AI’s Influence on How Gen Z Embraces Education and the Workplace

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in classrooms and workplaces, Gen Z is entering adulthood with tools former generations never had. Some experts see AI as a disruption, while others see an opportunity, but one thing is clear: AI is not going anywhere. 

For Nicole Fichera, an innovation strategist and speaker on South by Southwest’s It’s a Whole Thing: Gen Z Work Relationships in the Age of AI panel, it’s impossible to talk about Gen Z without discussing the effects that the COVID pandemic had on the generation. Young workers entered the workforce amid virtual and hybrid environments, often without the traditional in-person mentorship that previous generations relied on.

“AI isn’t breaking workplace trust,” Fichera said. “I think AI is exposing how fragile workplace trust [was] in the first place. … It’s giving people an alternative to the ways that workplace relationships have been structured for the last couple of decades. That’s showing some cracks right in how our system’s design is set up around workplace trust.” 

Gen Z and Gen Alpha are used to having instant access to detailed information via AI tools like ChatGPT. Fichera said this could have a behavioral impact, potentially making young workers frustrated when colleagues or managers move more slowly, which can lead them to seek mentorship less often.

She hopes her SXSW audience will understand that, if Gen Z can pair AI guidance with “seeking [human] mentorship for the stuff that doesn’t live in AI, then they’re going to be very, very powerful.”

However, even before entering into the workforce, younger students are facing unprecedented access to information and AI tools. Rebecca Winthrop, director at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and speaker on South by Southwest’s How to Support Resilient Youth in an AI World panel, said that while AI can accelerate learning, it also poses significant risks for students’ development. She said generative AI chatbots that create original content are helping students complete tasks like math problems and essays without engaging in critical thinking.

“It’s really tempting for students to use these incredibly powerful products, but it really undercuts their brain development, and I worry that it will harm them over time and their ability to think independently and learn,” Winthrop said.

Winthrop said her review of more than 400 studies, which included interviews with students, teachers, parents, and technologists, found that students who rely heavily on AI “are becoming less motivated and feel less ownership over their work and less pride, because they aren’t doing as much of the thinking and heavy lifting.”

While Winthrop sees the effectiveness of AI to a certain extent, she warns against overextending one’s thought process to the technology. 

“Don’t replace your human relationships and your human experiences with AI,” she said. “You can use AI to support you on the margins, but you shouldn’t hand over your thinking to AI.”

Some experts, like Emily Williams, who will be speaking on the Beyond Voting: Defending Truth in Education: AI, Equity, & Power panel at South by Southwest, said the need for equitable AI development and regulation is key to prevent authoritarianism and biased technology, particularly in marginalized communities.

“If AI is pulling from all of the information on the internet, yet doing so in a biased way … it’s diminishing our ability to think broadly and embrace diverse ideas,” Williams said, noting how AI can perpetuate stereotypes. 

With this in mind, Williams said a proactive approach to educating students about AI in an equitable and empowering way is vital.

“It’s a call to start creating our own knowledge … making our own platforms and learning from one another,” she said. “We don’t have to only rely on these big tech companies for education, for curriculum, for knowledge, and information.”

Some educators, such as Mark Light of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, are figuring out how to integrate AI into education while preserving critical thinking through partnerships with youth development organization 4-H. Although the program has been around for over 100 years, it has recently integrated AI into hands-on STEM learning to help students apply the technology into real-world problems impacting their communities, now having reached “nearly 1.5 [million] youth with the skills to succeed in an AI-powered world,” according to the panel description.

Instead of outright banning AI from education, Light said educators should be encouraging responsible and creative uses of AI to integrate into curriculum. 

“AI is a tool, and whether that tool was a calculator in education, whether it’s a smartphone or a computer … there’s always ways that people can misuse a tool.”

The educator encourages youth to think about how they can “use AI as a tool and take something that [they’re] really interested in and use AI to expand upon that, or grow it, or develop it into something even bigger.”

Winston Fan, a high school senior from Iowa and a “4-H’er,” wanted to utilize AI as a way to uplift his community. Fan is a part of the Iowa City West swimming team, and after seeing multiple suicides in the swimming community, he created an AI-powered web application that records conversations with psychologists and patients, ultimately analyzing them for signs of disorders. 

“AI isn’t there to replace the psychologist’s job, but it’s there as an aid, and it’s there as a tool,” Fan said. 

Alongside Light, the high schooler hopes to show attendees of the Growing Intelligence: Youth, AI, and the Future of Ag South by Southwest panel that AI can be used as a tool to enhance creativity and resources for the communities, rather than the sole existence of claiming workforce opportunities and tampering with human intelligence. 

“Don’t be scared of AI. The youth is still here, and we’re stronger than ever,” Fan said. “We’re working on many ways already to improve AI, make it ethically practical for us humans. We’re here and we’re ready to be the next generation.”

---

This article appears in SXSW 2026 Festival Guide.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US