Rude ‘Gen Z gaze’ among young service workers upsets older generations

“Gen Z consumers really love chatting versus calling and they have no problem chatting with an AI, especially if the AI is intelligent,” Levchin told analysts during a conference call this week to discuss earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. This has proven transformative for some of BCG’s clients in the financial sector, like banks, where sensitive account holder data can make customers wary of engaging with automated customer service offerings. The success is so evident that those same banking clients have started using the same technology to go after new business. Increased service-to-sales powered by Deep Customer Engagement AI, which nudges the salesperson for any contextually relevant sales opportunities, have helped those clients convert 28 percent more of initial interactions. While AI is excellent for handling routine inquiries, triaging requests, and delivering speedy solutions, there are moments when customers need a personalized and human touch to feel heard and understood.

Businesses are adopting AI faster than you can say “resume rewrite,” and young workers — especially fresh-out-of-college grads — are feeling the squeeze most. It’s a waste of time and money, according to respondents to a new Indeed report, which found 49% of Gen Z job hunters think their college education has lost value in the job market thanks to AI. As artificial intelligence floods the workplace, nearly half of Gen Z job seekers say their degrees have already been made obsolete by the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT — and they’re wondering why they even bothered hitting the books in the first place. In 2021, a Gen Z insights report from Ernst & Young showed that 92% of this generation value being “authentic and true to oneself” as important. “No one has lost their job to be replaced by a robot at Affirm … but in terms of our ability to scale our customer service and base as we employ AI more and more, that’s certainly going to be a cost saving over the next one to three years,” Levchin said.

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Another study found that 90% of Gen Z consumers believe authenticity is crucial when deciding which brands to support. They seek out genuine connections and experiences, both online and offline, and respond to brands that appear to echo these concerns. With a conversational future for e-commerce, online shopping becomes incredible not only for customers but for seekers—those who may not be looking for a specific item but have a deeper motivation that led them to the site.

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Someone who recently moved into a home, for example, could say, “I’m redecorating my living room,” and engage in conversation that gets them to exactly what they want. But while the AI-driven shopping experiences we’ve seen thus far have been impactful for businesses, they may pale in comparison to what will be offered with the power of generative AI. The use of AI in scaling campaigns helps marketers reach millions of customers with content that is still relevant to each individual.

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• Indeed, almost one in five Zoomers (19%) who are currently working in a trade said they were unable to find a job in the field that they had studied for.
• With some AI startups spending upward of 50% of their revenue on hosting, compute and software (per data from accounting firm Kruze), every dollar counts, making allaying Gen Z’s fears about AI a wise business move.
• By deploying AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants, companies can manage large volumes of customer inquiries at scale, offering instant answers to common questions.
• A common application among many businesses is the personalization of product recommendations, which offers the ability to both increase average order value and decrease cart abandonment rate.
• They seek out genuine connections and experiences, both online and offline, and respond to brands that appear to echo these concerns.
• It would doubtless prefer folks be wary of AI — especially AI apps that give essay pointers.

Nearly 70% said that they consider AI to be a “go-to” resource for work-related tasks like summarizing documents and meetings and conducting research, as well as non-work-related tasks such as finding inspiration and brainstorming. This week, surveys suggest that Gen Z — regularly the subject of mainstream media fascination — has very mixed opinions on AI. Affirm’s total transactions during the quarter rose 50%, to 21.5 million from 14.4 million a year earlier. More than three-quarters, or 77%, of Affirm’s transactions occurred at the point of sale, with 23% initiated online, through the mobile app or with the Affirm Card. During the recent quarter, general merchandise accounted for 32% of Affirm purchases, with fashion/beauty and travel/ticketing each accounting for about 16% of purchases and sporting goods coming in at 4%. “During the last quarter we launched a lot of tweaks and fixes, making the card more comprehensible and easier to use and understand,” Levchin said.

From entry-level roles to the C-suite, AI is transforming not just how people work — but what they work on, how they’re paid, and even who gets hired. “Every job currently posted on Indeed’s job board will likely experience some level of exposure to generative AI and the changes it represents,” Indeed Senior Talent Strategy Advisor Linsey Fagan warned readers in an email to CIO Dive. As a tool for self-discovery and self-expression, they were asked to create an artistic image in which they imagined themselves when they were older. We found that by engaging in introspection and self-reflection through art, students were able to identify and express their true thoughts, feelings and values. Compared with Millennials, a larger proportion of Gen Z say they base their job choices on their personal values and ethics.

By embracing their unique qualities and perspectives, young people are empowered to stand out in a world where AI-generated content threatens to make everything seem generic. Furthermore, businesses can leverage AI’s data-driven insights to anticipate peak demand times and prepare for them accordingly. By understanding consumer behavior patterns, AI can help predict when demand will surge, allowing businesses to optimize their workforce and infrastructure in advance. By making this a guiding principle in education, teachers and lecturers are well positioned to empower Gen Z to create a future where genuine human connections and experiences continue to thrive alongside technological advancements. When the line between reality and artifice is not always easy to distinguish, nurturing the importance of authenticity could be the most vital responsibility for those tasked with shaping the next generation. By exploring personal histories, family stories and cultural roots, a person can gain a deeper understanding of who they are and what they value.

Online education platform O’Reilly reported a huge surge in demand for AI learning tools last year, with four times as many professionals enrolling in courses on machine learning, prompt engineering and other once-niche skills. It appears that over time, Gen Z has grown tired of upholding an online persona that deviates from their true personality. Recent findings suggest the only way to market effectively to Gen Z on social media is for brands to come up with more thoughtful messaging that aligns with their target audience. By working on real-world challenges and making thoughtful contributions, students not only gain practical skills, they experience the satisfaction of creating something tangible that has an impact. In other words, a bridging of theory and practice that has lasting effects – a stark contrast to the often fleeting nature of digital interactions.

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Younger applicants are far more likely than their older counterparts to feel that AI has rendered their skills — and schooling — useless. Only about one-third of millennials feel the same way, and just 1 in 5 boomers have similar regrets, as CIO Dive reports. The participants expressed joy in harking back to their past to help identify their future-self. In this part of the exercise, nostalgia played its part in generating positivity about the future. When we asked students to create a future self-portrait as part of our research, they were told they could do this however they pleased – using pencils, paint, fabrics or even flowers.

While many have ingrained these recommendations into certain aspects of their shopping experience, others have used them in a far more significant capacity. Stitch Fix, for instance, has revolutionized e-commerce clothing shopping by incorporating machine learning algorithms to analyze customer feedback and offer tailored style and product recommendations. One of the troubles with customer service interfaces is just how unpredictable humans can be; the variability of our questions and responses when we’re stressed, frustrated, or desperate is often what makes those interactions so unwieldy. Gen-Z expects personalization, speed, and convenience, but they also want to ensure that AI solutions don’t compromise the human experience.