Gen Z workers are emerging as some of the heaviest users of generative AI on the job, yet many of them say the technology is making their peers less sharp. They worry that colleagues who lean too hard on chatbots are getting “dumb and lazy,” even as they quietly calculate that mastering the same tools could be their own shortcut to a raise or promotion. That tension is turning AI from a neutral productivity app into a new fault line in office culture.
At the heart of the contradiction is a generation that grew up online, entered work in a period of economic uncertainty, and is now trying to square long term career goals with the instant gratification of an AI generated answer. Their ambivalence is not just about technology, it is about what kind of workers they want to be seen as in front of managers who are also still figuring out the rules.
Gen Z’s love–hate relationship with AI at work
On paper, Gen Z looks like AI’s ideal power user. Surveys show that more than half of this cohort uses AI tools at least weekly for tasks like drafting emails, summarizing documents, or brainstorming ideas, often through consumer apps such as ChatGPT or Gemini that they bring into the workplace themselves. One study found that 79 percent of Gen Z say they have used AI tools, and that they feel both energized and uneasy about that habit, with researchers describing how Gen Z Reports. That mix of enthusiasm and fear shows up in how they talk about AI in the office, where using a bot can feel both like a smart hack and a reputational risk.
At the same time, a new wave of research finds that 68% of Gen Z is anxious about AI’s automation capabilities and how they might wipe out early career roles that traditionally served as training grounds. One survey highlighted that 68% of Gen Z is specifically worried about automation, while another found that Sixty eight percent of Gen Z adults are anxious that offloading cognitive tasks to AI means missing out on the skill building that used to come from doing the work themselves, a concern detailed in Sixty. That is the core of the love–hate dynamic: AI feels indispensable for staying efficient, yet threatening to the very apprenticeship model that helps young workers grow.
Why some young workers say AI is making colleagues “dumb and lazy”
Behind the harsh language about “dumb and lazy” coworkers is a deeper fear that AI is eroding critical thinking. In one Wharton led survey, young professionals complained that peers who paste prompts into chatbots for every task are skipping the mental work of structuring arguments, checking sources, or learning a new skill. Researchers noted that Making sense of Gen Z’s fraught feelings toward AI means understanding how they see a widening gap between those who use tools to augment their thinking and those who simply copy and paste, a distinction explored in Making. When a teammate turns in AI written work riddled with generic phrasing or factual slips, it reinforces the sense that over reliance on bots is not just lazy, it is professionally risky.
Some of that judgment is rooted in psychology as much as office politics. Behavioral researchers involved in the same work argue that Our brains are wired to prefer smaller, immediate rewards versus long term, delayed rewards, a point highlighted when Our was used to explain why a quick AI answer can feel irresistible even if it undermines deeper learning. Lira Luttges has speculated that the biggest mental factor informing Gen Z’s attitudes toward AI is this bias toward immediate gratification, warning that the slow, sometimes frustrating process of building expertise can lose out to the instant hit of a polished paragraph from a chatbot, a tension she describes in Lira Luttges.
The paradox: AI as both threat and promotion strategy
Even as they criticize coworkers for leaning too hard on automation, many Gen Z employees are betting that smart, strategic use of AI will help them climb the ladder faster. In the Wharton research, young respondents said they believed colleagues who used AI for everything would stagnate, while those who learned to use it selectively could stand out as more efficient and more valuable. Some even predicted that Gen Z who master AI could leapfrog older peers, with one researcher noting that looking at Gen Z is a way of looking towards the future of work, a framing that appears in Gen. That is where the promotion calculus comes in: the same tools that might deskill a role could also help a savvy user take on more complex work sooner.
Other surveys reinforce that Gen Z sees AI as both a job killer and an opportunity. One study, summarized by Follow Sarah E. Needleman, reported that Follow Sarah found young workers split between fear of displacement and excitement about using AI to accelerate their careers. Another analysis of workplace attitudes noted that 20.7% of Gen Zers have negative sentiments about their current jobs, yet 47% of Gen Zers are career ambitious and focused on further progress in their careers, a contrast laid out in Gen Zers. For many, the path out of a frustrating entry level role runs straight through AI, even if they resent how others use it.
Secrecy, stigma, and the quiet AI arms race
One reason the debate feels so charged is that much of Gen Z’s AI use is still happening in the shadows. Corporate surveys show that for digital natives like Gen Z and Millennials, AI usage has become commonplace in their lives, especially through consumer apps, but they are often reluctant to tell their managers they are using these tools for work. A report from ATLANTA, GA described how Gen and Millennials embrace AI or software for work purposes but often avoid disclosing that fact, worried it will be seen as cheating rather than initiative. That secrecy feeds the perception that some colleagues are quietly cutting corners, even when they may simply be trying to keep up.
At the same time, there is a broader cultural backlash brewing around AI that shapes how Gen Z talks about it. Commentators have argued that AI backlash has reached a tipping point, describing a growing unease with automation that is no longer confined to niche tech circles, a sentiment captured in a video titled Jan. For young workers, that wider skepticism can make it feel safer to criticize AI addicted coworkers than to admit how often they themselves rely on tools like Midjourney for mockups or Claude for research summaries.
What the “dumb and lazy” debate reveals about the future of work
Underneath the snark about lazy coworkers is a serious question about how skills will be built in an AI saturated workplace. Researchers who study Gen Z argue that Making sense of Gen Z’s fraught feelings toward AI requires seeing them as the first cohort to enter offices where generative tools are already embedded in workflows, a point underscored in Gen. If entry level analysts never have to build a financial model from scratch because a bot can do it, or junior marketers never write a first draft without AI, managers will need new ways to ensure those employees still develop judgment and domain expertise.
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