Gen Z, AI & The Future of Entry Level Work

Disability @ Work
Episode 9
June 9, 2026

Ashley Sims
Welcome back to Disability @ Work, the podcast where we explore the changing world of work through the lens of disability inclusion. I'm your host, Ashley Sims. Today, I want to deviate a little and talk about something I've been seeing a lot on social media. The future of work for recent grads, specifically in the age of AI. At multiple commencement ceremonies this spring, graduates booed speakers who talked positively about artificial intelligence. That happened when former Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the University of Arizona, when Gloria Caulfield referenced AI at the University of Central Florida, and when music executive Scott Borchetta discussed AI at the Middle Tennessee State University. Even a graduation ceremony at Glendale Community College drew boos when officials explained that an AI name-reading system malfunctioned during the event. The backlash reflects a bigger tension. Executives are pitching AI as innovation, while many young people hear it as a warning about shrinking opportunity. And honestly, those boos tell us something important. They tell us this generation is not just afraid of change. They're reacting to a very real sense that the rules of entry level work are shifting under their feet. NPR reported that many of this year's undergraduates started college right around the time ChatGPT launched in 2022, which means they've spent most of their college years watching AI go from novelty to expectation. So today, I want to unpack that tension. Why are so many young people pushing back on AI hype? What is actually happening to entry-level work? And maybe most importantly, how do recent grads build careers without losing the human skills, judgment, and creativity that make work meaningful in the first place? If you've been listening to the loudest voices in tech over the last year, you'd think the only responsible advice for graduates is learn AI. Use AI for everything or get left behind. But that message is clearly not landing well with a lot of young people. And I think that's because many recent grads are looking at AI as a force already reshaping the exact jobs they were told would help them get started. In 2026, a Handshake report found that 4.2% of full-time early-career jobs and 10.3% of internships mentioned AI skills by March 2026, with the share of full-time, entry-level career roles mentioning AI nearly doubling from the year before. The last report found that 58% of rising grads said they would need stronger AI skills to succeed at work, but only 28% felt their school had meaningfully integrated AI into their programs. So the message grads are getting is basically, you'd better be AI ready. But at the same time, many are saying no one actually prepared us for what that means. And I think it's worth noting, I'm hearing this from experienced peers as well. Employers are pushing AI without fully understanding how or why employees should be using it. ZipRecruiter’s 2026 Graduate Report found that 51% of rising grads worry AI will result in fewer entry-level jobs. And 47% of recent grads believe AI has already affected hiring in their field. At the same time, the report suggests that post-college pathway is becoming less linear, with grads piecing together experience through internships, gig work, and entrepreneurship, rather than following a straightforward graduate, get hired, climb the ladder model. And I think it gets at what Gen Z is reacting to. It's not just fear of AI. It's the sense that the traditional first rung of the ladder is getting weaker, right as they're being told to climb it. This almost feels like a missed rite of passage. And I remember at the start of my own career, hitting the job market right at the peak of the Great Recession. And back then, jobs were scarce. And I had to rely on the soft skills I'd built through college, internships and personal experience just to get my foot in the door. But for today's grads, the challenge isn't just about weathering a tough market. It's about learning how to grow when the beginner work, the classical training ground might not even exist anymore. The expectation to figure it out as you go is still there, but opportunities to do so are shrinking. And this was such an important part in my own career. I, I really hate to think that recent grads are missing out. That's why the conversation about AI and the future of work can't just be about efficiency or technical skills. It has to include how we help people, especially young people, build the human skills and the confidence that only come from real hands-on experience. And it's why organizations need to rethink how they support new talent, not just with tools, but with mentorship and intentional on ramps and opportunities for growth that don't disappear in the rush to automate. The future of work is probably not as simple as AI replaces humans. Those low-level, repetitive tasks that once helped people learn a field are being automated or streamlined, while the value of judgment and communication and problem solving skills keep rising. And if that's true, then what recent grads are really asking is how are we supposed to gain experience if the beginner work disappears first? That question is exactly why these commencement speeches hit such a nerve. One of the most memorable anti-AI moments that I've heard came from Ronny Chieng at Harvard's Class Day. He joked very bluntly that his generation's mission, that this generation's mission, was to destroy AI. But beneath the humor, he made a thoughtful point. Using AI for breakthroughs in medicine or physics is one thing, but using it to replace creativity, writing and thinking is something else. He warned graduates not to let AI take away the fun part, the challenge, and the satisfaction of actually making something. He also described the future not as humans versus machines, but as people with substance versus people with shallow knowledge and mastery versus faking it. That line really stuck with me. Mastery versus faking it, because that may be one of the defining tensions for Gen Z at work. AI can help you work faster, but speed isn't the same as real skill. If early career workers rely too much on AI, they risk missing out on the growth that builds confidence and expertise. And Ronny Chieng called this cognitive debt. Jeremy Scott at the Kansas City Art Institute made a similar point. He started his speech with a cliché AI-written message, then stopped and told everyone it was AI-generated before tearing it up. The graduates erupted in cheers, and Scott's message was that AI can imitate, recycle and mimic, but it can't replace real human creativity or the emotional truth that artists bring to the world. He told graduates that in the end, AI can't do what they do. I don't think the lesson is that AI is worthless or nobody should use it. Even Ronny Chieng made room for the beneficial uses in science and medicine. And employer data suggests organizations do see AI as increasing productivity and in some cases, even increasing entry-level hiring, while challenging the nature of work. So maybe the better question is not should Gen Z reject AI, but rather what parts of work should never be surrendered to AI? For me, that's things like judgment, curiosity, reasoning, relationship building, creativity. Those are also the things that matter deeply in disability-inclusive work. Because if the future of work becomes more automated, then employers need to be even more intentional about how they support people in developing real skills. They need to create pathways for recent grads to learn and practice and grow, instead of expecting them to arrive fully formed with experience that they have never been given a chance to build. That's especially important in a labor market where hiring for the class of 2026 is relatively flat overall, even as AI and skills-based hiring continue to reshape employer expectations. This is also a good place to mention Harrison Ford. He didn't talk about AI directly, but his commencement speech offers a helpful perspective. In his ASU address, Ford talked about the difference between passion and purpose, saying that passion brings joy, purpose brings meaning. He also spoke about finding community and finding where you belong. That feels incredibly relevant right now. For recent grads entering an AI-shaped labor market, the challenge is not just learning new tools, it's figuring out how to build a career that still has meaning, integrity, and human connection in it. So if I were speaking directly to Gen Z grads right now, I'd say this: Yes, learn the tools. Understand what AI can do in your field. But don't confuse efficiency with expertise. And don't let convenience replace the messy, frustrating, very human process of becoming good at something. I tell my four and seven-year-old this daily. Failure is really hard, but it's in those moments when we learn and grow the most, and it's through that process where we find our voices, where we build judgment and critical thinking skills, and where we learn our own value in this world. And for employers, I'd say this: if you want a future-ready workforce, don't just hire for AI. Hire for adaptability, communication, critical thinking, and lived problem-solving skills. And don't erase the entry-level on ramp. Redesign it. If organizations automate every beginner task without creating new ways for people to learn and grow, they won't just hurt recent grads, they'll also weaken their own future talent pipeline. This concern comes up in several 2026 reports on entry-level work, which say that while AI may remove traditional junior tasks, it makes human development and training even more important. At the end of the day, I think the boos at graduation weren't just about AI, they were about distrust. They were about young people hearing over and over again that the future is exciting, while wondering whether there will still be a place for them in it. And maybe the real work ahead is making sure the future of work doesn't just become more automated. It has to become more intentional, more ethical, and even more human. Thanks for listening to Disability @ Work today. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a colleague, a recent grad, or anyone trying to make sense of where work is headed next. Until next time, thanks for listening.