They argue that the rise of Artificial Intelligence is demotivating Generation Z

ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence seem to be taking over the tasks that young employees rely on to advance in their careers. This could potentially destroy the career paths of Generation Z and lead to very high levels of demotivation. Young people will have to fix the flood of errors coming from these faceless AI tools, knowing they will receive less recognition because the “work” was done by a machine.

The enthusiasm of business hierarchies demotivates many members of Generation Z:

Many managers and bosses are excited about ChatGPT and its counterparts.

The rise of generative AI has become a blessing for companies that want to automate tasks such as spreadsheet creation, writing generic texts, and other monotonous tasks in the name of greater “efficiency.” A considerable number of senior management and executives are fully in favor of Artificial Intelligence, and in many cases, less attention has been given to the people who will actually be affected by this technology.

The common tasks that have been replaced so far are typically assigned to entry-level workers. Bosses delegate these tasks to newly hired employees with the hope that they will be done quickly, well, and without the need for anyone to explain how they are done. This work was presented as a fundamental part of their development, a way of “earning their stripes” in the labor market.

Although facing hard work without guidance is not a good way to start a career, companies often don’t offer another option. In recent decades, many companies have eliminated training programs, neglected mentoring, and failed to take responsibility for fostering the development of young workers. Now, with the arrival of generative Artificial Intelligence, companies are starting to automate many tasks, eliminating all possibility of “teaching” young employees. In addition to the theoretical “savings” that were previously observed, there is the erroneous and dangerous belief that teaching is no longer necessary.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that several surveys have revealed that Generation Z members are especially concerned about the effect of Artificial Intelligence on their careers. In a recent survey by the job listing platform ZipRecruiter, 76% of Generation Z respondents indicated that they were worried about losing their jobs to ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI.

Young people are heading toward a professional calamity. They may feel more comfortable using ChatGPT and other AI technologies than their older peers, but their bosses’ obsession with Artificial Intelligence threatens their ability to develop a professional career.

The truth is that, in many cases, few people are willing to teach:

Even before the rise of Artificial Intelligence, young people were facing a crisis at the start of their careers. At first glance, it seems that Generation Z is entering the job market at a good time. Finding a job is much easier than before, for example, in the United States, due to the low unemployment rate and the fact that wages for young workers are growing at a good pace. But if we look more closely, there are increasing signs suggesting that young people will find it much harder to build a professional career. Things are different in many developing countries, where youth unemployment is very high, and as a result, conditions are significantly worse.

Generation Z is already falling behind before their first day of work. The cost of college has skyrocketed in the U.S., and many enter their first job with significant debt. A 2022 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Missouri, U.S.) revealed that the average debt burden for Generation Z Americans was 13% higher than that of Millennials, and approximately the same percentage of both generations had student loan debt of $50,000 or more. In other cases, there are “free” higher education systems, though the concept of “free” is quite debatable. Without delving into this, as it would take us off-topic, the problem is not only for college students but for the entire generation. It would be a serious mistake to think that this is strictly an academic generation. We can discuss this further in other posts.

By the way, a substantial number of these young people either don’t want to or don’t have access to university education. Well, too bad. Despite recent rejection, the number of jobs requiring a college degree has been growing for decades. Even finding a first job can be complicated for Generation Z. A LinkedIn analysis of 3.8 million job listings from 2017 to 2021 indicated that 35% of entry-level positions required at least 3 years of experience. And if you try to go the internship route to gain that experience? Good luck. A 2021 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in the U.S. concluded that more than 40% of internships were unpaid, and the average hourly wage for paid interns was only $20.76 in 2020—a tight figure in many of the major metropolitan areas in the U.S. The word “tight,” by the way, is an understatement.

Once young people finally manage to enter the corporate world, they face another harsh reality: many companies have no interest in helping them climb the career ladder. Many have shown minimal consideration for fostering and developing the skills of workers, leaving young people to fend for themselves. A 2014 study by Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, revealed that in 1979, “young workers received an average of 2.5 weeks of training per year,” but by 1995, it had dropped to just under 11 hours annually. Cappelli also found no evidence that things had improved in the following years.

The U.S. Department of Labor discovered in 2014 that, while 70% of companies offered “some type of training to employees,” it was primarily directed at “managers and mid-level workers.” This statistic is especially concerning because what is considered “some type of training” could be something as simple as reading the HR manual. Moreover, 30% of companies offer no training at all. More recently, in a 2020 survey by Paul Osterman, a professor at MIT, just under 50% of employees stated they had not received formal job training from their company in the past year. Osterman also argued in a debate about the survey that companies were not providing workers with the types of training that would help them improve their skills or advance in their careers.

One might assume that companies would try to encourage mentorship among workers to compensate for the lack of training, but this isn’t the case. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey revealed that only 44% of workers had a mentor, even though mentorship is linked to greater employee satisfaction. And although formal mentorship programs exist, they tend to be voluntary. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the U.S. found that voluntary mentorship programs led to worse outcomes than mandatory ones, and those who most needed a mentor were less likely to seek one.

This could be because workplace cultures alienate those asking for help (despite the benefits of doing so), creating a widespread sense that organizations don’t genuinely care about their employees. In a Gallup periodic survey, only 24% of respondents in May fully agreed that their organizations cared about their well-being, compared to 33% in May 2021 and a notable 49% in May 2020. This lack of attention is clearly hindering young workers who most need professional development. Workplace Intelligence, an HR research firm, indicates that in a 2022 survey with Amazon, 74% of Generation Z and Millennials stated they were considering leaving their jobs “due to a lack of support for skills development or lack of career mobility options.”

Why train them when we can just “plug them in”?

Without real training or professional development, young people have only one way to learn how to navigate the job market: hard work. In theory, these small jobs were meant to familiarize them with simpler processes and demonstrate they were competent enough to take on more demanding tasks. But the reality is that they create a sense of lack of purpose at work, as the tasks don’t seem to be a meaningful contribution to the company or a way to progress. Now, with the advent of generative artificial intelligence in the workplace, this is largely over. By the way, feeling that the task being performed is not contributing to any common development has to be one of the worst feelings a human can go through.

Artificial Intelligence has already started to take jobs, but the particular disdain companies have for their young employees means it will affect entry-level workers the most. It takes a lot of work to “train” a large language model, the type of AI used by ChatGPT and other similar products. But once that work is done, companies find it much cheaper to buy new technological tools than to train a real person, regardless of the consequences. For employers, what matters is whether something is cheap and easy.

The consolation for these young people, according to these leaders’ argument, is that the most tech-savvy will become responsible for these new machines. In reality, this means young people will have to fix the flood of errors these faceless AI tools will make, knowing they will receive less recognition because the “work” comes from a machine. This can create a professional crisis: there will be fewer ways to prove one is capable of taking on more meaningful work. Promotions will depend on favoritism, with the best “real” tasks reserved for those with the gift of gab rather than those who work harder. AI fuels the culture of weak management. It’s also worth considering that the “flood of errors” is not something with much time ahead of it.

It’s no surprise that CEOs and top executives are so excited about integrating Artificial Intelligence. The data company Qualtrics states that in a survey conducted in May and June, 64% of bosses find the “potential impact of AI” exciting in their workplace. Only 39% of front-line workers agree, and 46% describe the technology as “scary.” Another survey by Boston Consulting Group shows a similar divide: 62% of middle managers and executives are excited about the possibility of using AI at work, compared to 42% of employees. While optimists predict that in 10 years there will be jobs we can’t even imagine now, it’s hard to believe, given the ways companies have deployed this new technology, that automation will lead to a society where more people have more economic opportunities.

What is left for the young workforce? What does a young person do in an office where they are not trained, not guided, and not given “real” work? What will happen when artificial intelligence automates jobs like data entry and document filing?

The irony is that companies’ responsibility to their employees is actually better for business. Studies suggest that companies investing in workforce training and skill development are more efficient and reap higher profit margins. Despite this evidence, companies struggle to understand the value of investing in their employees. As recently stated by the Stern Center for Sustainable Business at New York University, companies rarely have methods to measure the value of human capital beyond simple labor costs, which means they consider it at the same level as other costs like the electricity bill. The economy of rot sees immediate revenue growth as the only valuable metric to consider, more important than the long-term value of an employee’s growth.

There is a better way to work, but I’m afraid the only way companies will learn the dangers of automation is through a painful public example of a company that relied too much on Artificial Intelligence, like Knight Capital’s commercial failure, which cost $440 million. Artificial Intelligence can improve humans, help them, but replacing them with AI is a short-sighted decision by accountants who can’t see the value of a person. It is worth considering whether investments in AI should be replaced with real training and mentoring programs with financial rewards. Young people face a reckoning where the rising costs of college and the lack of future opportunities will clash head-on with a business fabric that doesn’t recognize the value of investing in real human beings. The result will be a weaker economy with fewer people prepared to tackle the real challenges posed by new technologies. We all lose.