Glassdoor Finds Gen Z Most Critical of Workplace AI
Glassdoor's August 2026 analysis of employer reviews found that Gen Z workers were the most critical of workplace AI, with 32.2% of AI-related comments positive, compared with 46.1% for Gen X. The analysis covered May 2025 through May 2026, when AI mentions rose 240% year over year, according to Glassdoor research and coverage by CBS News, Izvestia, and HCAMag.
Glassdoor's August workforce-sentiment analysis finds that younger employees are more critical of AI in the workplace than older workers. CBS News reports that only about one-third of Gen Z workers described AI positively, compared with 47% of Gen X workers; Izvestia, citing Bloomberg's coverage of the research, reported the corresponding figures as 32.2% and 46.1%.
The findings run counter to a common assumption that younger employees are uniformly more optimistic about workplace technology. "This was surprising, because generally we expect younger workers to be more comfortable and optimistic about technology," Glassdoor senior economist Chris Martin told CBS News.
Review data show worsening AI sentiment
HCAMag reports that Glassdoor tracked AI mentions in employer reviews between May 2025 and May 2026. Such mentions increased 240% year over year. It reported that 43% of AI-related reviews were positive in 2026, down from 81% in 2019, while 53% of current AI comments appeared in the "cons" section of reviews.
According to Allwork.Space, fear of job replacement appeared in 20% of detailed negative AI comments. Other cited concerns included mandatory use of AI tools, 14%; a perceived diversion from core business functions or customer experience, 13%; and workplace surveillance or AI-mediated internal communications, 10%.
Glassdoor's data also linked negative AI commentary with broader employment anxiety. Allwork.Space reports that AI-critical reviews were six times more likely to mention layoffs and 3.7 times more likely to mention burnout or job insecurity. It also reported that 25% of reviews listing AI as a workplace negative mentioned layoffs.
Experience and gender divide the responses
Martin told CBS News that workers further along in their careers may treat large language models as complements to their work because they can more readily identify and discard erroneous outputs. "An expert worker can easily identify and discard those mistakes, whereas a younger or less-experienced worker may have a harder time telling legitimate facts from hallucinations," he said.
The analysis also identified a gender gap. CBS News reports that 21% of Gen Z women's AI comments were positive, versus 42% for Gen Z men. Allwork.Space reported that occupational and industry differences did not explain the Gen Z gap, and explained only about one-third of the comparable millennial gap.
At the occupation level, HCAMag reported more favorable views among company leaders, sales managers, recruiters, and data analysts, while insurance claims adjusters registered 98% negative sentiment. The outlet reported that workers whose reviews were positive about AI were 47% less likely to apply for other jobs in the following month.
For AI and data leaders, review-based sentiment is not a direct measure of model capability or actual displacement. It does, however, capture how employees experience deployment. Comparable workplace rollouts often produce stronger adoption when tools, training, review processes, and the limits of automation are visible to affected staff. Glassdoor's findings place job security, workflow control, and trust in those implementation conditions alongside the technology itself.
Key Points
- 1Glassdoor's review analysis finds Gen Z workers are least positive about workplace AI, challenging assumptions that younger employees are automatically more optimistic adopters.
- 2Negative AI comments frequently co-occurred with layoffs, burnout, and job insecurity, linking deployment sentiment to wider white-collar employment anxiety.
- 3Comparable AI rollouts often depend on training, workflow control, and human review, not solely tool availability or technical performance.
Scoring Rationale
The report offers timely evidence about workforce acceptance of AI deployment, particularly among entry-level and younger employees. It is relevant to practitioners responsible for adoption, training, evaluation, and change management, but it does not introduce a new model, product, or regulation.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
View 4 more sources
- Employee attitudes toward AI turn sharply negative: reporthcamag.com
- Workers Are Turning Against AI At Work, Especially Womenallwork.space
- Younger workers are more scared of AI than older employees, survey findscbsnews.com
- Bloomberg has learned about the fear of young people before the introduction of AI at workiz.ru
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