Younger workers are more scared of AI than older employees, survey finds

Younger workers are more pessimistic and cynical about how artificial intelligence will affect their jobs than older employees, according to a recent survey. 

Generation Z Americans are the most critical of AI, with only a third of young employees speaking positively about its impact on the workplace, Glassdoor found in an analysis of workers’ attitudes toward AI. By comparison, 47% of Gen X workers — people born between 1965 and 1980 — were high on AI. 

“This was surprising, because generally we expect younger workers to be more comfortable and optimistic about technology,” Glassdoor senior economist Chris Martin told CBS News. 

Martin suspects younger workers’ negative views of AI stem from fears that it will hurt their job and career prospects. 

“There is a growing body of evidence that AI is displacing entry-level jobs that are more exposed to AI,” he said. “The coming years are going to be more difficult for them because AI is changing the way they work, and they may not have access to jobs that workers did 20 years ago.”

Many workers expressed concerns about being replaced by AI, while others resented being forced to integrate AI tools into their workflows, according to Glassdoor, an online career research site. Some also said their firms were too focused on AI versus the core business. A smaller share of workers was critical of employers using AI to communicate with staff or even using it to snoop on them.

Older workers, who are typically higher up on their employer’s org chart and more settled in their roles, tend to view large language models as complementary to their work, Martin explained. 

“They see more benefits from AI,” he said, noting that AI can make errors or invent facts, requiring oversight from more experienced employees. 

“An expert worker can easily identify and discard those mistakes, whereas a younger or less-experienced worker may have a harder time telling legitimate facts from hallucinations,” Martin said. 

Gender also factored into workers’ views of AI, Glassdoor found. In general, female employees were more negative: Only 21% of Gen Z women spoke positively about the technology, compared with 42% of Gen Z men. 

Separate research from LinkedIn shows that the AI-driven jobs boom is worsening the gender gap that female employees already face in the tech industry, with women underrepresented among new hires for AI jobs.