Young workers and AI: Why faster?

Do faster, expectations are also higher

Since using AI, Ayushi Raghuwanshi, 26, a digital marketing worker at Gurugram (India), can analyze campaign data, prepare advertising content and make slides significantly faster.

But the time saved does not make the work lighter.

“Previously, I handled 3-5 tasks per day. But now, to prove my productivity, I receive up to 8 tasks in the same period of time,” she said.

Still working 8 hours a day, Raghuwanshi feels pressured to prove what he is doing when the tasks that once took hours are now only a few minutes.

John Hazan, globally in charge of talent solutions at Bain & Company, commented that AI tends to "make work more stressful instead of less stressful". As employees work faster, output increases, thereby increasing business expectations as well.

In Shanghai (China), a 24-year-old recruiter named Shi also witnessed this. Her company is applying AI to reduce the time to make a list of suitable candidates from about 1 week to 22 - 72 hours. KPI has not officially changed, but employees are required to use AI to speed up the process.

I think working faster is good, but not necessarily reasonable, because customers will expect higher and managers will also hope we complete everything faster," Shi said.

In Bangkok (Thailand), Pitchaya Liewchanpatana, 28 years old, currently manages 3 digital banking products instead of 2 products before, with the support of AI. At times, 2 meetings take place at the same time, superiors say she can attend 1 meeting and let the AI Copilot tool summarize the other one.

These stories are consistent with the results of the Money Mind survey conducted on 3,628 people aged 21-29 in 7 Asian markets. In the group of workers who are working and using AI, 85% in China and 82% in India said that AI makes them expected to complete more jobs in the same period. This rate in Singapore and Indonesia is at 69%.

Productivity increases, wages may not increase

If AI helps workers do more work, the question is whether the added value returns to them in the form of wages? For many Gen Z, the answer is currently unclear.

Dinda Amalia Julyandri, 24 years old, a loan consultant at Surabaya (Indonesia), uses AI to process customer records faster and manage more loan applications. This gives her more opportunities to achieve goals associated with evaluation and rewards.

In Manila (Philippines), Julian Ang, 26 years old, a technology salesman, has been self-taught in AI for more than 1 year. He is encouraged by his manager to become an "AI expert" of the group and hopes that will help him have a better salary when the evaluation period comes.

But for Ms. Ridhi Anand, 24 years old, a content writer at Gurugram, higher productivity comes with greater pressure. Previously, she wrote about

500 - 2,000 words per day. Now, with the support of ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, she is asked to produce about 6,000 words. AI-supported drafts still have to be rewritten to make the writing more natural.

“Productivity has increased, but my stress level has also increased,” Anand said.

Surveys show that the use of AI does not necessarily mean increased income in most markets surveyed. Some experts believe that AI may gradually be seen as a basic skill at work, similar to previous digital skills, instead of a special ability to be paid more. But wages are not the only concern for young workers entering the AI era.

Colleen Barcelona, 28 years old, a multimedia designer in the Philippines, lost her illustration job after the company decided it no longer needed more products because AI could meet the needs. After that, she expanded her skills to social media marketing, SEO, analytics and web design.

In Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Jeffrey Tang, 27 years old, also left his user experience research job because he was worried about being left behind in the AI race. The old company encouraged employees to use ChatGPT, Gemini and Figma AI but mostly self-study. In his new workplace, Tang is trained in AI weekly and has a dedicated person to improve work processes with technology.

However, many young people do not think that there is a need to choose between AI and human skills. In Singapore, 48% of respondents consider critical thinking and problem-solving skills to be important skills for future jobs; in Malaysia it is 49% and in the Philippines 54%.

Tan Ming Chuan, 27 years old, working in human resources in Singapore, believes that the use of AI is inevitable, but cannot replace judgment in complex situations.

Ong Si En, 25 years old, who used to coordinate research, also believes that AI can take on administrative parts but cannot replace jobs that require direct interaction with humans.

AI cannot replace talking to patients, interacting with them, or explaining research," she said.

For these young workers, the problem is therefore not simply learning how to use AI as quickly as possible. More importantly, understanding what technology can do, where the limits are, and combining it with capabilities that machines can hardly replace.

AI can help a job be completed in a few minutes instead of a few hours. But the bigger question is still: Will the time and productivity released be used to do more, or to create greater value?