Consumer trust and usefulness have a greater influence than age on the adoption of artificial intelligence, as each generation finds its own reason to adopt the technology, according to Numerator.
As part of its analysis of consumer data, Numerator stated that age explains just 2% of the variation in AI acceptance.
The analysis, published in Numerator’s Generational AI Consumer Trends 2026 report, indicates:
- Gen Z is both AI’s biggest opportunity and greatest challenge. Although 77% of Gen Z consumers use AI tools, among those who don’t, 57% said they are not open to using AI in the future, the highest level of resistance of any generation. In addition, 53% said they had many reservations about AI involving concerns about environmental impact, creativity and the reliability of AI-generated information.
- Millennials are integrating AI into everyday decision-making. Although concerned about its long-term impact, 80% of Millennials use AI tools and 75% say AI improves their efficiency. Millennials are more likely to use AI to plan meals, create shopping lists, build travel itineraries, explore gift ideas, receive personalized recommendations and create budgets compared to the general population. At the same time, 49% worry AI will replace human jobs or tasks, up 11 points from July 2025.
- Gen X sees AI as a practical shopping assistant. The perspective may provide an opportunity for brands and retailers in discretionary categories. In all, 76% of Gen X consumers said they use AI tools, and they are the most willing cohort to use AI while shopping categories such as electronics, home and DIY, restaurants, grocery, apparel, health, household, and personal care and beauty.
- Boomers are adopting AI more selectively, with transparency shaping trust. In practice, 58% of Boomers said they often use AI tools built into integrated services such as Apple Intelligence and Meta AI. More than other generations, Boomers seek out tactical AI shopping use cases such as those covering price comparisons, coupons, price-drop alerts and authenticity checks. Among non-users, 66% said they have difficulty distinguishing real content from AI-generated content and 30% said they need clearer explanations about AI-generated answer creation.
