For Gen Z college graduates this year, walking across the stage comes with more than just a diploma—it’s bringing a sense of dread about the future.
AI is completely disrupting the college-to-career pipeline, so much so that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is predicting half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs could disappear—and federal data backs up a decline in the recent college graduate job market.
The problem is so existential that it’s leaving the most inspirational minds at a loss; as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman put it recently, “even the most inspirational advice lands like a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.”
However, despite a predicted AI white-collar “bloodbath,” not all is lost, and young people in particular have one advantage over their senior leaders: they know a thing or two about adapting to technology. After all, one in three college students already admit to using ChatGPT.
“I urge you not to think in terms of AI-proofing your career,” Hoffman encouraged Gen Z graduates in an op-ed for The San Francisco Standard. “Instead, AI-optimize it. Take advantage. AI is a tool you can master.”
Finding success in an AI-future will require more than just learning to prompt engineer or vibe code. It means understanding how technology is revolutionizing workflows and business models: “The more you understand what employers are hiring for, and the reasons why, the more you’ll understand how you can get ahead in this new world,” Hoffman wrote.
Fortune reached out to Hoffman for comment.
How to become a winner in an AI-powered world
With AI models improving by the day, it’s becoming more important than ever to identify which skills will matter most in the future.
Four skills in particular will soon be the most valuable to master, Hoffman said—ones that AI cannot replicate:
- emotional intelligence
- ethical discernment
- creative expression
- intention
“People with the capacity to form intentions and set goals will emerge as winners in an AI-mediated world,” he said, while adding that those who take advantage of AI will come out on top.
“While evidence suggests it’s getting harder to find a first job, it has never been easier to create a first opportunity,” he added. “Since billions of people have access to the same tools and platforms and information you do, the competition will be intense. But it always has been for the best jobs.”
And while recent grads may feel like climbing the career ladder is impossible without entry-level experience, Hoffman encouraged Gen Z to get entrepreneurial and use AI as a tool to create their own opportunities.
“Try lots of things,” he concluded. “Instead of making five-year plans, consider six-month experiments. With the right tools, you can now do what used to require teams: create content and brands, generate and test marketing campaigns, write code, and design products.”
The growing importance of connections in an AI world
While it may be tempting to view AI chatbots as newfound friends, Hoffman warned against ignoring the power of in-person networks in an AI future. In fact, he called building friendship in business one of “humanity’s greatest superpowers.”
“Friendship is one of humanity’s oldest technologies. Long before we had corporations, capital markets, or even written language, we had alliances rooted in trust,” Hoffman wrote on X.
As the co-founder of LinkedIn, the platform that has arguably brought networking into the 21st century, it may come as no surprise that Hoffman believes reconnecting with humans is what will keep you grounded. But it’s especially true, he said, in an era of abundant efficiency and diminishing empathy.
“These human networks of trust don’t scale like AI, which means your network is more valuable than ever.”
