The Generation Leading the GenAI Craze Isn’t Who You Think

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It seems natural to assume that the youngest technology-using generation, Gen Z, is leading the Generative AI revolution. They’re young. They’re online. They’re digitally fluent. Swiping and scrolling have been a part of their story since the beginning.

But Gen Z is not leading the GenAI craze.

The winners of the GenAI race? Well, mounting data shows that Millennials, not Gen Z, are embracing GenAI at the fastest and deepest levels. This may seem counterintuitive at first, but if we step back and understand the generational psychology at play, it begins to make sense.

Let’s Get Reacquainted with the Millennials

Millennials, born roughly between 1981 and 1996, are no longer the fresh-faced interns we once imagined them to be. Much to my chagrin (as a Millennial), I think that “M” label often gets ascribed to the freshest batch of graduates each year.

But in reality, true Millennials are 29 to 44 years old. Many are now the movers and shakers inside organizations. They are instrumental to strategic projects, building teams, and shaping workplace culture. They are defining the rules for the workplace and are quickly becoming the ones responsible for purchasing decisions and change initiatives (including software and new technology).

According to Barna Group’s 2024 report on generations and AI, 43% of Millennials use AI tools weekly, the highest of any generation (Barna, 2024). That number outpaces Gen Z (37%), Gen X (31%), and Boomers (19%).

A 2025 McKinsey study echoes this, identifying Millennials as the most optimistic and proactive about GenAI at work, describing them as a "superagency" generation eager to integrate AI into workflows (McKinsey & Company, 2025).

Millennials are by far the most likely generation to embrace technological change. Why? Well, Millennials didn’t just witness change; they lived it.

Think about it: as kids and teens, we started with black-and-white Nokia bricks and that game of Snake, which I miss playing. They knew T9 texting, graduated to RAZR flip phones, and eventually embraced the iPhone era. They went from dial-up screeches to Wi-Fi, and now to fiber. They saw the internet morph from Ask Jeeves to Google Search and now to generative AI. They weren’t born into current technology; they grew up in tandem with the mobile and internet boom.

That adaptive spirit is exactly why Millennials are at the forefront of GenAI adoption.

Gen Z: Curious, Cautious, and Constrained

When trying to understand generations, it is important that if something disproves our natural hypothesis, we must understand why. In this case, when it seems natural to assume that Gen Z is the most likely to use GenAI and they actually aren’t, we must figure out why that is the case.

Gen Z’s relationship with technology is complicated. They are digital natives, born into a connected world. But that native fluency can also breed fatigue. Rather than rushing to embrace GenAI, many Gen Zers are hesitating and for reasons backed by real-world experience and emerging research.

First, Gen Z hasn’t had to navigate technological shifts like the Millennials did. Instead Gen Z was born into broadband, smartphones, and social media. A 2024 Pew study found that while 79% of U.S. teens had heard of ChatGPT, only about 26% had used it for schoolwork, suggesting exposure doesn’t always translate into adoption (Pew Research Center, 2024).

Second, Gen Z places a high value on authenticity. According to Deloitte’s 2023 Gen Z Trends report, younger workers consistently rank “transparency” and “realness” among their top workplace priorities. That value can clash with a technology known for generating synthetic content from fake essays to deepfake videos and a myriad of other fake content.

Third, they are skeptical of institutions. A 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer showed Gen Z had the lowest institutional trust of any generation surveyed, particularly in tech companies and media. Part of this is likely due to their age and stage and I don’t want to dismiss that, but the low trust scores should raise alarms.

Fourth, and perhaps most critically, they have seen firsthand the risks of emerging tech. Gen Z has grown up with cyberbullying, algorithm-driven echo chambers, and the rise of deepfake pornography. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, 90% of deepfake porn targets are women, with most videos being non-consensual and AI-generated. This isn’t theory. This is their lived experience.

No wonder, then, that the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University found a broad consensus across age groups that GenAI could negatively affect empathy, moral judgment, individual agency, and purpose in life. But younger adults were especially attuned to these risks (Elon University & RTI International, 2025). You can view that whole study here.

Why Millennials Are Leaning In

If Gen Z is approaching AI with caution, Millennials are moving with curiosity and confidence. That confidence is rooted in experience with new and emerging tech.

They are used to onboarding new tools, often without instruction manuals. This is the generation that figured out Photoshop, WordPress, and Myspace coding on their own. GenAI isn’t a disruption, it’s a continuation.

They are also driven by convenience. As a generation that brought to life the gig economy and normalized remote work, Millennials love tools that save time and simplify tasks. GenAI aligns perfectly with their "work smarter, not harder" mantra.

They are in a life stage defined by building: careers, families, and businesses. The average Millennial is in their mid 30s to early 40s, right around the age when leaders like Marc Benioff (founded Salesforce at age 34), Reed Hastings (co-founded Netflix at age 37), and Eric Yuan (founded Zoom at age 41) launched companies that would redefine industries. The timing and stage of life are significant as the entrepreneurial drive is strong.

And as Jean Twenge argues in Generations, Millennials consistently rank highest in self-esteem and optimism about their abilities (Twenge, 2023). That confidence makes them more likely to explore and trust emerging tech, especially when the perceived ROI is high.

What the Data Tells Us

The narrative may be Gen Z = AI. But the data tells a more nuanced story.

A 2025 Pew Research Center study found that while 58% of U.S. adults under 30 had tried ChatGPT, only 34% used it regularly. Trying AI often means experimentation without integration. It is more the curious observer rather than someone looking to implement GenAI into their workflows. Regular use indicates a deeper commitment.

Among Millennials (ages 30–49), 43% use AI tools weekly. This is the highest of any generation (Barna, 2024). They aren't just testing new tech, they're adopting it and integrating it into their daily lives. They're baking GenAI into routines, projects, and performance.

Gen X isn’t far behind. Despite being mostly overlooked in popular narratives, 31% of Gen Xers report weekly AI use. That figure puts them well ahead of Boomers and not far behind Millennials. Gen X, after all, were mid-career when most of this technology emerged. They're seasoned users, even if they aren't shouting it from the rooftops.

At the bottom of the curve: Boomers. Just 10% of Americans 65 and older report ever using ChatGPT (Pew, 2025).

And while usage is one thing, mindset matters too. McKinsey found that Millennials were the most likely generation to report positive outcomes from AI in the workplace. More importantly, Millennials are the most likely generational cohort to advocate for GenAI’s broader integration (McKinsey & Company, 2025). Advocacy isn’t passive use. It’s leadership. It’s the belief that this matters for more than just your own convenience.

Researchers are even beginning to frame a new kind of "digital divide" in American life. It’s no longer simply about who has access to technology. It’s about who trusts it. Who experiments with it. Who sees it as a partner rather than a threat.

That line doesn’t fall where we used to think. Sometimes the youngest generations aren’t the most fluent in emerging technologies. And sometimes the so-called entitled generation becomes the engine of innovation.

Zooming Out: A Generational Lens

It’s simple to assume Gen Z is the tech-forward future. But assumptions are often shaped by surface-level narratives, not longitudinal insights.

When we zoom out, we see that Millennials have been forged in the fire of technological change. They were not born into the digital world as we know it today. They grew up as today’s tech grew up. They stumbled through changes, helped squash software bugs, adapted to UI updates, and helped build what came next. And now, they’re doing the same with GenAI.

If we want to lead well, hire wisely, and design responsibly, we must look beyond stereotypes. Generational labels consistently fail us. In this case, we must not look at the youngest person in the room for our GenAI answers. Instead, we need to look at who’s building, innovating, exploring, and experimenting. More importantly, when looking at everything through the Generational Prism, we must stop back and ask what shaped the attitudes and behaviors of each generation and what does that mean for our workplace today.

Millennials may not be the generation that invented GenAI. But they might just be the ones who normalize it, scale it, and put it to work.