Gen Z is graduating into a labor market reshaped by AI pilots, hiring freezes, and nervous managers.
That doesn’t mean a jobs cliff is imminent, says James Ransom, a researcher at University College London who studies the impact of AI on jobs.
But that means the rules of entry into the job market are changing rapidly, he said, and the wisest course of action is not to chase prestigious titles, but to understand the tasks within those jobs and demonstrate how AI can be monitored and enhanced to perform them more efficiently.
“I think in the short term there are potential productivity benefits or windfalls that people should grab,” Ransom told Business Insider.
“That doesn’t mean we just wholeheartedly embrace AI for AI’s sake. It means thinking critically about what AI might potentially do, especially things that still require humans in the loop but could further enhance AI’s capabilities,” he said.
Audit the job, not the role
Ransom’s thinking is based on research from global institutions such as the IMF, OECD, and World Bank that have mapped the risks of automation by breaking down jobs into component tasks.
Lamson specifically pointed to an International Labor Organization report released in May.
As a result, we found that few jobs can be fully automated, as most jobs include tasks that require human input. Lamson says this nuance is often lost when people categorize entire jobs as either safe or doomed.
“You might look at these metrics and say, ‘Senior accountant, here’s the job. Eight out of nine tasks have potential exposure,'” he says.
“But if you start looking closely, you’ll see that the ninth job that hasn’t been exposed is team management and quality checking. That doesn’t necessarily mean this job is at risk, because it’s very essential,” he said, clarifying that this was a hypothetical example.
Ransom said the key for Gen Z is to demonstrate AI fluency.
“There is no one in a typical organization who understands what an LLM is and what its strengths and limitations are,” he said.
He said that for young workers, this era favors those who can demonstrate their skills through tangible impact.
“Especially when you can point to real benefits and time savings,” he says.
“If you have a playbook, the number of outputs you achieved, the time savings, the accuracy, and how you can replicate that,” he added.
UCL researchers advise Gen Z to learn what is still important to humans before AI advances too quickly. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
human advantage
Ransom sees current AI deployments as a brief window of opportunity before real disruption begins.
He said companies are still in the “augmentation” phase, where they can leverage AI to improve productivity, but could eventually reach a “crisis” stage as automation matures and employee numbers decline.
He compared it to the ATM era, when banks first added employees and then cut back once the technology became established.
He said a similar cycle may now be playing out across white-collar industries. In other words, companies hire to experiment, expand, and then cut back on excess.
He added that the pace of change will vary and will impact regional labor markets and industries at different speeds.
While exploring the risks of automation, Ransom rejects both utopian and dystopian narratives.
“I definitely don’t think we’re heading towards a technological utopia where everyone lives happily ever after,” he said. “Nor do I believe we are on the path to imminent superintelligence.”
He predicts that the era of “human participation,” where humans check and guide AI, will likely last three to five years, and that monitoring, judgment, and persuasion will remain essential.
“Do what AI cannot do to protect yourself,” he said. “Especially the ones that involve interaction, social skills, leadership, oversight, and being able to use AI to solve problems.”
