What Gen Z Can Expect in the Workforce
Marist Student working on laptop. Credit: Rebekah Hendricks ‘24
As Marist students prepare for the workplace, a concern among students is how will jobs look once we enter our fields of work. Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are prevalent in today's society, and it seems as though jobs may be affected by their expansion.
During and after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses and corporations have seen a switch from in-person to remote work. While the effect of switching to remote work can be minimal, the influence of AI and technology is not. The World Economic Forum states, “Technology is going to shift every job role… But almost a quarter of jobs will change as various impacts play out.”
Students believe the rise of technology will not only lead to more employees working online, but many fear lesser pay or even the loss of jobs. Film major Brielle Polizzano ‘26 states, “I think we're going to see a shift of people editing AI scripts instead of writing scripts, which could affect their wages.”
Technology can already be seen taking over minimum-wage jobs, and data confirms that AI holds the risk of replacing the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, according to the BBC. An article from Stanford News explains, “Society as a whole will benefit from increased productivity and lower costs, but many individual workers will be adversely affected... In some cases – truck drivers – machines will replace workers.”
The 2023 Hollywood strikes raised attention to this issue of AI taking jobs. Many Hollywood writers were frustrated with the presence of AI writing scripts instead of human writers.
“I think you see it a lot in the writer's strike, where employers will say ‘Instead of paying writers we can just get AI to write and come up with ideas,’” said Samantha Stulbaum ‘26. The entertainment field and others like it have human creativity at risk with AI-generated results. South Park co-creator Trey Parker used ChatGPT to create the season 26 episode “Deep Dive” script to poke fun at this development.
Most industries like fashion have entire teams dedicated to accurately predicting trends, but AI may change that. “If AI can accurately predict trends then there is less of a need for an entire team of trend forecasters,” said Hannah Winters ‘25.
While it seems like many jobs are available, some students are also afraid that with AI, businesses won’t need to hire as many people as previously needed.
“I think they’re trying to hire less…I don’t know if it's at the point where it's making a huge impact yet, but I think it will in the future. I think in the next few years, as we’re starting to get jobs, we’ll get screwed over.” said Polizzano.
Students in higher education are still in the dark about what’s to come, but have an idea of what to expect once it’s time to enter the workforce with the new technology and introduction of AI.