[AK View] The Essential Attributes in the Age of AI

"Young people are writing job application resumes with ChatGPT. Corporate HR teams are running artificial intelligence (AI) to review those resumes. And in the end, no one gets hired."

This is from an article published by The Atlantic on September 8 (local time), describing the current state of the U.S. job market. The succinct headline defines the situation as follows: "The Job Market Is Hell."

There have been multiple warnings about the bleak future of the labor market brought on by AI. For young people, this is not a distant future-it is their present. According to a report published last month by researchers at Stanford University, employment among 22- to 25-year-olds in fields such as customer service, accounting, and software development has dropped by 13% since 2022. While employment for entry-level workers has clearly declined, employment among older age groups has either been maintained or even increased.

There are hardly any opportunities to advance to practical work assessments, let alone the interview stage. Young job seekers have no choice but to write and submit as many resumes as possible. Writing hundreds of resumes makes it difficult not to rely on AI for help. This leads to resume inflation. The market is flooded with resumes, all funneled through the eye of a needle that is the hiring process. HR teams are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resumes, which is far greater than before. As a result, they use AI to filter applications en masse. There may never have been a time when young job seekers did not experience rejection and failure, but in the age of AI, this has become the default.

Excessive expectations and misunderstandings about the productivity revolution promised by AI are also having a significant impact. Employers are increasingly seeing AI as a substitute for entry-level workers. Entry-level employees typically handle repetitive tasks, but in the process, they develop basic and sound problem-solving skills. AI also excels at defining situations and solving problems in a textbook manner, rather than adapting flexibly. This overlaps with the competencies expected of entry-level workers. From the employer's perspective, there is motivation to use AI to produce acceptable results rather than pay to train a beginner.

The reality is different. The nonprofit AI research institute METR conducted an experiment with software developers using AI-based coding tools. Participants believed that "AI boosted their productivity by 20%." This was an illusion. In fact, their work time increased by 19% compared to when they did not use AI. Anyone who frequently uses AI at work has likely experienced this: AI instantly produces a polished proposal, only for obvious small inaccuracies to become apparent. In the end, you either have to fact-check the entire document line by line or write the proposal yourself from scratch. Either way, you end up wasting even more time.

AI can dramatically reduce labor costs, or it can create illusions and inefficiencies that undermine an organization's competitiveness. This confusion is likely to continue for some time. What is certain is that AI technology is advancing rapidly, and today's cutting-edge innovation becomes obsolete by tomorrow. When everything changes, the value of what does not change becomes even greater. The way Silicon Valley big tech CEOs educate their children offers a clue. None of them emphasize rote memorization or the acquisition of specific technical skills. The common thread in their educational methods is fostering the ability to think independently, define problems, and seek solutions. In other words, an open attitude toward learning and critical thinking-these are the essential skills in the age of AI.