Episode 69 – “Why Young Adults Hate AI”

Episode Summary

Everyone over forty assumes the digital natives love AI. Turns out a lot of young professionals can't stand it, and their reasons are strong.

In this solo episode, host Lori Jo Vest digs into new Gallup research showing nearly one- third of Gen Z says AI makes them angry, even as half still use it every week. She breaks down five research-based reasons young professionals are mad, from a tighter entry-level job market to AI interviews and data centers. Then she gives her work-mom advice on making AI work for you, not the other way around.

What You'll Learn

Why so many young professionals are angry about AI, even while using it every week

What new Gallup research says about how Gen Z feels about AI

How AI is showing up in resume screening and job interviews

Why Gen Z worries AI is making people "dumb and lazy"

Why young people still want a human on the other end

How data centers became a flashpoint for young activists

How to use AI without letting it make you lazy

Why soft skills matter more as AI spreads

Notable Quotes

"Gen Z is not anti-technology. You're anti-getting played." (Lori Jo Vest)

"Mad is fair with this kind of crazy stuff going on. But it's not a career strategy." (Lori Jo Vest)

"You don't work for it. It works for you." (Lori Jo Vest)

"Don't use it to replace your creativity or your abilities." (Lori Jo Vest)

"If you go to curiosity, you will be the better for it." (Lori Jo Vest)

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome: why young adults hate AI
00:19 Nearly one-third of Gen Z says AI makes them angry
00:33 Show intro
00:41 The myth that young people love AI
01:12 The Gallup research: anger up, hope down
01:52 Usage holds steady even as sentiment drops
02:10 "Reassessing its role": a complicated relationship
02:31 Reason #1: The entry-level job squeeze
03:02 How much is really AI? What economists say
03:29 Reason #2: No human in the hiring process
03:38 AI resume screening
04:05 The AI interview
04:19 Why everyone hates the bots
04:53 Reason #3: Is AI making people dumber?
05:20 The Wharton study: "dumb and lazy" coworkers
05:37 Reason #4: You want a human
06:11 Reason #5: Data centers and the environment
06:36 Teens organizing against data centers
07:07 A message for corporate leaders
07:29 You're allowed to be mad, but it's not a career strategy
07:43 Don't opt out: employers want AI skills
08:05 Familiarity takes the edge off
08:49 Do your own draft first
09:33 Be more human on purpose
10:36 Treat the robot interview like a real interview
11:10 Don't panic about the AI headlines
11:35 From typewriters to email: technology makes us more efficient
12:09 The bottom line: Gen Z is anti-getting played
12:31 One more number: curiosity
13:03 Closing

Resources & Books Mentioned

Transcript

[00:00] Lori Jo Vest: Hello, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Work Mom Says, Don't Be an Idiot. Today, we are going to talk about why young adults, early career professionals, hate AI.
[00:12] Lori Jo Vest: Admit it, right? Gen Z may use AI every single week, but they're getting angrier about it.
[00:19] Lori Jo Vest: Here's a number that surprises me. Nearly one-third of Gen Z says AI makes them angry. Not nervous, not confused, but pissed off. And most of them are still using it every single week. So what's going on? Let's talk about it.
[00:33] Lori Jo Vest: Welcome to Work Mom Says Don't Be an Idiot. I'm Lori Jo Vest, and this is the show where I tell you stuff about work that nobody else will.
[00:41] Lori Jo Vest: So today's topic came right out of conversations that I'm having with young professionals and mid and older, you know, senior career professionals that say that everyone over forty assumes that, oh, the digital natives, the kids, the young people just love AI. They'll grab it and run. And turns out a lot of you can't stand it.
[01:01] Lori Jo Vest: And honestly, your reasons for not liking it are really strong. So today we're going to look at what the research actually says, talk about why you're mad, and then because I'm your work mom, what you should do about it.
[01:12] Lori Jo Vest: In April, just about six months ago, Gallup released a survey with the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures. They asked fifteen hundred plus people between the ages of fourteen and twenty nine across the United States how they felt about AI. And then they took that study and compared it year over year. So they didit this year. They did it last year. Anger went from twenty two percent to thirty one percent. These are people's reactions to AI.
[01:38] Lori Jo Vest: Hopefulness dropped from twenty seven to eighteen percent. Excitement fell by fourteen points down to twenty two percent. And more than four in ten of these young people that they interviewed still say that AI makes them anxious.
[01:52] Lori Jo Vest: And it makes sense. Now, here's the funny part. The usage didn't drop. Fifty one percent of Gen Z still uses AI at least once a week. That's only up four points from last year, even though schools and employees are handed out a lot more access. So you're using it. You just don't like it.
[02:10] Lori Jo Vest: So there's a woman from Gallup, Stephanie Marken, who put it this way. Gen Z isn't rejecting AI. They're reassessing its role in their lives. And that's not really hate. That's kind of a complicated relationship. And I've had a few of those. So it's not unusual for us to have complicated relationships with aspects of our careers. Trust me, it happens. Over and over again.
[02:31] Lori Jo Vest: So anyway, here's five reasons why you're mad. And again, this is research-based. The entry-level job is how all of us got started. And now it's tight. The New York Fed says recent college graduates.
[02:51] Lori Jo Vest: The national rate was four point three and about forty one percent of recent grads are underemployed, meaning they're being forced to work in jobs that they didn't study for. They don't need their degree to do those jobs.
[03:02] Lori Jo Vest: So I promised you facts. So here's the honest part. Economists are fighting about how much of that is actually due to AI.
[03:08] Lori Jo Vest: Some New York Fed researchers point to remote work as a cause instead. And note that the slide started before AI actually took off.
[03:19] Lori Jo Vest: But when you're the one applying for the job, the reason doesn't matter as much. It feels like a robot took your job. That's why there aren't opportunities out there for the entry-level employee like there used to be.
[03:29] Lori Jo Vest: So the next reason, and this gets on all of our nerves. You spend hours on an application or you're in the middle of a purchase and no human ever interacts with you.
[03:38] Lori Jo Vest: Resume Genius actually surveyed fifteen hundred hiring managers this year and eighty seven percent say their company uses AI somewhere in the hiring process. They use it to screen resumes. That figure jumped from thirty five to fifty eight percent in one year. Oh, my God. That's huge numbers. And when a person never sees your resume, it gets stuck or kicked out because of a keyword that's missing or a phrase that it could possibly misinterpret. It's really frustrating.
[04:05] Lori Jo Vest: And then, of course, there's the AI interview. Oh, my God. Greenhouse actually surveyed almost three thousand job seekers and sixty three percent have been interviewed by an AI bot. And nearly four in ten walked away from the hiring process because of it.
[04:19] Lori Jo Vest: So companies, listen, pay attention. We are not happy, or the young professionals are not happy, because they're being told to show their humanity to a machine. Who wouldn't be mad? I don't want to talk to a bot. I don't even want to talk to a bot when I call in for my prescriptions or, you know, call in to talk to the, the, you know, any, basically any of the online platforms that we use. There are times when you have to call and talk to someone and they've made it a lot harder because... So that's another AI thing. Everybody hates the AI bots. We all do. It's just a thing.
[04:53] Lori Jo Vest: The other thing that comes up, reason number three, is Gen Z thinks that AI is making people dumber. This is my absolute favorite because you're right to worry about that. In the Gallup study that I quoted earlier, eighty percent of Gen Z said that relying on AI to get things done faster will probably make learning harder. Totally agree. When you're moving fast, you don't remember what you're doing as much as when you're being slow and methodical. It's just a fact.
[05:20] Lori Jo Vest: There's also a Wharton-led study with Gallup that found something funny. Gen Z thinks that AI is making their coworkers dumb and lazy, yet they keep using it and may see it as their own ticket to promotion. It's conflicting. It's so conflicting. Trust me. I use it. I don't want to use it, but I use it. But I love it, but I hate it.
[05:37] Lori Jo Vest: Okay, reason number four, you want a human. Fewer than twenty percent of Gen Z would pick AI over a person for tutoring, financial advice or customer service. Even though Gen Z supposedly grew up online, they still want a real human on the other end of the phone or on the other end of the chat. And that should tell every employer something. I can't stand chatbots on websites. They don't understand what you're trying to ask them, and it gets real complicated really quick, and you end up being frustrated by the time you've gotten three wrong answers and finally get a human being, if you ever do, right?
[06:11] Lori Jo Vest: Okay, so number five, reason number five. AI runs on giant data centers, and they use a lot of power and water, and it's all over the media. It's all over social media. An AP NORC poll in September, just this past month, found that fifty three percent of Americans are extremely or very, very concerned about AI's environmental impact, which is up forty one percent from last year.
[06:36] Lori Jo Vest: And to top it off, the New York Times has reported that high school activists, the same generation that walked out for climate, is now organizing against data centers in their towns. And they are putting them down. They really are. And there's too many out there. There's way too many out there. And they're basically... acting like it's okay to destroy the planet, to destroy the ecosystem, to create constant noise pollution in order to make their profits. AI profits really piss off Gen Z. And honestly, they really piss off a lot of us that aren't Gen Z.
[07:07] Lori Jo Vest: So something to think about as companies that serve the populace. If you're a leader in a corporation that's... Give some thought to how people truly feel about the AI technology that you're using to replace your human employees. I mean, it's a real thing right now. And it can cause all kinds of problems with your sales, with your employees. I mean, it really needs to be addressed.
[07:29] Lori Jo Vest: Back to talking to Gen Z. You are totally allowed to be mad. Mad is fair with this kind of crazy stuff going on. But it's not a career strategy. And I am here to help you with your career. So a couple pieces of advice.
[07:43] Lori Jo Vest: Don't be an idiot and opt out. Employees are asking for this. They want you to know how to use AI and how to use it effectively. And a statistic here, the National Association of Colleges and Employers says that demands for AI skills and entry level jobs have nearly tripled since twenty twenty five.
[08:00] Lori Jo Vest: Learn it so that you can make it work for you, not the other way around. You don't work for it. It works for you.
[08:05] Lori Jo Vest: So familiarity takes the edge off if you've not used it. Gallup found that young people who started using AI often felt less anxious about it. The team at Wharton also found that frequent users worry less about it hurting their thinking. Fear shrinks when you understand the technology. It really does need human handlers. We need to be using it effectively to make ourselves more efficient. It's really good at a lot of things. And to keep up with everybody else that's using it. It's kind of a thing right now in the career circles that AI is integrated. It's far too integrated, I think, too fast.
[08:40] Lori Jo Vest: But as someone who has a career and works for a company and wants to grow in that career, it's inevitable. So you might as well get on the bus even if you're getting on reluctantly.
[08:49] Lori Jo Vest: So what I would say, another piece of advice here is you're right when you say that AI can make you lazy. I found myself being lazy. It can do that to you. So first do your own draft first. Come up with your own ideas. Make it think and take your idea further. Make it solve the stupid problems that you have. Like you have a bunch of data. It's a bunch of spreadsheets and you're like, okay, I could spend hours reviewing these spreadsheets, making observations, sorting them, or I can load it up to Claude and have Claude come back to me with a really meaningful report that I can then analyze. And I can ask for help analyzing it as well. So use it for things that it's good at. Don't use it to replace your creativity or your abilities.
[09:33] Lori Jo Vest: This is a really good piece of advice to this next one coming up. Be more human on purpose. Employers are looking at resumes now for soft skills, teamwork, problem solving, communication. A machine cannot do that. We talked earlier about AI and how much people hate it. You need to develop your EQ and your soft skills which is what this podcast helps you do, in order to rise above the other people that you may be competing against. And the workplace is competitive. I'm not going to say it's not, especially if you are in a job you absolutely love and it happens to be a very competitive industry. Develop those people skills because they will help you move up the ladder a lot faster. Because again, everybody's mad about AI. You have to learn how to soothe the emotions of your employers and your employees, you know, your clients. Being the person that can deal with anxiety, difficulty, anger, sorrow, you know, those emotions in the workplace and do it well makes you a superstar. It really does.
[10:32] Lori Jo Vest: So, let's see. Let me see what other pieces of advice I wrote down here earlier.
[10:36] Lori Jo Vest: Treat the robot interview like a real interview. If you find yourself facing a window, you know, just a blank Zoom call and you know it's being recorded and you've been given the questions and you're going through it, still dress for it. Still prepare for it. Look at the camera. I wouldn't necessarily put on an act like you're a news anchor. I might be more natural, but do it and give it your best unless you are absolutely incapable, like it makes you so angry that you just can't. In that case, shut it down and don't apply for that job. You do have that choice and ability to make those choices now.
[11:10] Lori Jo Vest: The last thing I want to say here is that don't panic about AI and the headlines, because there's a lot of people out there that are saying that... There have been a lot of pieces of, you know, different technology that have come along and have said they were going to replace the human factor. And in reality, they make us more efficient and productive. They don't necessarily stay at the same level of productivity and take out the human factor.
[11:35] Lori Jo Vest: Example, back in, you know, what, forty years ago, an executive would have a secretary, and she would do all of his correspondence on a typewriter. That's one person and a secretary, two full-time jobs, right? Now, most executives actually do their own correspondence. They may manage their own email, or their assistant manages their email, but it's a lot faster. They only do it for four hours. That high-level executive still has an assistant. So they're just a lot more productive and a lot more efficient. So look at it that way. Look at AI as a tool for efficiency, not a tool or a robot that's coming for your job. That's really going to help.
[12:09] Lori Jo Vest: So the bottom line of this episode is Gen Z is not anti-technology. You're anti-getting played. You've watched social media. You've been on the screens. You're watching AI get sold to you as the answer to everything. And you're skeptical. And you've seen the bad side of it. We all have. You've heard the scary stories. You've seen it make stupid mistakes, get stuck in a loop or hallucinate.
[12:31] Lori Jo Vest: So I'm going to give you one more number before we sign off. Out of every feeling that Gallup measured, the one that young people reported most was curiosity. And that's really hopeful, because any difficult situation that you're ever in, remember this: if you go to curiosity instead of anger, upset, distress, if you can bring yourself to curiosity, I wonder why this happened. I wonder what's going to happen. I wonder how I can use this technology in a way that serves me. If you go to curiosity, you will be the better for it.
[13:03] Lori Jo Vest: So I hope this has been a good episode for you and that you found some useful information here. That's what I have for you. Now go to work and don't be an idiot. Find me at workmomsays.com.
[13:14] Lori Jo Vest: If you have anything you'd like me to cover or you have a guest you'd like me to have on the show, let me know. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please do me a favor and hit that subscribe button. I'm trying to grow my audience there as well. So take care and I'll be back soon with more helpful information from Work Mom. Bye-bye.

Who Is Our Ideal Listener?

This podcast is for young professionals who want to learn to play the emotional contact sport of
business and experience less drama and more success.

How can you be more logical and less emotional? Be strategic, and Work Mom Says can help you.

“I tell people to back up, put down the magnifying glass, and look at the big picture when you’re
responding to something,” said Lori Jo Vest, Work Mom. “In doing this, you will understand that
what’s really upsetting you right now will be something you don’t even remember next week.”

What Value Can People Get From Listening to This Podcast?

Listening to Work Mom Says can help you grow your mood management skills, grow your ability to reframe situations, and look at things from a strategic point of view. This makes it easier to go into a work situation and get the most positive results.

On Work Mom Says, we also offer tips and tricks for creating connected positive relationships
that last over time. People will want you on the team if you can create connected positive
relationships and work environments. You become an asset, and you will be more successful
when you’re an asset.

“I also like to talk about developing traits like optimism, persistence, tenacity, stick-to-itiveness,
sticking with things, and approaching every project with a curious mind instead of a fearful
mind,” said Lori Jo Vest, Work Mom.

Why Do I Do This? A Few More Words From Work Mom

I do this because I naturally fell into the Work Mom role when I worked in the ad agency business and had so much fun with it. I also realized I had made just about every mistake there was to make. I don’t hold myself out as a stellar example of how you should be. I hold myself out there as someone who has been bruised, battered, and beaten up and learned some important lessons. I’d love to share these lessons with young people so they don’t have to make those same mistakes or be the idiot I was.

I also want to help young professionals realize that many things our culture prioritizes aren’t
really important. We talk a lot about what should be important and how to present your best face
at the office so that you can succeed.

I’ve learned so much throughout my career, and it’s gratifying to share that with young professionals and help them avoid some of those mistakes and get to that success sooner.