Workforce Reboot: AI, Gen Z, and the Future of Work

Speaker A: Foreign. Hey everybody. Julie Devlin here. Welcome back to UKG's podcast. I'm excited to host this episode. You might be wondering where the other half of the podcast is. Uh, have a listen to the last episode if you want to know where my counterpart, uh, went and wish, um, him well. We'll miss him a lot. But very, very excited to bring you more insight, more info and more information about what's going on in the world of work, uh, from this point forward. So today, what I want to talk about and what I want to bring to your attention is the amazing study that we have done at UKG regarding Gen Z and why the young, youngest workers are leading the AI revolution. Now, AI, we can't get away from it. Uh, we're not going to be able to get away from it even if we try. It's sort of like how the Internet used to be. It permeates the conversation. Uh, back when the Internet was in its infancy, of course we were all talking about, about that. Now it's almost like the Internet is not obsolete, but it's, it's a part of our everyday lives. It's a part of our everyday lives and it's something that we just have come to rely on. Think about what happens when your Internet goes down. Uh, we lose our minds, right? I mean, at least I do. Um, oftentimes you're not able to watch the television, you're not able to have conversations with people, uh, you're not able sometimes to use your appliances. I mean, there's all sorts of things that uh, we have to think about when it comes to the Internet. Now AI is just another piece of this puzzle and a lot of us have come to rely on artificial intellig for much of what we're doing on a day to day basis. Just thinking about your own personal usage of AI and how you're using it and what kind of time maybe that you've saved even on mundane tasks can be a really useful exercise. But uh, what we want to talk about today is this concept of Gen Z and why the youngest generation of workers are really leading the AI revolution when it comes to AI at work. So we have some new research at UKG that reveals that Gen Z isn't just using AI at work. They're actually leading the charge when it comes to AI at work. They're the ones who are saying, you know, uh, our bosses don't really get it. We need to sort of take, take the reins here and explain just how useful these tools are going to be and just how useful they are. So one of the questions I think that we have to ask ourselves is what this mean for the future of work? If we have this adoption gap with AI where you have Gen Z workers who are utilizing it, but you don't have a lot of other workers who are utilizing it as much, or if there's a gap that exists, what do we do to close that gap? Our survey found that 84% of employees want to take, want to use AI and they want to use it to replace repetitive and time consuming tasks. But Gen Z, they're already doing that. So we have this juxtaposition between workers who say how, uh, we really want to start using it, and Gen Z is saying, well, uh, no, actually we are using it. Follow our lead here. So 45% of Gen Z workers we found in our study said that their managers don't understand the benefits of AI. And I think when we look at that, there's a missed opportunity there, there's a disconnect there. And what are some ways that we can lean in to what Gen Z is uh, in particular are doing right? I think there's also a conversation here regarding stereotyping. And as a former HR practitioner, I used to look at generations in a very different way. I used to look at generations as other. And I think there is some conversation there about differences in the way that we work. But I do believe that we all are more alike than we are different. However, some of us are just more technologically savvy, whether you're in Gen Z or not. However, this study was looking at Gen Z in particular and found that Gen Z in particular are the ones who are really leading the charge and they're doing it right. So 70% of Gen Z workers say that they've taught themselves AI tools that they use at work. They're not sitting back and waiting for other people to show them what to use. That's compared to just about 60% of the workforce overall. So one of the things that Gen Z is doing right is they're taking the reins. They're saying, okay, these tools are out there and we are going to be the ones who are going to show you how to use them. And uh, we're going to make our lives easier by utilizing these tools. So what they're doing is they're modeling the behavior that we want to see. And so often we say leadership must model the behavior that we want to see. And yes, that's very, very tr. But when it comes to AI, it looks like Gen Z is Leading the charge there. They're showing leaders the art of the possible. They're showing leaders and managers and C suite executives what's important when it comes to using these tools in order to make a difference in the everyday world of work. So as a leader, what can you do? What can we do now? Right? I mean, I think listening is an art form. Uh, I'm not great at it because I always try to think about what I'm going to say next. However, it's more important than ever for leaders to start listening, especially to younger employees when it comes to them having insights that can help shape strategy at your organization. The other thing that's important is to create some sort of space and create some sort of, I would say, psychologically safe environment where people can experiment with these AI tools. I, uh, find that some organizations are building cross generation learning labs. They're doing reverse mentorship where you have younger people, um, helping out older folks, or even not even just younger to older, but um, folks who are less technologically savvy and then helping folks who, you know, or more technologically savvy helping folks who are less technologically savvy. You know what I'm saying? The other thing too is we need to recognize that AI is a tool that is something that will work alongside us, not that's going to necessarily, necessarily replace us. You may have seen already in your role that your job has changed, uh, based upon AI. But we have to look at AI not as a threat but as a companion. Uh, I like to look at AI tools as a co worker, I like to say a co worker that doesn't microwave fish in the microwave right in the office. So, uh, looking at it like that, looking at AI as another colleague, can really help you, um, to stand out and help you to get more information and ideas. So our study, uh, suggests a lot of different things and I would encourage you to take a look at the notes here in the show notes, uh, and have a look at our study, read our study, um, look at the ins and outs of the data. It really is showing that Gen Z are the ones leading the charge. But there's another conversation, um, and that other conversation is what AI should actually do for employees. And what can AI actually do for employees? Now that's a loaded question because the answer there is it depends. It depends on your role, it depends on the level, it depends on the security of the AI system that you're using, et cetera. But employees actually want AI to help them with those Bundane tasks. They want AI tools to help them to do things like summarize company policies to help them create their schedule, to help them, uh, payroll can help use AI tools to help verify that paychecks are correct. Thinking about this, there's always human intervention that's needed in these processes because AI can make mistakes, right? So we have to make sure that we're keeping that in mind, that it's not a threat, it's a colleague, it's working alongside us. Something like ensuring time cards are accurate, um, reviewing time off requests. And when we look at this repetitive data heavy stuff that tends to slow us down. This is where the power lies with AI. These tools are there not to take your job, but to take away the least favorite parts of your job. The things that I call time vampires, the things that suck that time away from you. So just consider what tasks today you're utilizing AI for and what, how many of those tasks are repetitive, how many of those tasks are saving you time? And then think about the tasks that you're not using AI for and think about how much time you're wasting by not utilizing AI tools. If you're not sure about whether there's an AI tool available for whatever task that you're looking to supplement or whatever task you're looking to uh, use AI for, odds are there is one. But no one is going to save you in terms of showing you what it is. Just like Gen Z, which our study shows us, they're the ones taking the reins, we have to make sure that we're taking ownership of our own learning when it comes to AI. So Gen Z really is holding that proverbial door open towards the future of work. And the question is, will leadership walk through that door? And I think that the sooner that we empower our employees to utilize AI meaningfully, the sooner we're going to unlock whatever additional potential our workforce holds. And I promise you, we have many people that are working in our organizations where we don't, we're not using all of their potential. Um, when we talk about uh, having one on one conversations as an example, are your managers and are your leaders asking people what skills they have that maybe they, they don't know about? Right. What skills the managers don't know about, maybe people have skills they can utilize to fill open positions within your organization. Maybe. And if you're building a team to uh, look at explore AI adoption, maybe you need to get some additional people in the room, not just people on those high levels of the organization. Because what we've learned here is that Gen Z, uh, really are the ones who are leading this charge. And that is what UKG data shows. That is what UKG study shows. So, yeah, I mean, AI really is no longer just, uh, a buzzword. It's part of our common vernacular these days, and not something that, uh, we're going to shy away from or get away from. And at ukg, uh, we are leading the charge, uh, with the AI revolution, uh, building systems and software that's going to help you bring your workforce to the next level, Gen Z and beyond. So, thank you all so much for listening. Uh, please check out this the study and, uh, look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the podcast.