Do Some Generations Have More to Fear from AI than Others?

Let’s start this one by defining what the fear is about. We’re going to assume the question refers to job replacement fears rather than existential, 'Skynetty' ones. Neither is easy to answer but the former is perhaps more pressing and slightly less apocalyptic.

I’m also going to address this with respect to the services sector, particularly marketing as that’s the area I know best and where I assume most readers are coming from. It’s also tipped to be one of the most disrupted sectors – the knowledge that is its product being mostly theoretically replicable by AI.

The risk of job replacement by AI is usually looked at through an industry/sector lens but this question is about age and still reflects a lot of people’s way of thinking about this. To answer it, however I’ll have to generalise an awful lot, so I hope you’ll understand.

My final caveat is to say that I barely know what I’m talking about here. Who on earth can predict what’s going to happen in the future when there are so many variables and fields of knowledge involved? So, if you feel bad that I’m predicting a decline in your field of work, console yourself with the knowledge that I’m probably wrong. But I was asked the question, however, so I’m going to have a go at an answer.

I’ll start by setting the scene in a simplified version: AI has arrived that can seemingly think as well or better than most humans, can be taught tasks, is getting funded with trillions of dollars to improve, and is created by some of the smartest people in the world with the stated intent of making a product that can do anything to a superhuman level of performance. AIs have started to perform work tasks pretty well. As many jobs are made up of a series of tasks (plus other elements), it follows that fewer people are needed to fill those jobs, providing there’s no increase in demand for their output. As the technology progresses, it will master more tasks and impact more jobs. We are already at the point where half of UK businesses are saying they will prioritise AI over hiring more staff in 2025. Let’s see whose jobs might be impacted most, one generation at a time.

Baby Boomers

Barely worth mentioning as they are nearly all retired and those that aren’t tend to own and run a lot of companies, so they can probably coast this. This is just as well because their record at taking up and mastering new technology leaves something to be desired. They are used to telling others what to do and have built up a wealth of experience, which means they are in a good place when it comes to using gen AI.

Gen X

Like the Boomers, Gen X have had time to build a wealth of knowledge and experience, meaning they are well-placed at describing and designing precisely what the AIs should do. They are more likely to be in management positions, again helping with the delegation mindset that helps maximise AI use. Their senior roles make them more expensive, but also harder to make redundant due to holding a wealth of organisational/industry-specific knowledge and wisdom. They’ve built up an amount of financial and job security compared to younger generations. All that said, they would find retraining or even redesigning their role harder to accept than most. In order to effectively use AI, you need to unlearn a lot of habits and lose a lot of assumptions – Gen X are going to find this harder than most, but they’ve spent a career adapting to major change like the arrival of the internet, mobile and social media, so they have form here.

Millennials

The millennials are in something of a no-man’s-land; not as much experience to be as good at directing the AIs or entrenched in companies, and more expensive than new starters. There is more reason for fear here, understandably. Business owners tend to agree. 

Gen Z

While many are still in school, some are a few years into their careers. Occupying the entry level roles or hoping for one in a few years is indeed the riskier situation to be in while AI companies are trying to pitch tools that can do simple admin tasks at a fraction of the cost and time. Many companies are already open about their preference for AI tools over graduates even though the AI industry is still in a nascent state. By the time they have finished education, will their subjects and qualifications be as relevant in the AI-powered new economy? In their favour is a number of factors; they can more easily retrain, the younger ones will more AI literate, having gained experience using AI in education; they have less to unlearn than the older generations.

Gen Alpha

All bets are off for the younglings. If the education system adapts quickly enough to set them up for the rapidly changing economy, they should be fine. If it falls short, then they will meet challenges. Regardless, they will be the most AI literate generation and many will likely lead working lives that are unimaginable to most of us today.

For anyone wanting a neat conclusion here, prepare for disappointment. It’s an unprecedented time, with many factors at play: who knows what will happen? Maybe the new jobs AI creates will come as fast as the ones they replace and automate. Maybe society will shift to supporting people to work less? We may find that our jobs aren’t as important to our sense of selves as we’ve been led to believe.

When it comes to organisations, it’s clear that staffing and recruitment will change and agencies and businesses that recognise what is happening will be able to adapt more effectively. People who are adaptable generalists are likely to provide advantages to businesses, as are those who can identify and explain quality work and the fundamentals of their field.

I do believe that we are entering a new chapter of history, however and that many aspects of life are about to change.