiiv would generate an image of what the community member would look like as a bee. “Drop the name of your newsletter, and we’ll tell you what bee you are,” they posted. “Our audience really enjoyed it,” says Mortel.

Huey says he uses multiple AI tools at his organization for both administrative efficiency and creative endeavors including ChatGPT for drafting documents such as influencer scopes of work and contracts, Fireflies AI for meeting transcription, and Midjourney to “enhance creative projects.”

I personally use AI chatbots such as Microsoft’s Copilot or ChatGPT to help generate first drafts of new creative strategies for my clients at Creator Match and to create copy for LinkedIn posts. I also use Adobe Firefly to generate images for pitch decks that I send to brands.

Mentorship on AI is Bridging the Generational Gap

Gen Z might be the youngest generation in the workforce but some Gen Z workers are actually becoming AI mentors to their older co-workers.

“I absolutely see Gen Z as mentors in terms of AI. We probably wouldn’t have developed our own AI model if not for Gen Z workers,” says Mike Sadowski, founder and CEO of a social media monitoring tool Brand24. “Often when someone is struggling with a task that could be automated easily, a Gen Z team member will reach out to the person struggling and go through the process with them. Some of our workers have even held training sessions for others, and they were the ones to initiate the idea!”

Of course, Gen Z is not a monolith, and not all Gen Z workers are equally excited about AI. In fact, one survey found that 65% of Gen Z workers view AI positively, compared to 81% of millennials.

But experts indicate that AI skills will be a necessity to stay competitive in the labor market of tomorrow. And as the generation with the biggest stake in the economy of tomorrow, it appears like many Gen Z workers are embracing the AI revolution.