SCB EIC reveals that Gen Z is starting to worry about AI taking over jobs and reducing income.

SCB EIC indicates that younger generations, especially Gen Z, are beginning to worry about AI replacing jobs and reducing income. The report reveals that 72% of Thais have used AI, primarily for free, and found that they use it to find travel information but don't trust AI for fortune telling.

Punyapop Tantipitak, Senior Analyst Economic and Business Research Center (SCB EIC) Research findings revealed. Unlocking a new perspective on the digital lifestyle of Thai consumers in the Gen AI era. The rapid development of digital technology and Generative AI (Gen AI) is currently playing a significant role in continuously transforming the daily behavior of Thai consumers.

Digital technology and Generative AI (Gen AI) have become an integral part of Thai consumers' daily lives, influencing their perception and access to information, purchasing decisions, and even their learning and working styles. This is reflected in the expansion of Thailand's digital economy, which has grown by almost 20% annually over the past three years. Therefore, SCB EIC conducted a consumer survey titled "When Life Goes Digital: How Does Digital Technology Affect Your Life?" to reflect the changing behavior of Thai consumers in relation to digital technology and Gen AI, and to assess the implications for business strategies.

The survey results can be summarized into five key points as follows:

1. Thai consumers have a relatively high rate of digital technology adoption, especially basic digital technologies. While the use of newer, more complex technologies remains limited in some groups, there is a growing trend of openness and experimentation.

Thai consumers have a high proportion of ownership of basic digital technology devices, particularly smartphones, laptop computers, tablets, and smartwatches, in that order. While the more complex smart home devices and electric vehicles have limited usage, they are gaining increasing interest. This aligns with Euromonitor's data on Thai electronics and home appliance spending, valued at approximately 3.86 billion baht in 2025, and projected to grow at an average rate of 4.5% per year until 2030. Furthermore, learning to use new devices or applications is not a significant obstacle for Thai consumers, even among the Baby Boomer generation (ages 61 and older). Three key factors driving technological experimentation are convenience, value for money, and safety. Baby Boomers prioritize safety and reliability more than other groups, while Gen Z (ages 13-26) prioritizes trends over technology.

2. The digital technology usage behavior of Thai consumers is increasingly divergeing across generations, both in terms of the devices they choose and the main applications they use in their daily lives.

Consumer choices in digital technology are increasingly divergeing across age groups. Besides smartphones as the primary device, Gen Z favors tablets more than other groups, while Gen Y (27-45 years old) and Gen X (46-60 years old) still use computers/notebooks, as well as smartwatches and smart home devices. In terms of applications, over 80% of consumers use social media, finance, and both long and short videos daily. Social media remains popular across all age groups, while finance apps are particularly prevalent among Gen Y and Gen X. Video viewing habits are also divergeing, with Gen Z preferring both short and long videos, while Gen Y favors short videos more than other groups. Due to time constraints, Baby boomers also show a relatively high interest in longer videos because of the viewing experience similar to television and easy accessibility via Smart TVs. The next most used apps are e-commerce and Gen AI, with nearly 50% of consumers using them daily, except for Baby boomers who use them relatively less. Furthermore, the top three most used apps among Gen Z differ from other groups; Gen Z prefers Instagram, LINE, and TikTok, while Gen Y and Baby boomers primarily use LINE, Facebook, and YouTube.

3. Thai consumers are increasingly using Gen AI, but the proportion of subscribers is still not very high.

Over 72% of consumers have used Gen AI, and around 30% use it regularly. This reflects the expanding use of Gen AI among everyday users, particularly Gen Z and Gen Y, who have a higher rate of regular use than other groups. This aligns with the global trend of high Gen AI usage, as reported by We Are Social, a digital marketing agency, and Meltwater, a developer of online media analytics software, in April 2026. On average, most Thai consumers use two Gen AI applications. However, Gen AI subscriptions still account for only 30%, with most users spending between 500-1,000 baht per month.

4. Gen AI is increasingly becoming a decision-making assistant for Thai consumers, but the level of trust in the results varies depending on the type of issue.

Overall, approximately 44% of Thai consumers trust the information received from Gen AI, a proportion similar to the 43% who are hesitant or indifferent to the information. Only 13% do not trust Gen AI information, with Gen Y showing a higher tendency to trust the results than other groups, as shown in Figure 9. Furthermore, an analysis of trust in Gen AI's results reveals varying levels of trust across different areas. Consumers tend to trust travel-related information the most, possibly due to Gen AI's ability to collect and summarize vast amounts of online travel data, efficiently compare information, and deliver positive results when used. This is followed by education and work-related areas, where Gen AI acts as an assistant in finding information, analyzing it, and allowing for additional questions. Gen Z and Gen Y show relatively high trust in this area. Next are food, health, and fitness, where trust levels are similar, with Gen AI acting as a fairly good advisor on lifestyle and health-related information.

Conversely, trust in Gen AI is declining in areas related to shopping and finance, as these matters rely on expert information and experience. Expert reviews are constantly being released; for example, in shopping, consumers can follow information from e-commerce platforms and influencer reviews of products. In finance, however, expert advice remains essential due to the complexities and risks involved, requiring the highest level of reliability.

While content that consumers clearly trusted significantly less than other groups was horoscopes and gambling, this demonstrates that consumers understand Gen AI's role as a tool more suitable for providing information and analysis rather than for predicting outcomes in highly uncertain situations.

5. In the workplace, Gen AI is becoming a key tool for increasing efficiency, while at the same time raising concerns about job security.

Gen AI has helped enhance learning and work efficiency in many areas. Overall, over 60% of consumers believe Gen AI has a clear positive impact on their work, with nearly 70% stating that Gen AI helps generate new ideas and reduces work time, followed by an improvement in work quality.

Nearly 65% ​​of consumers believe that.
This has a positive impact, reflecting the fact that Gen AI is being used as a tool to enhance work efficiency, including research, data summarization, content drafting, preliminary analysis, and developing ideas in tasks requiring creativity or processing large amounts of data.

However, the impact of Gen AI on the world of work is not entirely positive, particularly in terms of income and job security. In terms of income...

Over 56% of consumers believe that Gen AI is not contributing to increased income. Additionally, 14% believe it has a negative impact on revenue, partly due to the use of AI to streamline processes or replace existing ones.

This can lead to reduced or lost income. Meanwhile, in terms of job security, approximately 24% of consumers believe that Gen AI is already negatively impacting job security, as it may change the structure of jobs, the skills the market demands, and job security in the future.

This issue is particularly concerning among Gen Z, who, while believing that AI significantly improves learning and work efficiency, are also more aware of the negative impacts of AI on various aspects of work than other groups, especially on income and job security.

As Gen Z is at the beginning of their career path entering the labor market, they may worry about whether their existing skills are competitive in the job market as AI increasingly replaces humans.

Furthermore, when analyzing the impact of Gen AI on consumers in each occupation through two key dimensions: 1. Concerns about job security and 2. Improvements in work efficiency, occupations can be divided into four main groups as follows:

1. Occupations where Gen AI significantly improves efficiency also raise significant concerns about job security.

For example, in finance, technology, and marketing, Gen AI can assist in many aspects of the work.

From data analysis and report writing to summarizing key points, content creation, campaign planning, and even code or system development, users clearly see the benefits of Gen AI. However, the increasing capabilities of Gen AI to assist with tasks also make this group more aware of the risk that certain types of work may be replaced, de-emphasized, or have their roles altered more than other groups.

2. Occupations where Gen AI provides moderate but not highly improved performance, are facing significant concerns about job security.

Examples include freelance riders and independent artists.

Currently, Gen AI may not be able to directly replace the specific tasks of this group, as they still require specialized skills, work context, or individual creativity.

However, advances in Gen AI and future digital technologies may replace, transform, and increase competition, leading this group to have significant concerns about job security.

3. Occupational groups where Gen AI significantly improves work efficiency, but concerns about job security remain low.

For example, in engineering, construction, and science, Gen AI can better support data analysis, design, computation, summarization, and technical documentation. However, the nature of the work still relies on specialized expertise, field experience, professional decision-making, and accountability for actual results. Therefore, this group views Gen AI as a tool to enhance capabilities rather than a direct replacement.

4. Occupational groups where Gen AI is still showing moderate but not high performance compared to other groups, and which also pose low concerns about job security.

For example, doctors and retail/online businesses, because the value of their work still relies on specialized expertise, decision-making, responsibility towards patients or customer relationships, and adaptability to real-world situations, Gen AI is more likely to be a technology that enhances work rather than replaces it.

Strategies for entrepreneurs to adapt in order to reach and meet the needs of consumers in the digital age.

Based on the five key findings from the SCB EIC Consumer survey, "When Life Goes Digital: How Does Digital Technology Impact Your Life?", businesses can further develop these into three strategic approaches:

1. Businesses should adapt their access channels and communication methods to align with the digital behavior of each generation.

Taking into account both the primary devices and applications that consumers of each generation actually use, the digital journey differs for each group. For example, Gen Z prefers text messaging, is interested in both short and long content, and enjoys reviews from creators, using platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
As for primary channels, Gen Y and Gen X still heavily utilize computers/notebooks and platforms like Facebook, LINE, and YouTube in their daily lives, making them suitable for providing detailed information. While Baby Boomers use digital technology more, they still prioritize phone calls. Therefore, it's advisable to focus on familiar channels like LINE and Facebook.
And YouTube, along with others, is creating a simple, safe, easy-to-read, and straightforward experience.
And with human support available when needed, therefore, communication in the digital journey must be appropriate for each generation.
This will help us reach our target customers more effectively.

2. Enhancing the completeness, accuracy, and regular updating of online product and service information to support the role of Gen AI as a consumer decision-making assistant.

As consumers increasingly use Gen AI as an assistant to find information, compare products, and make informed decisions.

Therefore, businesses should not view websites or digital channels as merely online storefronts, but should develop them into a primary source of reliable information. This requires providing complete, accurate, and regularly updated information about products and services in a format that is easily accessible and usable by both consumers and AI tools. This includes details such as product descriptions, prices, frequently asked questions, user reviews, return policies, and contact information for handling problems.

Providing clear and systematic information will increase the chances that Gen AI can extract accurate information from company sources to answer consumer questions or recommend products, instead of relying on other sources that may be incomplete or outdated.

This also includes supporting the future emergence of autonomous e-commerce, where AI will act as a purchasing agent for consumers. Furthermore, businesses could develop store-specific AI assistants that allow customers to ask questions to aid in their purchasing decisions.

3. Adapting work processes to fully utilize the potential of Gen AI.

The survey results show that most users believe that Gen AI has clearly helped to improve work efficiency, especially in terms of idea generation, research and data summarization, as well as reducing work time.

However, businesses should not view Gen AI as merely a supplementary tool, but rather review and redesign their workflows to utilize Gen AI as an assistant in tasks related to data discovery, processing, and management.

While it may be necessary to shift personnel allocation to monitoring, decision-making, solving complex problems, and performing tasks that AI cannot yet replace, this aligns with the World Economic Forum's report suggesting organizations transition to an AI-First Operating System.

By using AI as the core of operations, decision-making, and innovation, instead of the current organizational approach where AI is mostly used to enhance capabilities within existing core structures (AI-Enabled).

Furthermore, organizations should establish clear AI governance guidelines, covering aspects such as the types of data that can be used with AI, the appropriate scope of use, and processes for validating results before deployment.

This is especially important in roles involving customer service, finance, legal matters, or critical organizational data, to fully leverage AI while managing potential long-term risks.

Furthermore, governments in many countries around the world are playing a crucial role in encouraging businesses and the general public to adopt AI more widely.

For example, Singapore updated its National AI Strategy 2.0 in May 2026 to promote the use of AI to improve efficiency and enhance government services, while the United Kingdom launched the BridgeAI project to help businesses more easily adopt AI in practice.

In Thailand, the government is playing an increasingly important role in promoting the use of Gen AI at both the organizational and individual levels. This will help improve the operational efficiency of Thai businesses, develop the capabilities of human resources, and enhance the country's competitiveness in the future.