Two new surveys on teenagers and AI were published this week, and together they tell a story that’s more nuanced and more useful than most of the coverage around children and artificial intelligence.

The research comes from two separate nationally representative studies: one from Pew Research Center, surveying 1,458 teenagers and their parents, and one from Surgo Health and Young Futures, surveying 1,340 young people aged 13 to 24. Both are methodologically rigorous. And both point to the same pattern.

How much are teenagers actually using AI?

More than most parents think.

Around 3 in 10 teenagers use AI daily. Nearly half of those who are aware of AI use it at least weekly. The top uses are getting information and help with schoolwork. Straightforward enough.

But there’s a gap: 51% of parents in the Pew data believe their teenager has used AI. 64% of teenagers say they actually have. That’s not a small discrepancy. It means roughly one in four teenagers using AI has a parent who doesn’t know about it.

This isn’t necessarily cause for alarm, most of that use is for homework and information, not anything more concerning. But it does suggest that parents who think they have a clear picture of their child’s AI use may be working with incomplete information.

The six types of teenage AI user

One of the most useful outputs from the Surgo Health research is a framework that segments young people into six distinct AI user types, based on how and why they use it. Understanding which type your child might be is more useful than knowing whether they use AI at all.

Low-Use Anxious Skeptics (10%) — Distrustful of AI, keep their distance due to uncertainty and fear of change. Not engaging much, and choosing not to.

Thriving Light-Touch Pragmatists (32%) — The largest group. Well-supported, use AI occasionally and practically, maintain a healthy arms-length relationship with it. These are the teenagers using AI as a tool rather than a companion.

Emotionally Entangled Superusers (9%) — Emotionally vulnerable, using AI for connection and coping when offline support is limited. Heavy users, and using it in ways that raise questions.

Worried Strivers (7%) — High-pressured and anxious about AI’s role in their future. Use it, but with significant anxiety about what it means.

Curious Low-Concern Learners (10%) — Confident, socially grounded, using AI to explore and learn. These teenagers seem well-placed to use AI productively.

High-Hope, High-Use Skill-Builders (10%) — Optimistic power-users who feel AI is opening doors. Engaged and positive.

Surgo Health has published a short quiz that helps identify which type a young person might be. It takes about five minutes and is worth doing with your teenager if they’re willing — it opens a more specific conversation than “how much are you using AI?”

The finding that matters most

The research finding that deserves the most attention is this one: the teenagers most likely to be using AI for emotional support — for conversation, connection, and coping — are those with the lowest levels of offline support. Kids who have been bullied. Kids who face discrimination. Kids who don’t have trusted adults or peers to turn to.

It’s the same pattern that emerged with social media. Platforms don’t create vulnerability in young people, they find it. The teenagers who were already struggling were the ones most likely to develop problematic relationships with Instagram or TikTok. The same is now showing up in the AI data.

This matters for how parents think about the question. The instinct when we hear “teenagers are using AI for emotional support” is often to say: tell them to stop, talk to a real person instead. But for the teenagers most likely to be doing this, that advice assumes the real person is available and accessible. For some of them, the AI is filling a gap that isn’t easily filled another way.

That doesn’t mean AI companionship is harmless or equivalent to human connection. But it does mean the solution isn’t simply to restrict AI use. It means asking what’s missing from their offline life, and why.

The schoolwork question

1 in 10 teenagers say they use AI for all or most of their schoolwork. 44% use it for some or a little. Only 45% say they don’t use it for schoolwork at all.

Parents are more comfortable with schoolwork use than emotional support use, according to the Pew data. But researchers suggest the academic reliance question may be equally significant and is currently less visible to both parents and schools.

The teenagers most likely to be using AI heavily for schoolwork, the research suggests, are those already struggling academically. Again, the technology is finding the vulnerability rather than creating it.

The practical question this raises isn’t “should teenagers use AI for schoolwork” as that ship has largely sailed. It’s whether the teenagers using it most heavily have the academic support they need, and whether they understand when and why it’s appropriate to use it. Most schools don’t yet have a clear policy that teenagers themselves understand. That’s a gap worth closing.

What this means for your family

The most useful question isn’t “is my teenager using AI”, it’s what are they using it for, and is it filling a gap that should be filled differently.

If your teenager is in the Thriving Light-Touch Pragmatist category — using AI occasionally, for specific tasks, from a position of social confidence — there’s not much to worry about. If they’re spending significant time in conversation with an AI, using it as a primary source of advice or support, that’s worth understanding more deeply. Not as a reason to take it away, but as a signal about what might be missing elsewhere.

The quiz is available at surgohealth.com. The full Pew report and Surgo Health report are both publicly available for anyone who wants the complete data.

Sources: Pew Research Center, February 2026; Surgo Health & Young Futures, March 2026. Research summary via Techno Sapiens.

Every Thursday, Wired Parents covers what’s happening in children’s technology and what it means for the decisions you’re facing.