SINGAPORE: It’s the generation often assumed to be the most tech-savvy, yet a new AsiaOne survey suggests Singaporeans under 35 are actually the least enthusiastic about using generative AI, both at work and in their personal lives.
For 27-year-old executive assistant Zety, who declined to give her real name, the issue isn’t a lack of access to AI tools but a question of efficiency. While AI can automate routine tasks and draft emails, she says the time spent fact-checking and refining AI-generated text often ends up exceeding the time it would have taken to simply do the task manually.
Anirudh, a 27-year-old doctor, shares a similar scepticism, telling AsiaOne that he avoids AI because the accuracy of generated information tends to be poor and lacking in nuance. He also raised a deeper concern: relying on AI removes the process of critical thinking and problem-solving altogether, particularly for students who lean on AI to complete assignments instead of doing their own research and applying classroom concepts.
The numbers behind the scepticism
AsiaOne’s survey, which polled 1,347 Singaporeans between Dec 30, 2025 and Feb 10 this year, found that views like Zety’s and Anirudh’s are far from isolated. Working respondents under 35 were the least likely of any age group to use GenAI at work, with only 55% doing so at least weekly, compared to 69% among those aged 35 to 54, and 64% among those above 55.
Almost four in 10 working respondents under 35 (39%) reported not using GenAI in their jobs at all, a stark contrast to the other two age groups, where over eight in ten use GenAI to some extent.
The pattern holds outside the workplace, too. Nearly 40% of respondents under 35 said they don’t use GenAI at all in their personal lives, compared to 18% among those aged 35 to 54 and 27% among those above 55. Among the younger respondents who do use GenAI personally, it’s mostly for learning, advice, writing, research, or planning trips and events, with a majority of those under 25 also using it for academic study.
The exceptions that do embrace AI
Not every young adult fits the pattern. Wen, a 27-year-old product manager, is among the minority who actively use AI in her personal life, describing her use of Anthropic’s Claude chatbot as akin to having “a personal consultant for everyday questions.” She adds that it helps her in doing multiple tasks, from generating financial market research to figuring out how to clean coffee stains off her bag.
Even so, Wen says she remains conscious of the risks of overdependence, making a deliberate effort to avoid using AI for “overly simple tasks.”
Why so many young Singaporeans are wary
Beyond personal efficiency concerns, many young respondents expressed worry about AI’s broader impact on thinking, creativity, and society. Using a “net impact score,” averaging responses on a five-point scale from +2 (most positive) to -2 (most negative), the survey found that those under 35 rated AI’s impact on individual thinking and reasoning at -0.75, in sharp contrast to the positive scores given by those above 35.
Zety argued that students should be relying on their own cognitive skills to learn, rather than letting AI feed them answers. Louise, a 24-year-old corporate concierge, echoed this, suggesting that many students see GenAI as an easy shortcut and that overuse is making people “lazier” overall.
Louise also raised environmental concerns, pointing to the significant energy and water demands of AI data centres, particularly when GenAI is used for trivial tasks that could just as easily be handled with a basic search engine.
The scepticism extends to creative fields as well. Under-35s gave AI’s impact on arts and culture a net score of -0.94, compared to a positive 0.41 among those 55 and above. Anirudh argued that while AI’s democratisation of art-making can be valuable, it shifts creative power into the hands of “tech people” rather than artists. Zety added that GenAI lacks the ability to genuinely understand or express human emotion, a significant limitation for tasks like copywriting or art creation.
Reddit weighs in
The findings also sparked discussion on Reddit, where commenters offered their own theories on why young Singaporeans seem so resistant to AI adoption. One commenter framed the divide in terms of who benefits and who doesn’t: “AI make the smart people smarter, dumb people dumber. Problem is you don’t know which one are you.”
Another questioned the timing and motivation behind Singapore’s national AI push altogether, suggesting the country may already be playing catch-up: “Don’t understand why the sudden nationwide AI push where global AI growth is already in tail-end. We already missed the boat by 5 years.”
Some commenters offered a more pointed explanation for youth scepticism, suggesting it stems from fear rather than principle. “It’s because they fear it will replace them, so they don’t want to engage in something that will make them obsolete,” one user wrote. “This behaviour, ironically, will make them obsolete, regardless if it is AI adoption or anything else.”
Others pushed back on the survey’s framing entirely, arguing that AI use among young people is more widespread than the numbers suggest, just not always openly admitted. “Don’t bluff lor, I see a lot using on email reply. Some even crazy ones go subscribe and pay, I mean there [are] a lot of free ones,” one commenter remarked.
The road ahead
The adoption of AI technology has become an inevitability at this point. The perception of those who responded to AsiaOne’s survey may reflect the opinions of only a select few, but they do bring up core issues that may ultimately worsen if left unresolved. The environmental repercussions, the intellectual decay, and even the negative impact on creativity are some of the concerns that policymakers and educators may need to grapple with, even as the push for adoption continues at a national level.
Whether these concerns fade as AI tools mature and improve in reliability, or whether they harden into a generational divide in how Singaporeans relate to the technology, may ultimately depend on how seriously these worries are taken in the years ahead.
