A stylized graphic on a dark blue background showing a robotic hand and a human hand reaching toward each other, fingertips almost touching in a Creation-of-Adam pose, with a glowing spark between them. Text reads 'GEN Z, MEET AI' in teal and 'AI, MEET GEN Z' in white.

03 Jan Gen Z, meet AI, AI meet Gen Z: A seismic change in how we work is about to happen

Posted at 08:27h in Articles & Blogs by

Your job is going to get better. Your organisation will soon be ergonomically designed to suit the people who work in it as much as it is there to make a profit or fulfil its purpose. We will all be doing more, better and with a greater work-life balance. We will embrace creativity like never before and dispense with the drole tasks that steal our time and our energy. Wishful thinking? No. Get ready for the AI revolution….and it is the newest members of the workforce that will lead the way. There is about to be a marrying of changing attitudes to work with the greatest technological development of our lifetimes that will change our relationship with work forever. If you let it.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is beginning to permeate the workplace with vigour. Whilst embryonic, it’s potential is clear…and it is already everywhere from word processors to accounting and CRM software. But we are at the very start. As it becomes more potent, it will overhaul how we communicate, complete tasks and make decisions. It will learn what we need to do and how we need to do it faster and faster, and a range of AI powered applications will support us in almost every aspect of our jobs through greater automation and analytical ability.

We will become drivers, with AI being the doer.

We will become drivers, with AI being the doer. From scheduling and workflow management, to data analysis and personalised communication tools, much of what occupies our work time now will be consigned to the past as AI does the heavy lifting.

But is such a seismic change really just around the corner?

In 1993 the internet accounted for less than 1% of information being exchanged through communication networks. By 2007 this had risen to 97%. In 14 years it had gone from an emerging technology to a critical component of most people’s lives. All this driven by a non-digital native generation who grew up without computers, smart phones or high-speed internet. AI is likely to take hold much, much faster driven by a generation far better equipped to embrace emerging technologies.

Generation Z have grown up not knowing a world without the internet. They are tech savvy. They also have wildly different expectations and demands on the workplace. The world they have grown up in has given them a perspective on work that is distinct from previous generations. They value flexibility and a healthy work-life integration. They want work with purpose, but also work that suits them. They demand it. And they are rapidly becoming the predominant proportion of the workplace. Generation Z already constitutes 27% of workforce and this is increasing year on year. They are slowly moving up organisational hierarchies and their influence is growing rapidly.

So we are about to have a coming together of a rapidly developing technology that promises to overhaul how we work, with a generation or workers who want to make work work for them. These are the critical components that will mean a revolution, a seismic shift in how we work. Whilst the internet took 14 years for a technically non-native workforce to fully adopt, it is likely Gen Z will blow this timeline to smithereens when it comes to AI.

By 2030 it is likely that AI, driven by Gen Z will have taken full hold of the workplace in many industries and jobs. Especially those where work primarily consists of working at a computer and attending meetings or presentations. It will allow us to work smarter and handle the time-intensive and boring work, work that just won’t meet the needs of Gen Z.

4-day working weeks and shorter, more flexible working days will become the norm.

Whilst some draw the conclusion that AI will lead to greater productivity, the time and capacity saving it brings may just allow a workforce more intent on a balanced life to spend less time at work to achieve the same. 4-day working weeks and shorter, more flexible working days will become the norm. With the more mundane tasks taken care of by AI, HI (Human Intelligence) is likely to be diverted to the more interesting and creative tasks and this freedom to innovate may be where organisations really see the benefit.

So what? Organisations must embrace the coming change. Rather than trying too hard to assimilate Gen Z into what we consider normal ways of working now, we need to give them a sensible amount of freedom to play with emerging AI technology. Let them help you to make the workplace a more human place. It may well give you the competitive advantage whilst also creating a happier and more innovative workforce.

Written by Matt Johns
Matt is Managing Director of Fieri Leadership and Development Ltd, a company that helps organisations transform their workforce through a range of training and consultancy services. They have recently entered a partnership with Edinburgh Napier University and Innovation UK to develop the use of Artificial Intelligence in people development.