How young workers can thrive with AI when they have the right skills

For the young, the future is still unwritten. This reality can bring both excitement and uncertainty.

Today’s young people are entering the world of work at a defining moment, just as AI begins to transform it. This prospect may give rise to conflicting emotions. On the one hand, they might feel excited that AI can help them work more quickly and efficiently while making their jobs more enjoyable. On the other, they may be concerned that AI is reshaping the job market as they start their careers.

So, how is AI transforming the workplace – and how are young people navigating this shift? Recent research from PwC helps to shed new light on these questions. And the resulting insights confirm that while AI radically changes the world of work, young people who learn to harness it can open up enormous opportunities.

Moreover, young people appreciate the opportunities that AI brings to them and their careers, suggesting they can – and will – fully embrace its potential in the years to come.

Let’s look at the opportunities AI presents. PwC’s 2024 AI Jobs Barometer reveals that the sectors that are deploying AI the fastest – the likes of professional services, financial services, and technology – are achieving productivity growth five times faster than the sectors that are making less use of AI. In addition, workers who have AI skills can command up to a 25% wage premium.

The clear implication? AI is triggering a revolution in what workers can achieve and how valuable they can be to employers. Young people are ideally placed to take advantage of this opportunity and reap the benefits.

However, to do this, young workers will need to acquire or demonstrate AI-relevant skills quickly.

According to our AI Jobs Barometer, the skills employers seek are changing 25% faster in occupations that are more likely to involve AI. Equally tellingly, PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey shows that 69% of CEOs across all industries believe AI will require most of their workforce to develop new skills. The race is on and young people must join it.

The good news is that they recognize the scale of change in the workplace and are ready and willing to adapt. In PwC’s 2024 Global Workforce Hopes and Fears survey, most young people (nearly two-thirds) are optimistic about the changes underway. An overwhelming 70% feel GenAI brings opportunities to learn new skills and improve the quality of their work.

True, young employees are harbouring some apprehensions alongside the optimism.

Just over half – 55% – are worried about their job security. Organizations need to alleviate some of that worry by being transparent when implementing any major changes – particularly around AI – and engaging the broader workforce in that endeavour. Embedding citizen-led learning – where employees can experiment and feedback their experiences without any fear – can also help embed change successfully.

What does all of this mean for employers? In our view, they should take note of these insights into the upcoming generation’s attitudes and mindset and offer their young workers every opportunity to build the skills they’ll need to harness AI.

Indeed, 39% of the young workers in our Hopes and Fears survey say they’re likely to leave their job in the next 12 months, with over half – 54% – stating opportunities to learn new skills as a key factor in the decision to job-switch (compared with 28% of all workers surveyed).

By comparison, in the Great Resignation following the pandemic, only 19% of all workers said they were likely to move. This highlights the critical need to offer continuous learning initiatives to retain young workers and help them build the skills to succeed in an AI age.

The overarching message is that employers must work hard to retain a young generation by giving them the opportunities they’re seeking in this dawning age of AI. The only question is how best to do this.

One method that’s seeing success within PwC – and for many of our clients – is a skills-first approach to recruitment, where people are hired based on their abilities rather than their formal qualifications or work history. We have provided analysis to support the World Economic Forum in its report, Putting Skills First: Opportunities for Building Efficient and Equitable Labour Markets.

A skills-first approach can bring much greater agility to hiring—just what’s needed as AI rapidly disrupts the skills that jobs require. Skills-first hiring can also open the doors of high-value, highly productive employment to talented young people who have not had the time to build up work experience over many years.

Overall, the results paint a picture of a young workforce that is eager to upskill and embrace new technologies and can see positive benefits ahead.

While there’s certainly speculation around the possible effects of AI on the world of work, not least for younger workers, our findings suggest that they may be lucky to be starting their careers as AI accelerates – and that young people know it. Employers and society must help them embrace the opportunity; skills-first hiring is a great place to start.

© 2024 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors.