A former senior Meta executive has warned that artificial intelligence is fundamentally rewriting the rules of employment, particularly for young people trying to enter the workforce. Clara Shih, who previously led Business AI at Meta and held senior roles at Salesforce, says the current environment represents the worst entry-level job market in nearly four decades. In response, she has launched a non-profit initiative designed to help Generation Z adapt to an economy where AI is no longer just a tool in the workplace, but a force actively reshaping who gets hired, how they are evaluated, and what kinds of jobs even exist.
Shih’s warning is rooted in her own experience building and deploying AI systems over the past 20 years. She describes a turning point last year when AI agents developed by her team began performing tasks at or above the level of top human employees. That moment, she says, forced her to confront the speed at which workplace transformation was accelerating. “In that moment I knew that nothing would ever be the same,” she told Fortune. “You feel radicalised when you see it working.” For Shih, the implications extended beyond corporate efficiency gains and into something far more personal: the future job prospects of young graduates entering the labor market for the first time.
At the same time, she began noticing a growing concern among her own network. Friends and family members, including graduates from elite universities, were struggling to secure entry-level positions. Jobs that once served as standard starting points for professional careers were becoming increasingly competitive or disappearing entirely. According to Shih, this shift is closely tied to the rise of AI systems that can now perform many of the tasks traditionally assigned to junior employees, from data analysis and basic legal drafting to customer service and marketing support. The result, she argues, is a labor market where “every job is an AI job,” even at the entry level.
The broader data appears to reflect a growing unease among young workers. Surveys such as those conducted by Gallup indicate that optimism about artificial intelligence among Generation Z has declined sharply over the past year. Excitement about AI has reportedly dropped from 36 percent to 22 percent, while feelings of anger have risen from 22 percent to 31 percent. Anxiety remains high at 42 percent, suggesting that uncertainty rather than enthusiasm dominates the mindset of many young people entering the workforce. These shifts highlight a generational tension between technological progress and economic opportunity, with AI seen simultaneously as a tool for advancement and a source of displacement.
In response to these challenges, Shih has launched the New Work Foundation, a non-profit organization aimed at helping young people adapt to what she describes as an AI-driven labor market. The initiative operates through a consumer-facing platform called Dear CC, which offers a range of tools designed to guide career decision-making in an era of automation. Rather than focusing solely on traditional résumé-based hiring systems, the platform seeks to redefine how job seekers understand their own skills and how those skills map onto evolving industry needs.
One of the key tools developed by the foundation is called Field Report. This system allows users to explore the current state of different career paths by combining job availability data with AI exposure risk assessments. For example, someone considering a career in law might see that there are tens of thousands of open roles in the United States, but also receive an analysis showing that certain legal tasks are highly susceptible to automation. The goal, according to Shih’s approach, is not to discourage users from entering specific fields but to provide a clearer understanding of how AI may reshape those professions over time.
Another tool, JobClaw, takes a different approach by focusing on skills and interests rather than traditional credentials. Instead of requiring a résumé, users complete a short intake questionnaire describing their strengths, preferences, and career goals. The AI system then matches them with potential job opportunities based on these inputs. The intention is to reduce the friction that often prevents young applicants from entering the job market, particularly in a system where automated screening processes increasingly filter candidates before human recruiters ever review their applications.
Shih’s broader argument is that adaptation, rather than resistance, is the only viable path forward. She believes that young workers must become highly proficient in using AI systems themselves if they hope to remain competitive. “If you want to find a job and if you want to keep your job, you need to learn how to get really good at using AI agents,” she said. In her view, the most successful workers in the coming decade will not be those who avoid AI, but those who integrate it deeply into their daily workflows, effectively collaborating with digital systems that can automate large portions of traditional work.
The implications of this shift extend beyond individual career planning. They raise broader questions about how education systems, employers, and governments should respond to a labor market increasingly shaped by automation. If entry-level roles continue to shrink or evolve, the traditional pathway from education to employment may need to be redesigned. Internships, graduate schemes, and training programs could all require restructuring to account for the presence of AI systems capable of performing many foundational tasks previously used to train new employees.
Despite the disruption, Shih also sees an opportunity for engagement rather than exclusion. She has argued that critics of artificial intelligence should not be sidelined but actively included in shaping its development. According to her, ethical concerns and skepticism about AI are essential for ensuring that these systems evolve responsibly. “The people who have moral objections to AI, those are actually the people that I want involved,” she said, emphasizing the need for diverse perspectives in guiding technological progress.
