Some Gen Z workers are turning to AI for career advice and it's actually not a bad idea

Almost half of GenZers said in a recent survey that chatbots and social media offered better career advice than their managers. Getty Images/Visual Generation

• In a survey, about half of Gen Zers said AI and social media gave better career advice than a boss.
• While depending solely on tools like chatbots isn’t wise, it’s possible to find valuable insights.
• Bosses shouldn’t rely on tech to give career advice to their teams, a business professor told BI.

When you log into ChatGPT, a pop-up warns it’s not intended to give advice. Someone should tell Gen Z.

Almost half of GenZers said in a recent survey that chatbots and social media offered better career advice than their managers. That doesn’t say much for many bosses, of course. While many might be overworked, others might not be good managers.

So, while relying on artificial intelligence for career inspo can be a move of desperation, it’s also possible that the youngest segment of the workforce is onto something: It makes sense to turn to a tool like AI for career guidance as long as it’s not the sole source of advice. That’s according to Christopher G. Myers, an Academy of Management scholar and associate professor of management at Johns Hopkins University.

“ChatGPT can synthesize vast quantities of generalized information, and that can be incredibly valuable, but it isn’t the same as the sort of contextualized information that you get from a conversation with a manager or a mentor within your organization,” he told Business Insider.

The trick is getting that time with the boss, which can be hard. In the survey, 62% of Gen Z workers said they’d like to talk more about their career path but that their boss was often too busy. That might be one reason some young workers find it beneficial to hit up bots or turn to social media with career questions.

The survey results were also notable because workers who felt at least “somewhat” supported by their manager were almost seven times more likely to state they’d made significant career progress in the past year than those who didn’t get much help from the boss.

When tech becomes the head coach

Some workers’ willingness or even preference for using tech as a means of getting ahead isn’t new, Myers said. He pointed to search engines and MOOCs — massive open online courses — as some of the ways workers have for years leveled up their abilities. “People could kind of say, ‘Well, I get better skill-building from a YouTube tutorial than from my manager,'” Myers said.

One concern, beyond getting information that’s not specific to an employer, would be if people rely too much on tech, he said.

“The question just becomes how do we make sure that folks aren’t ignoring the conversation with their manager or managers aren’t offloading responsibility for mentoring onto ChatGPT,” Myers said.

He said training budgets are often among the first things to get cut when employers hit a rough patch. That might have been what some employers did during the pandemic, Myers said. Those types of rollbacks can leave younger workers, in particular, feeling like their career progression is at risk of stalling.

In the survey, more than eight in 10 Gen Zers said having learning and development opportunities were just as or even more valuable than getting a promotion or a bump in title.

“We miss sometimes that opportunities to grow and develop at work matter to employees, particularly younger employees,” Myers said.

Managers are still the most important relationship at work

He said hybrid and remote work can make mentoring and in-person learning activities fall away unless bosses make a point to keep doing those things. Myers added that the trouble many companies had attracting workers in recent years meant the types of things many employees want — like training and tuition reimbursement — could have been left behind. “There was a big emphasis just on maintaining a basic workforce,” he said.

“We see this sort of continuous cycle where we cut learning and development budgets back then we realize that people really value those, and you see a little bit more investment,” Myers said.

Changes to how we work — including the rise of AI — mean some people look to benefit from building their skills. For those worried that burgeoning tech could dent their career prospects, managers can help by advocating for on-the-job training for workers, as BI has previously reported.

When it comes to making time for developing younger workers? Managers should remember how much their actions shape the success of those under them, Daniel Jolles, a research assistant in behavioral science at the Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics and Political Science, told BI.

“The relationship employees have with their line manager is still the most important relationship people have at work,” he said.