Fear that AI is going to take their jobs is impacting more than 60% of Gen Zers, a new US and UK study has revealed.
Nearly 1500 employees responded to the survey and admitted that they are anxious about their future as AI technology is deployed in the workplace. In fact, 62% of them believe they could be out of a job in the next decade.
A worldwide report released in September suggests that their fears are not unfounded, predicting that as many as 43 million jobs could be impacted by AI integration in the next year in the US alone.
Widespread Fears About Workplace AI
This latest research was carried by General Assembly, a technology education provider, and revealed just how insecure younger employees are feeling.
Lupe Colangelo, director of alumni engagement and employer partnerships at General Assembly, told Fortune: “AI is able to perform many of the repetitive, low-level tasks that were typically handled by entry-level workers. Understandably, younger generations are anxious about this. Seasoned executives and managers, on the other hand, bring years of experience and context to the table that AI can’t quite replicate – at least not yet.”
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The findings of September’s IDB report suggest though that impact will be less age related and more driven by academic qualification and also gender. It predicted that US workers with less education will be harder hit than those with an Associate or Bachelor’s Degree.
The GA survey revealed that just 6% of directors and VP-level executives believe that AI poses a threat to their role – echoing this.
Right To Be Nervous About AI?
In February, Fortune and Bloomberg reported that there had been more than 4,000 job losses in the US since May 2023 that were driven by AI uptake. The team behind the report, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, added that this was “certainly undercounting.” Among the company’s listed in the report was UPS, which let staff go as AI automated some processes.
However, there has also been a trend among companies to replace staff not with AI but with AI-savvy humans. Nvidia’s billionaire CEO Jensen Huang said at the company’s October AI Summit, roles like his are safe, but AI can do 20% to 50% of some people’s job; and it will be “the person who uses AI to automate that 20% [who] is going to take your job.”
Employees know they need to gem up. In May, the Financial Times reported on a survey carried out by education consultants CarringtonCrisp. It found that nearly half of respondents in a survey of 10,000 learners across 40 countries, were planning on learning about AI in the next five years.
Boomers Called to Help Younger Generations
Colangelo argues that employees should recognize the value that Gen Zers bring to the workplace and must not discount them. Instead, she argues: “With AI taking on more entry-level work, employers have a greater responsibility to train the next generation,” she said. “Companies need to offer them a way through the door.”
Nodding perhaps to the mass lay-offs that has dominated headlines for the past few years – and the suggestion that RTO policies are a way of slimming down workforces – Colangelo called for action.
She argued that baby boomers – who are more likely to be in positions of power – must help their younger colleagues. “Employers simply can’t walk away from an entire generation,” she said.
