It’s 2025, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be inescapable. People utilize these bots for a wide range of tasks, from assisting with schoolwork and jobs to creating meal and workout plans. These applications seem to keep emerging everywhere: Grammarly, Google Maps, ChatGPT, and even smart refrigerators.
For teenagers, AI assistance has become an integral part of their daily lives. But how do young people genuinely feel about this AI uprising? While some say it’s the best thing that has ever happened to their lives and routines, others think it must be stopped.
According to a report titled “Teen and Young Adult Perspectives on Generative AI” by the Center for Digital Thriving, 51% of young people aged 14-22 have used AI at one point. Emma Davidson, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate, feels torn about using AI, given that she’s an artist.
”The fact that it scrapes [artistic] works and then generates new ones, which is then taken advantage of by big companies who prioritize fast, cheap work over artists’ labor … I just don’t wanna support that,” Davidson expressed.
The share of teens who report using ChatGPT for their schoolwork increased from 13% in 2023 to 26% in 2025, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17.
But if students are only using ChatGPT for answers, are they retaining any information?
“ It’s kind of like social media in that we kind of know it’s not good for us, but even the people who enjoy it … it kind of just becomes a crutch in a way,” says Davidson.
While many teens and young adults rely on AI for schoolwork, its use is also spreading into established workplaces.
Delaney Rietveld, a 28-year-old Atlanta business owner and sales copywriter, sees AI writing as just another tier of written work. “ AI-generated copy is not bad, it’s just becoming the new mediocre.”
This tier, Rietveld explains, has widened the gap between exceptional and mediocre writing. ”If you are in the camp of, like, ‘Oh, I can just have ChatGPT write this entire email sequence for me,’ and you can’t tell the difference between that and a human-written email sequence…we probably don’t run in similar circles.”
While Rietveld sees these aspects as problematic, she admits to using AI for “the business side of things.”
Haley Davidson, a 26-year-old Tampa business owner and freelancer, freely uses AI for her consulting business. She claims to have noticed a decline in the overall quality of work, but for reasons that are unexpected.
“[AI has] almost, like, shifted people’s expectations,” Davidson says.
“They think, ‘Well, if I apply to 100 jobs with these ChatGPT cover letters, why am I not getting an interview? Why am I not getting a job?’ They kind of left behind that aspect of like, ‘Let me actually put in the work to do one really good application.’”
Ultimately, she sees it fitting in the workplace if used correctly. “ My familiarity with it really helped me grow my business, especially the consulting side.” However, she does “see a huge decline in quality of work, because everyone has a perception that there’s no skill involved [in using AI].”
Teens may dismiss threats of AI in the workplace now, but as future working adults, these consequences can affect them even more than those currently in the workforce.
“ It’s taking away the jobs that are the most human, like, the things that kind of make us people,” Emma Davidson says. “Which is our ability to think and feel.”
