Something flipped in four years, and it flipped in one specific age bracket. In 2021, adults under 30 were the most AI-optimistic group Pew Research Center tracked, with a quarter more excited than concerned about the technology entering daily life. By June 2026, that share had fallen to 11%, and 55% of the same cohort said they were more concerned than excited, the first time a majority of adults under 30 landed on that side of the question.

That crossover closes a gap enterprise recruiting has counted on for years. The logic behind putting junior staff first in line for agentic tools was simple: employees who grew up with the technology would trust it fastest and complain least. Pew's June 2026 survey of 3,488 U.S. adults says the logic no longer holds (Pew Research Center, 2026). Adults under 30 are now about as concerned as adults in their 30s and 40s, and close behind adults over 65, who remain the most skeptical age group in the country.

The Youngest Adults Caught Up to Everyone Else's Worry

Overall concern climbed from 37% in 2021 to 52% in 2026, while excitement fell from 18% to 9% over the same stretch (Pew Research Center, 2026). Adults 30 and older did most of that climbing early. Their worry jumped in 2022 and 2023, then flattened. Adults under 30 moved on a different schedule. Their concern kept rising through 2025 and into 2026, erasing a gap that had separated the youngest adults from every other age group since Pew started asking the question.

The timing lines up with two years of headlines about entry-level hiring freezes attributed to AI.

Job Loss Fear Erased What Was Left of the Age Gap

Job loss concern shows the sharpest version of the shift. Seventy-one percent of U.S. adults now think AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years, up from 64% in 2024 (Pew Research Center, 2026). Adults under 30 moved the most of any group, from 61% to 73% in two years. That puts them essentially level with adults 30 to 64, who sit between 72% and 74%. Adults 65 and older trail at 63%, the only group still meaningfully behind.

For a CIO staffing an agentic rollout with the newest hires on the team, these numbers describe a workforce that no longer assumes AI adds headcount. It assumes AI removes it, at almost the same rate their managers do.

Chatbot Use and Chatbot Trust Are Different Numbers

Chatbot adoption among adults under 30 outpaces every other age bracket, a fact enterprises cite often when justifying AI rollouts aimed at younger staff. Usage and trust point in different directions. Pew's broader 2026 research on chatbots found that adults under 30 are just as likely to say chatbots hurt their own creativity as to say the tools help it, a split no older age group shows (Pew Research Center, 2026). You can staff a rollout with your heaviest chatbot users and still be staffing it with people who doubt the tool improves their own work.

What Happens Next

Three questions follow from where this trend sits today. Does entry-level hiring data over the next two years confirm what under-30 respondents already expect, or does it stay flat enough to ease the fear. Does internal AI training start addressing job security directly, instead of only tool proficiency, once the group running the tools is also the group most worried about being replaced by them. And does this skepticism soften as the cohort ages into management, the way older generations' concern plateaued after an initial rise, or does it harden into a permanent baseline for a generation that watched the shift happen at the start of its career.