Younger workers are supposed to be the ones most comfortable with new technology. A new survey says the opposite is true when it comes to AI.
A Glassdoor survey found younger employees report meaningfully more fear about AI's impact on their careers than older colleagues do. That finding fits a pattern other researchers have been tracking all year.
The Anxiety Is Real, and It's Concentrated
Gallup polling has found young workers increasingly pessimistic about finding jobs at all, not just worried about AI taking existing ones. Youth unemployment remains near post-pandemic highs even as headline job numbers hold up.
MAIN has reported on South Florida's own version of that gap. An MIT labor exposure map estimates AI models could perform work equivalent to 360,000 Miami-area jobs. Those jobs concentrate in exactly the entry-level roles young workers are trying to enter.
A Miami Business School Is Betting Against the Fear
Not every Miami institution is treating that anxiety as inevitable. The University of Miami's Patti and Allan Herbert Business School has spent recent years rebuilding its curriculum from the ground up.
Dean Paul Pavlou's approach spreads AI fluency across every discipline rather than confining it to a single course. "The technology doesn't change every six months, but every six days," Pavlou said.
A minor in AI for business is already one of the school's most popular offerings. A full undergraduate major arrives this fall, with concentrations in marketing, finance and supply chains.
What "Human Intelligence" Actually Means Here
Pavlou's pitch centers on what the school calls human intelligence. That's resilience, resourcefulness and the judgment automation has so far failed to replicate.
The school has already signed Microsoft to roll out Copilot across its curriculum. Local employers are involved too, including American Airlines and Miami's hospitality and cruise industries. They're helping shape what graduates actually need to know.
Pavlou is candid about the pressure that creates. "My biggest fear is how do I prepare my graduates to interview with AI," he said. Employers now expect two years of AI fluency from entry-level candidates.
The Bet Miami Is Making on Its Own Workforce
That's a direct answer to what the Glassdoor data is picking up nationally. Younger workers aren't wrong to be anxious about an AI-exposed job market.
Whether a curriculum rebuilt around AI fluency actually closes that gap is still an open question. But it's a more concrete answer than most business schools are currently offering their own graduates.