Do Singapore Gen Zs fear GenAI taking their jobs?

New Paper

3 days ago

Che Zi Fan, 17, has been passionate about art for as long as she can remember. The junior college student started attending private art classes at the age of five, joined the Enhanced Art Programme in secondary school and has been keeping an Instagram page to share her artwork.
She once dreamed of flexing her drawing skills in a fashion design or animation career, but is now having second thoughts amid the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
On a recent overseas trip, she saw how AI-generated designs were used in beverage packaging and promotional posters.
She was also disheartened to see positive comments about AI-generated art on social media, with few users asking about the original reference materials.
Artists now have a higher risk of being replaced by AI, she said, adding that her job search will likely be even tougher when it is her turn to join the workforce.
According to a survey of more than 2,500 Singapore residents by recruitment agency Randstad in June, almost half (49 per cent) of Gen Z respondents agree that AI will have considerable impact on their jobs in the next five years - although just a small proportion (4 per cent) of them said they expect to lose their jobs to AI.
While Gen Zers report more frequent usage of AI in their work than Gen X and millennial respondents, this cohort is still the "most likely to feel impacted by the AI revolution", the report said.
Young workers in the US and Britain also appeared to be apprehensive about AI's impact on their jobs.
In a 2024 survey by technology education provider General Assembly, 62 per cent of Gen Z respondents in these countries said they believed AI could replace their jobs within the next decade, whereas only 6 per cent of their senior counterparts - directors and vice-president-level executives - feel threatened by AI.
Confidence meets anxiety
Several Gen Zers who spoke to The Straits Times said they consider themselves more adept at using AI than older generations. Yet, anxiety over job security continues to weigh heavily on their minds.
Ms Chua, who wanted to be known only by her surname, is one of them. The 21-year-old biomedical sciences student said she is confident in crafting prompts to elicit good responses from ChatGPT to help with her work.
However, she remains uncertain about her career prospects, since it is hard to tell the extent to which AI can replace human labour.
Mr Ryan Ong, 26, a test engineer in the semiconductor industry, said AI has made it much faster for him to code in unfamiliar programming languages such as Perl and Ruby. Without AI, he would have to pick up the languages from scratch.
But he feels somewhat disadvantaged compared with the younger Gen Z interns in his office, who seem even more AI-literate since they had the tools at their disposal while still in school.
To stay ahead of the curve, he is taking AI courses on LinkedIn Learning and Coursera to hone his technical skills on his personal time. He also hopes to develop people management skills, so he can take on managerial roles that may be less dispensable.
Ms Linda Teo, recruitment agency ManpowerGroup's country manager for Singapore, said AI presents both opportunities and risks for Gen Zers who are now entering the workforce.
Some entry-level roles with largely structured and rule-based job scopes, particularly in industries like banking, technology and legal services, are likely to be disrupted, she said. But on the flip side, integrating AI into these roles could free up employees to focus on more strategic work.
Rethink knowledge work
Dr Sahara Sadik, research division deputy director at the Institute for Adult Learning, said the tasks of knowledge workers are being unbundled and redistributed as companies increasingly leverage AI.
Gen Z employees and job seekers may feel this impact more sharply as companies reduce hiring for entry-level roles by relying on experienced employees - now armed with AI tools - to take on more responsibilities, she said.
Many young, well-qualified Singaporeans also tend to aim for big companies, which are more likely to undertake AI innovation, so they may find themselves feeling the heat more, she added.
Dr Sahara Sadik said the tasks of knowledge workers are being unbundled and redistributed as companies increasingly leverage AI. PHOTO: COURTESY OF SAHARA SADIK
Dr Sahara said Gen Zers must understand that "thinking" work alone is less valuable now.
"In an age of generative AI, the real edge lies in integrating knowing, doing and connecting," she said. "It is no longer just about what you know, but how you apply it, what you build from it and how you collaborate with others."
Institutes of higher learning have been adapting their pedagogy to better prepare students for an AI-disrupted job market.
The National University of Singapore is integrating AI across its curriculum and allowing students to use AI for take-home assessments, provided they acknowledge and attribute their use of it.
The Singapore Management University (SMU) also encourages instructors to permit the use of AI tools in assessments, although they may ban it for courses aimed at equipping students with foundational skills.
Ms Corrine Ong, director at SMU's Dato' Kho Hui Meng Career Centre, urged students to hone skills that cannot be easily replaced by AI, such as contextual understanding and collaboration.
Some Gen Zers are taking heed.
Aspiring advertising professional Lionel Lee, 25, used to feel uneasy when he saw how generative AI could produce a complete advertising strategy in seconds - down to fine details that would normally take much longer for a human mind to come up with.
However, after working alongside industry professionals during his internship, he is more convinced of the value of human input.
After working alongside industry professionals during his internship, Mr Lionel Lee is more convinced of the value of human input. PHOTO: COURTESY OF LIONEL LEE
His experienced colleagues showed him that a human strategist's sense of intuition counts for a lot in the creative field.
For example, the human mind is still far better at evaluating whether an idea is attractive or offensive to the target audience.
"AI without the (intervention) of humans is kind of like hitting at a blind target," Mr Lee said. "We can ask AI to do a lot of things, but if it's not guided, then it won't provide the most optimal solution."