A recent survey by the outplacement and career coaching firm INTOO and Workplace Intelligence has revealed a concerning trend amongst Gen Z. 

It involved over 1,600 full-time U.S. workers and showed a surprising outcome: they trust Chat GPT, the generative AI tool, more than their employers at work.

The infamous Gen Z is a generation of individuals born from the mid-90s to early 2010s. The ‘Z’ in the name means “zoomer,” as this is the first generation known to ‘zoom’ the internet. 

The generation is known for its outstanding characteristics: entrepreneurship, flexibility, competitiveness, and diversity. They also value inclusive culture and prioritize well-being and mental health in the workplace.

One of the most distinctive features of Gen Zs is their perspective on the internet. They believe the internet is essential as it is part of a participatory economy, prioritizing community and connection over a mere creator economy. 

Therefore, they seek platforms that generate interactions and enable them to express their individuality. They are active participants rather than passive consumers online.

Gen Z individuals tend to show a deep connection with social media and smart devices. This is unsurprising as they were raised in a highly saturated technology era. 

They have had smart devices incorporated into their lives ever since they were little and find it hard to function without them. Social media and artificial intelligence (AI) are also ways for them to build communities, do research, and find social connections.

ChatGPT is a Chatbox developed by OpenAI, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. The company launched this project on November 30, 2022. 

It is easy and efficient to use for a number of tasks. Moreover, it uses natural language understanding and generation, making it valuable for several purposes. One can utilize it for language translation, content creation, idea generation, and many more.

With the points above, it is clear that GenZs use the internet for almost everything. Their worklife is not excluded from this. According to the survey, 47% of Gen Z workers use generative AI tools like ChatGPT for advice. 

Therefore, these people favor using ChatGPT over human interaction. Thanks to Gen Z’s persistent use, the world is shifting towards AI.

The Chief Revenue Officer at INTOO, Mira Greenland, has emphasized the expectation of personalized and curated experiences at work. According to her, this makes it hard for Gen Z workers to feel comfortable in their workplace. 

Therefore, employees who do not want to fail to meet these expectations will turn to alternative resources. The most preferred option is ChatGPT.

Per the survey results, 54% of employees feel isolated in navigating their career progression. 46% also state that their managers do not have the capacity to assist with career development. 

Therefore, they turn to Chat GPT for their answers. 62% of this group, which were Gen Z workers, also mentioned that they would prefer more career discussions with their managers but couldn’t get it due to time constraints.

As there is a significant decrease in meaningful career discussions, it is not surprising that the generation turns to AI often. The lack of good team leaders and managers is a major factor in this. 

Furthermore, Greenland mentioned that Human Resources (HR) also needs to recognize its critical role in adequate company training and recruitment.

As their aspirations are mostly neglected, many Gen Z workers want to leave their current jobs. 25% of employees in the survey are hoping to leave. Of this number, 44% are Gen Z workers. 

They hope to leave their current jobs in the next six months due to insufficient career development support. Furthermore, they are looking for more Gen Z-led workplaces.

The survey also indicates that about 80% of employees and 97% of Gen Z workers believe that high-level Learning & Development opportunities are a great solution. They believe it will significantly impact their engagement, job satisfaction, motivation, and likelihood to remain with their current employer. 

On the other hand, 22% of employees and 41% of HR leaders think their company’s L&D programs are “excellent.”

L&D programs have several long-term benefits. Surprisingly, many employers do not believe it is worth the initial investment. 

However, HR leaders believe it is the most cost-effective solution. This is because it costs almost double a former employee’s salary to hire another one. Therefore, implementing Learning & Development initiatives is important in the workplace.

Besides L&D programs, technology-driven experiences also benefit Gen Z workers. Especially when personalized, they help greatly improve employees’ productivity and efficiency. 

Their high dependence on AI tools like ChatGPT is proof of the new trend of embracing personalized, technology-driven experiences in the workplace. Therefore, employers need to meet up with these expectations.