AI and the Trust Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Human Connections
By Yasmin Green and Gillian Tett, Foreign Affairs, July 7, 2025
In a rapidly changing digital world, artificial intelligence (AI) and technology are reshaping the ways humans connect and place trust in one another. This evolving dynamic, described as a “trust revolution,” highlights how younger generations, particularly Generation Z, are navigating society’s information landscape and interpersonal relationships differently from previous generations.
Generation Z’s Unique Approach to Trust and Information
Contrary to common assumptions that young people are less media literate than their elders, research conducted by Jigsaw—Google’s technology incubator—reveals a nuanced reality about how Gen Z assesses credibility online. Typically defined as those born between 1997 and 2012, this cohort has developed distinctive strategies for evaluating news and information.
Instead of reading an article front to back, Gen Z users typically scan headlines first, then jump to the comments section before reading the full story. This approach reflects their skepticism toward traditional authorities and editorial gatekeepers. Instead of trusting experts or institutions by default, they turn to peer opinions—represented by the often anonymous online crowd—to determine trustworthiness.
AI’s Growing Role in Human Trust
Following the launch of AI chatbots like ChatGPT in 2023, Jigsaw conducted studies on how young people in the United States and India use AI. The findings showed that Gen Z frequently consults AI for advice on sensitive topics such as health, relationships, and financial decisions. They find AI particularly appealing because it is readily accessible, nonjudgmental, and responsive to personal needs. In many instances, respondents judged AI advice to surpass human counsel.
Further underscoring this shift, a global survey by consulting firm Oliver Wyman found that 39% of Gen Z workers worldwide would prefer an AI colleague or manager over a human counterpart. In the United States, 36% of Gen Z employees expressed this preference, with a quarter of all U.S. workers sharing the sentiment. These findings challenge traditional ideas about the primacy of human interaction in workplaces and beyond.
Rethinking Trust: From Institutions to the Crowd
Today’s widespread narrative laments the erosion of trust in societal institutions. For example, only 2% of Americans currently express trust in Congress, a steep drop from 77% six decades ago. Trust in the media has also declined sharply, from 55% in 1999 to just 32% today. Such statistics have led many to conclude that modern society is united only by widespread distrust.
However, this narrative captures only part of the story. While traditional polling shows diminished faith in authority figures and formal institutions, ethnographic and anthropological studies reveal that trust has not disappeared; it has simply migrated.
Technological innovations have shifted trust away from vertical structures (governments, religious bodies, editorial authorities) and toward horizontal, peer-based networks. The internet enables "distributed trust," where people rely on large-scale, peer-to-peer interactions facilitated by digital platforms rather than personal relationships or institutional endorsements.
The Evolution of Trust: Eye-Contact, Vertical, and Distributed
Trust has been considered a fundamental human need that underpins social cohesion, democracy, and economic exchange. Traditionally, trust operated primarily at two levels:
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Eye-contact trust: Direct, personal trust based on face-to-face relationships, typically binding small communities or groups.
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Vertical trust: Trust extended to institutions and authorities that govern large, complex societies by enforcing norms and rules.
With the advent of digital technology, a third form—distributed trust—has emerged. This type allows individuals to coordinate with strangers and groups at scale, enabled by digital tools that do not require face-to-face interaction. Examples include using Uber for rides, Airbnb for lodging, multiplayer games like Fortnite, and online dating platforms like Match.com.
Though critics raise concerns about the risks of fake identities and lack of centralized regulation online, mechanisms such as peer reviews, social media profiles, and community oversight help build this new form of trust.
The Double-Edged Sword of AI-Fueled Trust
While the migration of trust toward AI and the crowd offers novel opportunities, it also carries risks. Intensive AI use has been linked with diminished well-being and increased emotional dependency, especially among socially isolated users.
Nonetheless, there is a hopeful perspective: many in Gen Z view trusting AI tools as no more risky—and sometimes less risky—than trusting traditional human authorities. If AI systems are thoughtfully designed and regulated, they could foster healthier interpersonal dynamics, mediate conflicts among polarized groups, and effectively counter misinformation more reliably than conventional authority figures.
The challenge for policymakers, technologists, and society at large is to understand this shifting trust paradigm and create AI tools and policies that accommodate and enhance these new modes of human connection.
Conclusion: Embracing the Trust Revolution
The trust revolution signaled by AI and digital technologies is transforming the very fabric of human relationships and societal cohesion. While older generations may perceive these changes with skepticism, ignoring the evolving preferences and behaviors of younger generations would be unwise.
As the nature of trust migrates from institutions to crowds and AI intermediaries, embracing this transformation thoughtfully can ensure that technology supplements rather than undermines social bonds in the digital age.
Yasmin Green is CEO of Jigsaw, Google’s technology incubator, and Co-Chair of the Aspen Cybersecurity Group. Gillian Tett serves as Provost of King’s College Cambridge and is a columnist at the Financial Times.
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