AI is upending entry-level jobs. Three teens tell us how they’re responding

By Clare Duffy, CNN. Graphic by Koko Nakajima, CNN.

New York (CNN) — High school students are on the verge of entering a very different job market than earlier generations did.

Experts in tech and economics largely agree that AI is poised to disrupt many jobs and may eliminate some altogether. And entry-level roles are likely to be at the forefront of that shift. While employment remains fairly high among all groups, it’s recently taken a dip for 20- to 24-year-olds.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has estimated that AI could wipe out as many as half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next few years, although others in the tech industry expect less extreme changes. Finding a job in computer science — a field that until recently felt like a golden ticket to a high-paying and stable career — has already become far more competitive as AI takes on more of that work, reducing the number of job opportunities.

Meanwhile, high schools are scrambling to determine how to teach students about AI and whether kids should be allowed to use it for their studies. Students are using it whether they’re meant to or not; a 2024 Pew Research Center study found that half of US teens said they’d used ChatGPT for homework.

All of that is changing how some young people are planning for college and their careers. Some are opting to enter hands-on fields like healthcare that seem more secure, while others are learning how to apply AI to their desired role.

CNN spoke with three current high school students to learn how AI is impacting their plans.

Ask those working in tech, and they’ll likely tell you that learning how to use AI is the best way for a high school student to prepare for a successful, sustainable career.

“AI may not take your job, but someone who has AI skills might,” said Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

LinkedIn data indicates that 70% of skills used by today’s workforce will be “completely changed” by 2030, said Stallbaumer, who also heads Microsoft’s Future of Work team. She encourages students to use AI creatively even if teachers aren’t incorporating it into lesson plans.

“Are you using AI to experiment? To build an app? Are you using it even as a study aid?” she said.

Some college students are now hedging their bets by double majoring in humanities and STEM-related fields, such as psychology and data science, said Rachel Blankstein, co-founder of NextGen Advising, which consults with college students and early career professionals about how to navigate the changing job market. That’s in case one area of study ends up being more heavily impacted by AI than the other.

Regardless of the field, a growing number of job descriptions now ask for AI skills or fluency, Blankstein said. A college degree alone often isn’t enough to ensure a quick job offer these days, she said — students must think early about how to build professional skills outside of the classroom.

“These poor kids who have worked so hard to get into college, all of a sudden, they really need to start thinking about their careers from day one,” Blankstein said, adding that “the vast majority of (job prep) has nothing to do with their curriculum.”

If a student wants to go into finance, for example, they should ensure they have a strong grasp of financial instruments and markets starting in their freshman year of college, even if they’re still mostly taking required general education courses, she said.

It’s those skills, rather than a focus on a specific field, that are likely to define young people’s careers going forward, according to a study of labor market demand by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School and Accenture.

“The findings reinforce the value of viewing a career as a portfolio of skills rather than a sequence of job titles,” the report states. Specific or technical skills, such as analytical fluency or context-based decision-making, are in greater demand than vague capabilities like “communication” or “leadership,” according to the report.

Although uncertainty remains about how the job market will evolve because of AI, it does appear that young people will have to change along with it.

“How are we building our character, tenacity, curiosity, and empathy to succeed and adapt in a world where AI is bound to rise?” Karissa said. “I think that’s the question that we should be focused on.”

The-CNN-Wire
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