Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a technological breakthrough; it is the defining force of our era, reshaping industries, economies, and societies at an unprecedented pace.
As a response, discussions of upskilling and reskilling the workforce, AI’s use in educational settings, and the talent pipeline continue to proliferate across industries with many curious how to best prepare people for an AI-enabled future.
As the youngest generation infiltrating the workforce, Gen Z will be most exposed to the challenges and opportunities presented by AI throughout their careers. Despite being “digital natives,” a recent EY global survey titled How can we upskill Gen Z as fast as we train AI found this generation may be overconfident about its ability to use and evaluate AI tools. Further, the survey found that if we do not develop AI literacy among Gen Z, there is a twofold danger: first, many young people may be left behind; second, the opportunities offered by AI may be squandered.
In addition to assessing the state of Gen Z’s understanding of AI, the global survey also offers takeaways on Gen Z sentiment on and engagement with AI:
- AI skills can be divided into two types: general skills that can be applied to AI and AI-specific skills. Gen Z believes both are important with their top three identified skills being creativity and curiosity, critical thinking and coding/computer programming.
- The most common source Gen Z uses for AI information is by far social media (at 55%), followed by news articles and media (35%) and AI tools themselves (28%).
- Gen Z believes that the three greatest benefits of AI are saving time on repetitive tasks, analyzing large amounts of data, and reducing human error.
- Gen Z believes that the three greatest risks of AI are increasing unemployment replacing jobs, reducing human learning and creativity, and generating false information.
- Gen Z in the Middle East, Africa and India have the highest level of confidence in AI use than those in North America and Europe, who have the lowest.
The survey also suggests pathways forward for businesses, educators, governments and policymakers and other stakeholders to help Gen Z ethically adapt to an AI-focused environment and society.
EY is continuing to dive deeper into the profound impact AI will have on the next generation of adults in the upcoming study The First Global Generation: Adulthood Reimagined for a Changing World which will be published in the spring of 2025. Among other topics, the study explores how Gen Z is navigating AI uncertainty, balancing fear of the unknown with optimism about what’s next and how as the first “global generation,” they will reshape systems around them.
Be sure to catch the related EY presentation during the conversation Cracking Gen Z: Redefining Customers, Teams, and Everything in Between at 4YFN on Tuesday, March 4.
EY is excited to be the ‘AI XL’ theme sponsor at 4YFN, the event colocated with MWC25 Barcelona convening all the key players of successful digital startups: investors, corporate innovators, frontier tech companies, and more. Highlights of the EY organization’s participation includes several keynote panels. We invite you to also join us for the following speaking engagements:
Building a Culture of Innovation in Large Enterprises, Monday, March 3, 11:00-11:50, Agora Stage
Orchestrating the Agentic AI Tech Stack, Monday, March 3, 15:30-16:00, Agora Stage
Flipping the Script on Enterprise and Startup Transformation, Tuesday, March 4, 11:15-11:45, Agora Stage
In addition to catching EY leaders on stage, we invite you to stop by EY’s booth at 2G40 in Hall 2 at MWC25 Barcelona.
To discover more of the AI XL theme at 4YFN you can check our website here