“I assume AI is used with every job I apply for.”

A Question From Our Curiosity Agenda 

As our team explores how we can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate progress toward economic equity, we’re filling up our “curiosity agenda” with big questions we’re eager to explore.  

This month, with graduation season ushering in next chapters of work and learning for many young people and workplaces all over the world (including JFF!) welcoming summer interns, we’ve been reflecting on…  

How is AI reshaping young people’s experiences of career preparation, navigation, job seeking, and work? 

• It’s clear that while it’s still relatively early days for AI adoption among young people, use is growing. Research released earlier this month by Common Sense Media in partnership with Hopelab and the Center for Digital Thriving at Harvard Graduate School of Education found that 51% of U.S.-based teens and young adults ages 14-22 had used generative AI at some point in their lives, primarily for information-gathering, brainstorming, and help with homework.  A summer 2023 Handshake study of the college class of 2024 found that 85% of incoming seniors had heard of generative AI tools, compared with only 61% of the class of 2023.  

• Yet, concerning inequities remain. Consistent with other research, the Common Sense survey found that more young men and boys had used generative AI at least once compared to young women and girls. And while Black and Latine youth who used AI were about twice as likely as white youth to do so almost daily or once or twice a week, Black and Latine youth who didn’t use AI were twice as likely as white youth to say it was because they simply didn’t know the tools existed. 

• Young people are also actively pushing to ensure that AI fuels economic advancement rather than inequity, with Encode Justice’s AI 2030 platform calling for governments worldwide to direct AI investment to tools that “enhance, not supplant, human capabilities.”  

• AI’s potential for personalized career coaching and navigation, resume writing and interview support, and skill development repeatedly comes up in our conversations across education and workforce stakeholders, and platforms that support these use cases are developing rapidly. While there’s been extensive research on how both high school- and college-aged students are interacting with AI in the classroom—as well as Generation Z workers’ perceptions of the impact of AI on their future careers—there’s much more to understand about how young people are engaging with AI as they prepare for and seek a job.   

• To get an initial pulse on the present moment, we conducted a very small, informal survey of young people in JFF’s networks, asking open-ended questions about their experiences with AI in their job search and their perceptions of employer demand for AI skills. We received eight detailed responses, including from college-aged interns and recent graduates. A few highlights:  

• Five respondents said they were currently using AI in their job search process, including to optimize their resumes and cover letters, and/or as a creative career navigation tool. Among these, respondents said they have used AI “to find jobs that match my personality traits” or “to find which specific career field my skills would fit best in.” One respondent wrote: “I have given AI a few examples of what kind of work I would like to do and asked it to provide me with potential careers that would align with my interests and educational background based on the criteria I provided.” 

• While no respondents said they had yet seen direct, explicit signals from the labor market that AI skills are valued, most said they were working to develop AI skills themselves either formally via programs at their colleges or informally through experimenting with generative AI (GenAI) tools themselves. One respondent said: “I think AI is changing the skills employers are looking for in that employers want employees to be more problem-solving and efficient oriented, both of which can be enhanced with AI.” 

• While six of the eight respondents wrote that they assumed that employers are using AI as part of the recruitment process, their experiences differ. One respondent said, “I have heard time and time again that AI is being used to screen candidates for positions … However, I have never read explicitly that my application was being screened by AI while applying for a job.” Another respondent wrote: “I assume AI is used with every job I apply for.” Still other respondents wrote they had seen “notice[s] of AI use” in application processes.   

• Four of the eight respondents said the rise of AI was beginning to influence the types of jobs they’re considering pursuing, from encouraging them to explore AI-related fields to confirming their existing path, or even expanding their career horizons. One respondent wrote: “It is one more resource that I feel I can access on the job that could more than anything give me more confidence in my ability to perform on the job which means I will likely apply to more jobs in general. This also has me considering jobs that might require more technical skills with the understanding that AI can also help me learn these skills in addition to hands-on experience.” 

• As the workforce of the future starts to report for their first days of work, their experiences with and perceptions of AI will have an outsized impact on whether this remarkable technology accelerates progress toward economic equity or holds it back. We need to spend even more time listening and learning from them.   

In the Headlines: AI & the Future of Work and Learning 

• A new study by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu published in the National Bureau of Economic Research argues that while AI’s economic impact may be more modest than past estimates have claimed, AI may still widen inequality—unless AI adoption drives “the creation of new tasks for workers in general and especially for middle and low-pay workers.” 

• The ICT Workforce Consortium, a coalition focused on understanding AI’s impact on information and communications technology (ICT) roles and connecting workers to training opportunities, is expanding to reach all G7 countries. Launched in April 2024 and led by Cisco, the coalition includes Accenture, Eightfold, Google, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Microsoft, and SAP.  

• Major employers across industries continue to test new use cases for generative AI for their frontline workforce. Target is launching a new AI app to help in-store employees respond to customers’ questions or complete tasks with greater ease, while McDonald’s is ending a test of voice-driven AI in drive-thrus (though indicating it will continue to pursue AI solutions). JP Morgan Chase said it is training all its new hires on AI, with current use saving 2-4 hours per day for some analysts; the CEO of Morgan Stanley projects that AI could save financial advisors 10-15 hours per week. ServiceNow says 84% of its employees use AI tools daily. CIO Magazine highlighted companies’ efforts to combine new hiring with upskilling and reskilling to meet demand for what Genpact chief technology and transformation officer Vidya Rao called “trilingual skills — data, domain, and core AI skills.” 

• On the policy front, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced The Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act of 2024, aimed at helping small businesses leverage AI. The Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) released its vision for strengthening American competitiveness amidst the growth of AI and emerging technologies, including recommendations to make all K-16 classrooms AI-equipped by 2030, develop a national approach to the advanced industry workforce, enact high-skilled immigration reform, and establish a national commission on the future of work.   

New AI to Know 

• Apple announced Apple Intelligence, a suite of generative AI features for devices including the iPhone, iPad, and laptops. Apple said many of its uses of AI will be performed “on-device,” aiming to keep private data out of servers.  

• Anthropic released Claude 3.5 Sonnet, building on the company’s efforts to develop AI models with “a distinctive character … and a genuine curiosity about the views and values of the people it’s talking with.”   

• OpenAI is training the successor to GPT-4 and launched a new “Safety and Security Committee” to advise the company on AI-related risks.  

• xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, announced it had raised a $6 billion Series B funding round to accelerate development of its technology—a move that was widely seen as inaugurating a new potential AI giant.  

The Latest From JFF and the Center for Artificial Intelligence & The Future of Work 

• The center’s Alex Swartsel joined Google’s Sarah Henderson Rosenberg and Common Sense Media’s Merve Lapus for a panel discussion on AI and the future of work, moderated by TIME Magazine CEO Jessica Sibley, at a summit on AI literacy hosted by Salesforce, aiEDU.org, and Common Sense Media.  

• Swartsel also shared insights on AI and early talent at a meetup of Washington, DC-area employer relations professionals hosted by the University of Maryland, College Park and American University, moderated by American University’s Elizabeth (Liz) Romig and featuring Diana Gehlhaus of the Special Competitive Studies Project - SCSP and Chris Miciek of Thomas Jefferson University.  

• Congratulations to AI and metaverse startup Stemuli, winner of the Innovation Factory Grand Finale competition seeking “AI-powered solutions to global challenges” at the AI for Good Global Summit! Stemuli founder and CEO Taylor Shead was part of JFFLabs’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence incubator, which sparked a merger with two other founders participating in the cohort.  

Your Voice 

We want to craft this newsletter with our community to create a dialogue around leveraging AI to drive equitable economic advancement. We would love to know what you're working on related to the questions we raise and what ideas you have for what this newsletter could include to best support your work. Please send us your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you! 

AI at Horizons! 

We’re taking a brief break from our fireside chat series in July as we get ready for an entire AI track at JFF’s Horizons summit!  Registration ends July 1—we hope to see you there!