Digital Disconnect:Ever since the advent of AI chatbots with ChatGPT, headlines have painted automation as a monster hiding under Gen Z’s desk: robots stealing jobs, AI erasing careers, and doomsday economists yelling about unemployment charts like they were horoscopes. But if you ask the class of 2025 interns, the vibe is… chill.
A fresh KPMG survey of over 1,100 interns across the US reveals that 92 per cent of them feel confident they can adapt to AI. Half even expect one-fifth of their jobs to be automated once they go full-time.
But panic? Not really. Instead of doomscrolling through AI tutorials on the ‘Gram, they’re asking for mentorship, stability, and actual work-life balance. Who knew the true revolution wouldn’t be AI itself, but Gen Z’s refusal to live in a 9-to-5 spreadsheet prison? I certainly didn’t.
The AI Frenemies Era
Of course, confidence doesn’t mean blind worship of the machine. Gen Z interns do see the cracks in the shiny chatbot facade. Their biggest concern? Overreliance. If you’re outsourcing all your ideas to a bot, creativity and critical thinking take the first hit. Misinformation and bias follow close behind — basically the same things breaking Twitter, except with fancier algorithms.
Still, nearly nine in 10 interns already use generative AI weekly for school projects, work tasks, and even personal errands. Call it the AI Frenemies Era if you want: they’ll collaborate with the algorithm, but they’re not handing it keys to the kingdom.
They’ll Take Mentors Over MacBooks
Here’s the irony: despite being so-called ‘digital natives,’ Gen Z isn’t begging for more ed-tech or AI-driven learning. Definitely not short-form videos and adaptive AI lessons. What they actually want is old-school mentoring, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, and hands-on projects.
Even more surprising? They crave in-person interaction, from coffee breaks to observing managers in meetings, and say these moments build both skills and friendships. For the supposed ‘TikTok generation,’ this feels like the ultimate plot twist: human connection over Zoom fatigue.
Meanwhile, The Economy Is Playing Catch-Up
Bringing the lens closer home, economists are still locked in their ‘Will AI eat our jobs?’ debate.
McKinsey projects AI could add $13 trillion to global GDP by 2030, while India’s Economic Survey 2024–25 takes a notably optimistic stance. It argues that with proper skilling, AI could shift from being a threat to employment to becoming a tool that augments it.
The report warns, however, that without strong institutions, AI’s benefits risk being captured by a handful of big players, repeating mistakes of past industrial revolutions. India’s service-led economy faces the steep challenge of creating nearly 8 million non-farm jobs every year until 2030, making the balance between human labour and AI adoption a make-or-break question.
The official line? The future of work is ‘Augmented Intelligence’, a Jai-Veeru pairing of humans and machines, minus the explosions.
The REAL Digital Disconnect
Gen Z’s attitude toward AI is less Black Mirror panic and more ‘Cool, but don’t mess with my weekends’. They see AI as a collaborator, not a conqueror. A tool to boost performance, not a reason to lose sleep. The bigger disconnect isn’t between humans and machines. It’s between what this generation actually wants: balance, mentorship, trust, and what corporate culture still tries to sell them: endless meetings, rigid schedules, and cameras-on-at-all-times policies.
Maybe, just maybe, the real disruption isn’t AI. It’s Gen Z rewriting the rulebook of work before the algorithm even gets a chance.
Digital Disconnect is an ABP Live-exclusive column, where we explore the many admirable advancements the world of tech is seeing each day, and how they lead to a certain disconnect among users. Is the modern world an easier place to live in, thanks to tech? Definitely. Does that mean we don’t long for things to go back to the good-ol’ days? Well, look out for our next column to find out.
