Survey reveals Gen Z as the ‘future’ of AI development
Gen Z employees are the key drivers in the future of AI but can be overconfident in their use of the technology, a global EY survey has found.
EY labelled Gen Z employees as “AI natives” based on their efficient upskilling and knowledge of the technology, however, employers must be aware of their employee’s potential “overconfidence.”
New EY research, ‘How can we upskill Gen Z as fast as we train AI’, was conducted across more than 5,000 global Gen Z respondents to gain insight into their AI aptitudes.
It was revealed that while Gen Z understood which products and tasks benefited from AI, their ability to critically assess the technology fell short.
The survey found that in terms of AI adoption, 61 per cent of Gen Z were varied users, 15 per cent were super users and 24 per cent were considered “stragglers”.
On an aptitude level, 69 per cent of Gen Z respondents scored best on questions about understanding AI such as selecting which tasks and products commonly use AI.
However, 56 per cent were found to be less confident of questions covering how to write the best prompts for AI, while 44 per cent scored poorly on critically assessing and identifying shortfalls, such as whether AI systems could invent facts.
EY global talent strategy leader Dan Black said Gen Z were the world leaders of tomorrow and some of today’s leading technology users.
“With more exposure to AI at the start of their career than any other generation in the workforce, they’re also the most exposed to the impacts of AI,” Black said.
“Educators and employers must prioritise skilling this generation in AI literacy, not just around task-driven use but in relation to deeper evaluation and critical thinking for much broader and loftier use.”
Despite the negative results, respondents recognised the importance of hard and soft skills required for AI with 52 per cent ranking creativity and curiosity as the most important skills for using it well.
Black said respondents viewed the greatest benefits of AI as time-saving on repetitive tasks, analysing large amounts of data and reducing human error and they viewed the greatest risks as increasing unemployment, reducing human learning and creativity and generating false information.
It was demonstrated that while many Gen Z workers used AI as a tool to help them learn, there was a disconnect between how AI was perceived in the workforce and education settings.
Forty-two per cent of respondents said they believed their educators would discourage AI use to complete certain tasks so they didn’t become increasingly reliant on technology.
Black said the results indicated educators and businesses were playing catch-up to the rapidly evolving technology of AI.
“But they also chart a path forward to identify ways for businesses to help close that literacy gap in AI education and engagement among a Gen Z group who lean toward an optimistic view of AI but may be over-confident in their ability to evaluate the technology for optimal use,” he said.
“Businesses have an opportunity to evaluate how their organisations are upskilling their own Gen Z workforce.”
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