We know that Gen-Z thinks very differently about the world of work in a number of ways, from how they behave in the office to how much on-the-job training they expect, and now a new report shines a light on another surprising Gen-Z phenomenon that may impact these young workers’ future careers. According to a study from Arkansas State University, shared exclusively with Inc., when a Gen-Z student is seeking careers advice they’re turning away from human career experts and their college professors and are asking ChatGPT instead. This may have implications for your own company’s recruitment efforts, and it may help color your expectations for when Gen-Z workers join your staff.
The headline statistics relating to this habit from the new study are that 60 percent of the students surveyed have used AI to help with “brainstorming major or career options,” and 32 percent said they’d feel confident in making a major academic decision based solely on AI advice.
This, you may think, is merely the next step for career advice, which has long relied on digital tools like personality tests to help youngsters find their place in the world of work. But a couple of other statistics from the study show the habit comes with big risks: 41 percent of Gen-Z students surveyed said they’d followed AI advice that later turned out to be incorrect, and fully 66 percent—that’s two in every three—say that an adult never corrected bad advice they’d been given by AI and then acted on.
Meanwhile, showing how AI is displacing experts, 22 percent of the respondents said they had skipped meetings with mentors or advisors because “AI already answered it.” As the university’s report points out, not all is lost for human experts (yet) because the way students use AI like this depends on context. While 19 percent said they actually trusted AI more than their own school’s official website if they needed academic or administrative help, the majority—62 percent—say they still rely on their own institution’s own sources. But 19 percent are still unsure on this issue, which may indicate an “ongoing shift” in trust that academic leaders should pay attention to.
This data is, for the most part, related to academic systems that students are interacting with—but it sets a huge precedent in habits and expertise for these young people who will enter the workplace in just a few short months or years, and it should serve as a heads-up for their future employers. We know from reports that Gen-Z is almost completely using AI to “cheat” their way through college, which some experts say may damage their confidence in their own critical thinking skills, which are vital skills that employers look for. And we know that Gen-Z is turning to non-traditional information sources, like TikTok, when it comes to seeking advice on certain workplace benefits.
All of this adds up to a picture of a whole generation of people who are placing trust in AI systems above human experts and, in some cases, even over traditional online information sources like Google searches.
HR professionals hiring Gen-Z workers would be smart to remember that some of their candidates have sought career advice from an AI, which may influence their expectations and thinkings in subtly different ways to older generations.
Managers stewarding these workers in the office spaces of tomorrow will, if they’re wise, be aware of these habits. They may choose to stress to these employees the importance of trusting colleagues and leaders over AI systems, highlighting to younger workers that AI is fallible and its outputs may frequently be misinformation. The other choice available is to take the lead from new Gen-Z workers and accept that AI has an informal “helper” role for staff as well as all the work task efficiencies that AI boosters say the technology can bring. Teamwork tasks may, for example, may include an AI “employee” taking part alongside human workers, simply because younger workers feel more comfortable having AI at their side. This chimes with recent words from Slack’s chief marketing office Ryan Gavin, who said earlier this year that he envisions a near future where workers chat more with AIs than they do with their human coworkers.
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Kit Eaton
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