This application excites the technology world, comparing it to ChatGPT or even called The Second DeepSeek. But behind that excitement is an underground wave: The fear of falling behind, being left behind - in English called Fobo (Fear of becoming obsolete).
Not just a vague fear, Fobo is now clearly present in all professions of social life. AI is no longer a tool of the future, it has become the present. From recruitment, finance to education, artificial intelligence technology is reshaping the way we work. A quick survey conducted in Singapore in June 2024 showed that more than half of workers have used AI in their work and 9/10 respondents said they felt pressured to master AI.
The financial industry is the place that witnessed the most obvious change. According to a 2024 report by global strategy consulting firm Accenture, 73% of banking work may be affected by AI. In Singapore, DBS has planned to cut 4,000 employees in 3 years because operations can be more automated thanks to AI. Meanwhile, in China, AI is used to provide credit, analyze investment, and provide personal financial services quickly. Change is inevitable - and accelerates.
Generation gap in the digital age
AI is also digging the digital gap between generations. For Gen Z (the generation of young people born between 1997 and 2012), AI chatbots or photo creation applications are just a daily occurrence. Nearly 90% of university students in the UK use AI for tests while young people under 30 in the US regularly apply AI chatbot for work, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center in early February 2025.
In general, Gen Z is the generation that easily adapts and absorbs AI technology. But for the older generation, especially those over 40, the race to keep up with technology is making them increasingly tired.
Fobo is therefore no longer a vague feeling but a reality. A survey by Gallup - a US-based consulting and analysis company - shows that the feeling of being behind technology is at its highest level ever. More than half of workers surveyed believe that their jobs will change significantly in the next 5 years. For many people, today's job description is very different from a few years ago and their role and responsibility in work have also changed.
It is not uncommon for many people to feel skeptical about their abilities. When you are not really proficient in new technology, but old experience does not help much, and sometimes even makes it difficult, the feeling of worrying about falling behind and being replaced is very real.
This reality forces workers, especially the older generation, to constantly learn. But training and retraining are not easy. While AI is constantly developing, training programs at businesses are considered by workers to be too general, lacking personalization, causing waste and fatigue. A study by the US global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman shows that although more than 80% of Singaporeans have used AI in their work, more than 2/3 feel that training is not enough.
Will the elderly adapt?
A veteran Singaporean editor, 52 years old, shared his own story, saying that after more than 25 years of working and being away from school for nearly three decades, he decided to return to the learning environment to update knowledge. He signed a part-time course in language and literature at the University of Social Sciences Singapore (SUSS), supported almost entirely by a SkillsFuture credit worth 5,500 Singapore dollars.
SkillsFuture is a policy of the Singaporean Government in an effort to help older workers improve their skills so as not to fall behind industry changes. With the provided resources, beneficiaries have the opportunity to register for more than 7,000 courses, to promote lifelong learning.
However, the biggest difficulty that older editors encounter is not the lesson, but ... technology. Canvas online learning application, commonly used in many universities and is used by millions of students around the world, becoming the "Everest peak" difficult to conquer. The application has too many modules, he does not know where to download the textbooks or where to submit the exercise, how to conduct administrative procedures on the application, check the compulsory knowledge of the platform ... sliding continuously.
He shared that this is very different from his previous university experience in the 1990s, when attending a class, he had to go to class, want a textbook, he had to go to the bookstore to buy, and submit the exercise directly to the lecturer and did not need a laptop to complete the study.
Its not that I dropped out of school because the subject was difficult its because I couldnt log in and use it, he said in a bitter sense of humor.
Although he has finally overcome the obstacles and gotten used to the system, this veteran editor is not alone in the technology battle. His peers also struggled to know where to download the documents, causing the whole class to confusion and many young students to lose patience. The classroom atmosphere reflects a bigger problem: The old generation not only has to learn knowledge, but also learn... how to learn.
The solution is not only to have more courses, but also to have more suitable learning methods. In a world where technology is firmly rooted in every corner of work and learning, it is necessary to redesign the learning experience to make it more accessible for the elderly.
AI-powered transformations are inevitable. But if each new wave of technology is an exhausting race, workers will lose confidence and motivation to learn. And then, Fobo will no longer stop at worry but will become a sad reality.
From Manus to Canvas, the story of the AI era is not just about technology - but about people. Regarding how we adapt, learn, how to keep ourselves from being swept away by the whirlwind of change. Because learning to live with AI is not only a matter of skill, but also a matter of courage and perseverance.
