Early career workers are excited about AI’s potential to make work better
“I no longer have to waste time on repetitive tasks.”
“I can upskill and keep up with industry developments.”
“It helps me give my clients more individualized solutions.”
“I’m shaving at least five hours off my week at a minimum, every week.”7
These were some of the responses we received from early career workers when we asked them about their experiences using emerging technologies, including AI, in their work. On the whole, both early career and tenured workers surveyed anticipate that AI may positively impact their professional opportunities and also recognize the need to acquire new skills to adapt to the technological transformation. Prior research has found that workers over the age of 65 generally express confidence in their capacity to adapt to changes in their job roles.8 Yet our survey revealed that as a new generation of workers is entering the workforce, their relationship with technology, particularly AI, is fundamentally different from previous generations. Their use of AI is such that one person we interviewed described AI as “that first person you ask before going to a manager” for feedback and advice. This difference isn’t just about early career workers being more familiar with the tools (with 83% of early career workers versus 68% tenured workers using AI in their jobs); it could include deep-seated beliefs in the potential of AI to impact their careers.
For instance, 79% of early career workers in our survey are excited about the opportunities AI can bring to their work (compared to 66% of tenured workers), and a higher percentage of early career workers compared to tenured workers believe AI skills are important in their careers, even though they work in a nontech field (78% versus 62%). In addition, 75% of early career workers believe AI will create new job opportunities in their field (compared to 58% of tenured workers), and 77% believe AI will help them move up in their careers (compared to 56% tenured workers). These are just some of the ways AI can augment future roles and capabilities.
There are already examples of early career workers finding opportunities to use advances in AI and other automation technologies to accelerate their career development. For instance, a recent report noted that junior engineers could be spending less time on tasks such as programming and more time solving complex problems typically reserved for more tenured employees, and sales representatives could also be focusing more on data analysis than cold calling.9 This shift toward higher-value work could contribute to early career workers’ positive perception of AI’s impact on their work experiences. Compared to their tenured counterparts, a larger proportion of early career workers surveyed believe that AI is enhancing their work quality, job satisfaction, career growth opportunities, and even their interaction with colleagues and well-being (figure 1). One early career worker described the benefits this way: “I think [AI] has helped us to save a few hours that we can have to ourselves and use for our well-being.”10 For leaders, this could translate not only to increased efficiencies and productivity, but also increased job satisfaction.
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