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GEN Z—NOT BABY BOOMERS—ARE MOST AFRAID OF AI BECAUSE THEY HAVEN’T EXPERIENCED
ANY OTHER TECH BOOMS, RECRUITMENT EXPERT SAYS


INDEED'S HEAD OF AI SAYS DATA SHOWS THAT GEN Z FEEL MOST THREATENED BY
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

BY
Orianna Rosa Royle
February 10, 2024 4:00 AM EST

“My hypothesis is that older workers have seen this story before," says Indeed's
head of AI. secret agent mike—Getty images

Despite being the most digitally savvy generation to enter the workforce yet,
your Gen Z hires are probably more terrified of artificial intelligence stealing
their jobs than your more senior (and perhaps, less technologically advanced)
baby boomers.

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Despite being the most digitally savvy generation to enter the workforce yet,
your Gen Z hires are probably more terrified of artificial intelligence stealing
their jobs than your more senior (and perhaps, less technologically advanced)
baby boomers.



That’s according to Indeed’s AI boss, at least—and she has data to back it up.



The globally renowned recruitment company surveyed over 3,500 leaders and 3,743
job seekers across the U.K., the U.S., Canada, India, France, Japan and Germany,
and found that while a quarter of job seekers overall are fearful about the
impact of AI at work, this jumps to over 30% for respondents between 18 and 24
years old.

In comparison, for those over 45 years old, the percentage of those who are
afraid drops to under 15%.



“My hypothesis is that older workers have seen this story before. They lived
through the rise of the PC, they lived through the rise of the internet,” Hannah
Calhoon, Indeed’s head of AI innovation tells Fortune.



Put yourselves in Gen Z’s shoes: Imagine entering the job market, full of hope
for the future career that lies ahead of you, only to hear from the likes of the
investment bank Goldman Sachs that AI could replace the equivalent of 300
million full-time jobs globally in the coming years. 

It’s no wonder that the newest generation of workers—the oldest of whom are 27
years old—feel threatened.

Separate research from the student essay writing website EduBirdie found that 3
in 5 Gen Zers are worried that they’ll be out of a job thanks to AI within the
decade—and 10% think that could even happen as soon as this year.



However, seasoned workers who have weathered past workplace disruptions, know
that ultimately, things will turn out fine—whether or not their job is listed as
most at risk of being nabbed by AI.

“They understand that with these large technological transformations, change is
going to happen, but that while those changes might lead to a shuffling of jobs
or different job descriptions, they can adapt,” Calhoon adds. “Younger workers
just haven’t been through this before—it’s new and it’s uncertain, so it’s a
little bit scary.” 


REMEMBER: COMPUTERS WERE ONCE SCARY

Just like the AI frenzy we are witnessing right now, workers of a certain age
may remember the palpable fear when computers first burst on the scene in the
1980s.



“These can take such forms as fear of physically touching the computer or of
damaging it and what’s inside it, a reluctance to read or talk about computers,
feeling threatened by those who do know something about them, feeling that you
can be replaced by a machine, become a slave to it, or feeling aggressive
towards computers,” the 1996 book Women and Computers detailed.

Today, these concerns seem quite irrational—and it’s a good reminder that our
worst fears about technology have seldom materialized.

Since the explosion of the PC (and then the internet, the Cloud, social media
and so on) most professions have undergone a digital rebrand.



Copywriters now use a laptop instead of a typewriter; designers rely on Adobe
Photoshop instead of a pen and paper; and a plethora of IT roles were created
along the way. 

This same principle can be applied to AI.

Despite predicting that “repetitive, white-collar jobs” will be the first to go
thanks to AI, and putting a pause on hiring any replaceable roles, even IBM CEO
Arvind Krishna says that the technology will create far more jobs than it
eliminates.



“People mistake productivity with job displacement,” he said at the Fortune CEO
Initiative conference. “In 1995, no one thought there would be 5 million web
designers—there are.” 

Instead of fearing ChatGPT and its brethren, young new workers would be better
off getting to grips with large language models because if history shows
anything, it’s that one day people will be unable to imagine their job without
it.

“The best thing you can do is get hands-on with this technology and start to
understand how it can be useful and applied to your life,” Calhoon says.

“Really start to play with the technology and see are there ways where it can
make you more effective, more efficient at your job?”





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