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As an HR practitioner in your organisation, it can be difficult to know if the decisions you’re making around AI augmentation are the correct ones. With this being uncharted territory for most employers, very few firms can say with certainty that they’re making all the right choices. While some might assume that integrating quickly is the only way to be ahead of the curve in this area, most businesses are overlooking a crucial tool in their arsenal – Gen Z.
With fears of being left behind in the AI integration arms race, some companies have shot ahead with training and enabling their workforce, whilst others have frozen in the face of change. Whether you’re a firm at the forefront of AI assimilation, or one that’s only started to dabble in the likes of ChatGPT, you’re probably overlooking an important aspect of your tech and people strategy – that Gen Z has the potential to spearhead your firm’s AI transformation.
Generation AI?
Speaking on a panel at Fortune’s Global Forum in Abu Dhabi, Michael Howells, president of the Workforce Skills division at Pearson, said that with the working world experiencing so many major shifts, older generations could learn something from the way Gen Z adapts to, and embraces, new forms of tech.
From social media to software, contemporary phones to new hardware, throughout their lives, Gen Z has needed to adapt to technological advancements in the world around them. As a result, this generation, over others, are best equipped to deal with the major shifts we are likely to see in the new year as a result of technology, specifically AI, being integrated into the workplace.
It’s definitely fair to say, as younger people are privier to social media, they will find it easier to suss out artificial intelligence. They’re engrossed in tech on a day-to-day basis, so making that transition into the workplace with AI should be easier for them than other generations
Gen Z has an innate aptness for dealing with change and adversity – many having joined the workforce during a global pandemic, when firms were already experiencing major shifts. In a nutshell, being both tech savvy and open to change, young workers have everything it takes to be at the forefront of this tech revolution.
“It’s definitely fair to say, as younger people are privier to social media, they will find it easier to suss out artificial intelligence,” says Michael Morgan, Talent Acquisition Partner at UK Power Networks. “They’re engrossed in tech on a day-to-day basis, so making that transition into the workplace with AI should be easier for them than other generations. It would be good for any organisation to try and capitalise on knowledge these youngsters might already have and utilise it in any AI programme that might be occurring.
