Girl Scout cookies may still sell themselves, but when it comes to homework help, jokes, and emotional support, young girls are letting AI do the heavy lifting. A new survey from Girl Scouts of the USA finds that AI has quietly become a fixture in the lives of girls ages 5 to 13, and most parents don’t know how intertwined it is in their daily activities.
Sixty-five percent of girls who use voice-activated assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Home say they view them as friends, according to the survey conducted by Wakefield Research in March 2026. Additionally, 62% think of AI companions or chatbots as friends. Among those girls, two-thirds have turned to AI for help when feeling sad, upset, anxious, or lonely.
Nearly half of girls (47%) believe AI is better than their parents at helping with homework, and that number jumps to 57% among Black girls. Taste in pop culture is also seen as superior: half prefer AI over their parents for song, show, or movie recommendations, and nearly as many say AI is better at entertaining them when they’re bored (48%) or telling a funny joke (48%).
Despite the ubiquitous use of AI, parents appear largely unaware of how embedded AI has become. While 51% of girls report using AI at least once a day, only 32% of parents believe their child does. Dads were slightly more accurate at 38%, compared with 28% of moms.
“Many families have been using voice assistants and AI-powered features for so long that they may no longer register them as AI,” Bonnie Barczykowski, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, told Fortune. “Girls may also encounter AI without actively seeking it out: on school-issued devices, in apps, through search engines, and in recommendation systems.”
She added: “In many cases, it is simply built into the tools and platforms they use every day.”
It also applies to emotions. Forty-four percent of parents acknowledge it’s likely their child is at least occasionally asking AI chatbots for personal guidance. Among girls who use AI, 47% have asked it for help when feeling down or anxious. And 43% of girls say they would turn to AI instead of a parent if they felt their parent was too busy to answer them.
More than half of parents (54%) say they dislike the idea of AI chatbots giving mental health advice to children and teens. Another 35% are open to the concept but skeptical.
Sixty-one percent of girls say it’s easy to tell whether what AI tells them is real or made up, with confidence peaking at 69% among girls ages 11 to 13. But only 42% have ever been taught how to evaluate whether AI-generated information is actually true. Meanwhile, 71% of parents say they’re concerned their child can’t reliably tell the difference.
More than half of parents (56%) say they don’t feel equipped to teach their children how to use AI safely. Seventy-six percent of parents use AI, including 86% of dads and 68% of moms.
Barczykowski said the findings are evidence of how wide the technological gap is between parents and their children. “This survey shows that AI is already part of many girls’ everyday lives—not just for schoolwork or entertainment, but sometimes for advice and emotional support,” she said.
“Technology can be helpful, but girls still need real-world experiences, trusted role models, and spaces where they can build confidence, resilience, and a sense of belonging.”
On the finding that girls rate AI as funnier than their fathers or more helpful with homework than their mothers, Barczykowski eased some parents’ fears, especially for those dad jokes. “These findings are less about ‘replacing’ parents and more about understanding where girls perceive AI as useful, engaging, or responsive in their daily lives.”
The survey also found that 82% of parents believe AI can be beneficial to their child in some way, and 53% see homework help as one concrete benefit, and it’s a view that was particularly strong among Hispanic parents, at 61%.
Daily AI use increases with age: 40% of girls ages 5 to 7 use it every day, compared with 56% of girls ages 8 to 10 and 60% of girls ages 11 to 13.
“As these tools become more common, that kind of grounding matters even more,” Barczykowski said.
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