Nowadays, every job is done by AI. At least that’s what Clara See thinks. Meta and the former AI executive at Salesforce are looking to the future of the job market, where the workforce is fully enabled by AI.
Shih has worked in the field of AI for 20 years. But her turning point came last fall, when she saw Meta’s AI agents match and even outperform top-tier employees on multiple tasks.
“At that moment, I knew nothing would ever be the same,” she said. luck. “When you see it working, you feel radicalized in that moment.”
Around the same time, Shi was hearing from friends and family members whose children, some of whom were Ivy League graduates, that it was impossible to get a job. That’s why she launched the nonprofit New Work Foundation with consumer brand Dear CC to train Gen Z for a future workplace dominated by AI agents.
“We realized that the only way for people to keep up with the pace of AI is to provide them with AI tools,” said Shih, who is no longer Meta’s head of business AI, but is now an advisor. “Using traditional methods…isn’t fast enough to keep up with the rate of advancement in AI.”
AI has advanced at a breakneck pace, quickly transforming from a fun gadget used to draft emails and generate cat memes to a sophisticated tool that now threatens to replace a significant number of white-collar workers.
As a result of their rapid development, Gen Z is in a bind today. The threat of AI-related layoffs and a decline in the number of entry-level job openings are causing many to reconsider their career choices. According to a recent ZipRecruiter report, many people are exploring alternatives to the career ladder, such as starting a business, gig work, and trade school. Still, Shi believes there is a path forward for new graduates.
“If you want to find a job and keep a job, you need to learn how to get better at using AI agents,” she said.
How Gen Z is leveraging AI to secure jobs, promotions, and future careers
This sentiment reflects what’s already happening in the office. A recent study by Writer, an AI enterprise platform, found that employees who actively use AI in their daily work are more likely to receive promotions and raises than those who resist adopting AI technology.
To help develop and prepare the Gen Z AI-era workforce, New Work Foundation has launched several AI-enabled tools. One of these is called a field report, which gives job seekers a glimpse into the landscape of their desired career path.
For example, if you look at careers in the legal field, you’ll find that there are 31,500 job openings in the U.S., and while competition is low, the risks of AI automation are very high.
The foundation also has an AI agent called JobClaw that helps job seekers find roles based on their strengths and interests, without the need for a resume. All you have to do is fill out a five-question inquiry form about who you are and what you actually want out of your career.
As AI evolves, so will the labor market. Some business leaders, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, believe the technology will disrupt half of white-collar workers. But people like NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predict that technology will work alongside human workers and even enable job growth.
Regardless of whether Gen Z chooses to adopt AI, the future of work will proceed without it, Shih said.
However, as adoption increases, many Gen Zers have developed an aversion to technology. A recent Gallup poll found that Gen Z sentiment toward AI is significantly more negative than it was a year ago. But Shi said those who are rejecting the technology are actually some of the most important to its evolution.
“The people who are morally opposed to AI are the ones who I want to really get involved and get involved in steering the system in the right direction,” she said.
