Is it Harder for Gen Z to Find Work? USAA's CEO Thinks So

Juan C Andrade, CEO of financial services provider USAA, has said that he believes younger employees are facing a tougher working environment than their predecessors.

In an interview with Fortune, Juan says: “I think, unfortunately, our Gen Z’s are not going to be as well off as our boomers and Gen Xers were, for different reasons 

“You definitely see it among the Gen Z generation, both active duty as well as associate members [and] family.”

This includes a rising adoption of AI in organisations, with research from the King’s Trust finding that 55% of jobs currently held by young people are likely to change due to AI, while 10% are at risk of being displaced entirely. 

“There’s been a lot of layoffs already across the economy, and that certainly impacts people as well,” says Juan. 

The AI jobs apocalypse

Anxiety around the impact AI is having on work is rising, with one out of four workers worrying that AI will lead to job losses, according to Acas. 

Mustafa Sulyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, predicted in an interview with the Financial Times that the tasks that make up office-based work may be automated in as little as a year and a half.

He thinks that “we're going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks.”

Mustafa continued: “White-collar work, where you're sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person – most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”

Companies are already beginning to reduce their headcount as a result of investments in AI. 

Fintech company Block announced in February that it was laying off 40% of its workforce, with CEO Jack Dorsey saying that the access to intelligence tools “have changed what it means to build and run a company”. 

In a letter to shareholders, Jack said: “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better. And intelligence tool capabilities are compounding faster every week”. 

Changing employee workloads

Despite head count reductions, research from the University of California Berkeley finds that employees are taking on a broader scope of work as a result of AI adoption. 

The study shows that employees were working longer hours and managing more tasks at once, with workers reporting that they felt increased pressure to maintain new levels of productivity. 

Mark Dixon, CEO of International Workplace Group, has expressed a similar sentiment. 

When asked in an interview with Fortune about the likelihood of a four day work week as a result of AI developments, he said: “AI will speed up companies’ development, so there’ll be more work, it’ll just be different work.

“Everyone’s having to control their labour costs because all costs have gone up so much, and you can’t get any more money from customers, so therefore you have to get more out of people.”

Investing in personal career development

Juan says the best way to see long-term career success – even in a more challenging work environment – is the same as it's always been.

“Nobody cares about your career more than you do,” he says. “Other people can help open doors, but you’re the one that has to figure out what it is that you want to do with your life. What are you interested in? And don’t leave it for luck.”

According to Juan, he began to see success by actively investing in his own career. 

He said: “I just had my head down, working hard…I never expected I’d be CEO of anything. It was just doing my job right, and doing it well, and doors opened because of that.”