- AI is preventing Gen Z workers from getting entry-level jobs
- Many AI agents can perform the tasks typically performed by new employees
- Meta and Salesforce AI Manager Clara Shih wants to help by using AI
Gen Z workers, who have spent the last two decades training for a world that no longer needs their skills, are finding it harder and harder to enter the workforce.
Clara Shih, former AI manager at Meta and Salesforce, has seen this first hand. She saw her top talent beaten by AI agents time and time again. “In that moment, I knew nothing would ever be the same,” she shared Assets. “You feel radicalized the moment you see it working.”
Now, she’s helping equip Gen Z with the skills needed to survive in an AI-dominated world. “I realized that the only way to help people keep up with the pace of AI was to give them AI tools,” she explained. “Because if you use the traditional ways… it’s just not fast enough to keep up with how fast AI is developing”
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Radicalization at entry level
American citizens are facing one of the biggest labor market disruptions in recent history, with thousands losing jobs to AI replacements and new entrants into the workforce finding the skills they acquired through their education no longer relevant.
To make a living, many Gen Z graduates are turning to alternative forms of income, including gig work, or going back to education to learn professional skills that are less threatened by the rise of AI.
To help Gen Z find their place in the modern world, Shih has created a nonprofit organization, the New Work Foundation, along with a consumer-oriented brand, Dear CC, that helps job seekers find work in their sectors of expertise using AI.
The Dear CC page displays a message on the front page: “You did the work. You got the diploma. The economy shifted. This isn’t your fault—but it’s your future, and you can own it.”
AI sentiment was once very optimistic, with many expecting it to help solve problems – not cause them. Nearly half of Gen Z surveyed in a recent NBC survey said they want to live in the past, and some point to AI as a specific reason for their feelings. More broadly, another NBC poll found that nearly half (46%) of registered US voters have a negative view of artificial intelligence.
Other polls, including a Checkr survey, have found widespread fear of the effects of AI, with 79% of respondents worried that if their company adopted AI, it would result in pay cuts.
There is also growing opposition to the building of data centers that AI relies on to handle its workload, and a growing number of people, including political leaders, calling for greater protection of AI development.
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