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Majority Of Young Americans See AI As A Job Threat, Harvard Poll Finds

04:15 AM, 12/05/2025

The Harvard Youth Poll reports that 59% of Americans aged 18–29 view AI as a threat to their job prospects, with 26% seeing it as a major threat and 33% as a minor one. Despite these concerns, 35% regularly use large language models like ChatGPT and Claude, and 52% trust AI to help with assignments. Many young adults are pessimistic about AI’s broader impact: 41% expect it will make work less meaningful and 44% believe it will take away opportunities. The poll surveyed 2,040 respondents (Nov. 3–7) with a ±2.94% margin of error.

Young Adults Worry AI Will Hurt Their Career Prospects

A new Harvard Youth Poll finds that a clear majority of Americans aged 18–29 view artificial intelligence as a threat to their future employment. Overall, 59% of respondents said AI poses either a major or minor threat to their job prospects — including 26% who called it a major threat and 33% who called it a minor threat. Just 23% said AI poses no threat.

The poll measured concerns about AI relative to other perceived risks: 48% of respondents said outsourcing threatened their job prospects and 31% pointed to immigration.

Adoption and Trust: Mixed Signals

Despite widespread concern, younger Americans are already using AI tools. The survey found that 35% regularly use large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Claude, while 63% said they do not use those tools regularly. More than half — 52% — said they trust AI to help them complete work or school assignments.

Pessimism About the Future of Work

Respondents expressed notable pessimism about how AI could change the nature of work. 41% said they expect AI will make work less meaningful in the future, compared with only 14% who said it would make work more meaningful. Likewise, 44% said AI would take opportunities away from them, while 14% said it would create new opportunities.

"Younger adults appear to be balancing active use of AI tools with considerable anxiety about how those technologies will affect jobs and the meaning of work."

Survey details: The Harvard Youth Poll surveyed 2,040 Americans aged 18 to 29 between November 3 and 7. The reported margin of error was ±2.94 percentage points.

The findings highlight a generational tension: rapid adoption of AI tools alongside substantial worries about employment, workplace meaning, and future opportunities.

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