As a college instructor, Nicole Gallucci has gotten to know members of Generation Z very well. She’s also become familiar with the perils and promise of artificial intelligence. That makes her particularly qualified to unpack what makes the youngest cohort in the workforce tick, and how they are faring on the front lines of these technologies.
AI anxiety and opportunities. “Even though AI is an evolution, it’s feeling like a bit of a revolution because of the pace at which it is moving into our business.” Gen Z workers, says Gallucci, are “seeing AI expanding at such a rapid pace and thinking, what does this mean for my job? Is this a tool or replacement?”
Her money is on the latter. “It is a remarkable tool. It is iterating at the speed of sound. So in order to leverage the tool and use it to its full potential, and keep in mind that it is a tool versus a replacement, you have to keep on it every day. It’s not something that you can let it go for a few days or a few weeks.”
A new generation for a new technology. Gallucci says the rapid evolution of AI “is amazing, but it’s also a bit apprehensive for so many in this generation, because I think this generation is going to be the one that leads the charge on it, that decides how it’s going to get used.”
Gen Z employees have a “more intense” learning curve before them than previous generations had, she adds. They have to learn how to implement new technologies at the same time they’re figuring out the world of work in general.
“My greater concern is that they’re trying to learn this technology, but at the same time they haven’t had the opportunity to have enough experience on processes and how to make business operate and create sustainability for themselves. So they’re having to learn and adjust all at the same time.”
Freedom to fail is key. “We’ve always said we have to give our people the opportunity to fail. I think to a certain extent we pay lip service to that and we now have to not pay lip service. As these technologies are coming in, we’ve got to give people the time to test and learn so we can see how useful these tools are and how we can apply them.
“It’s going to be more ‘Let’s figure this out together’ as opposed to ‘Figure this out so that we can use it to replace you. The permission to fail and the permission to explore needs to be part of the process in terms of managing our people.”
(Nicole Gallucci is the author of Life Blueprint: A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating an Extraordinary Life. You can hear more of her insights this fall at the 29th Hardlines Conference. It’s being held Oct. 21 and 22 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta. Click here for programming information and registration! Hardlines Premium Members receive a 20 percent discount).
