Some of the skepticism is just a reaction to the excessive hype with which generative AI has been pushed over the past few months. If you’ve seen tech hype cycles before, the hype itself can generate some skepticism. Plus there are many dubious cases where companies are shoving ChatGPT or similar into their products just so they can advertise them as “AI powered”, and these poorly thought out, marketing-driven moves deserve criticism.
It’s anecdotal but I have found that the people who are “skeptical” (to use your word) about generative AI often turn out to be financially dependent on something that generative AI can do.
That it to say, they’re worried it will replace them at their job and so they very much want it to fail.