Will generative AI impact your career prospects?

Will generative artificial intelligence (AI) make your skill sets obsolete? If you answered yes, you have the same belief as 17% of Canadian workers recently surveyed by recruiting and business consulting firm Robert Half.

Survey respondents worked in occupations ranging from finance and accounting (which includes insurance), technology and legal, to HR, administrative and customer support, and marketing.

The online survey fielded in May chalked up responses from 1,148 workers 18 years of age and older, and 1,373 responses from hiring managers at companies with 20 or more employees in Canada.

On the more positive side, 27% of respondents said generative AI would produce positive career impacts. And, more than 3 in 10 respondents (32%) said it would have no impact on their job prospects. Twenty five per cent were unsure.

Finance and accounting (F&A) sector employees told researchers the greatest benefits of AI would be automating time-consuming tasks (43%) and increasing productivity and efficiency (26%).

Respondents to the corporate survey found managers also see opportunities to leverage generative AI. Specifically, F&A companies said it was primarily being applied to projects that streamline and automate accounts payable and receivable processes.

Legal enterprises, meanwhile, are mainly using it to draft documents, while HR firms use it for performance evaluations.

Tech companies said AI will help them process large volumes of data to improve system performance, administrative firms said they’re using it to categorize and review client feedback, and marketers noted it helps them write campaign copy and social media postings.

Further to that, F&A workers are using, or planning to use, generative AI to assist them with improving their LinkedIn or online profile (36%), finding and researching job opportunities (34%), and interview preparation (32%).

Not surprisingly, younger survey respondents were less concerned about AI’s impacts on their careers. Members of gen-Z were most likely to say they were optimistic about AI (46%), compared with 36% of millennials, 20% of generation X-ers and 16% of baby boomers.

Respondents at technology companies (38%) and in marketing and creative jobs (31%) were most likely to opine that generative AI would increase demand for their skills.

What’s more, 63% of gen Z respondents said they’d use AI to help gussy up their LinkedIn or other online profiles, while 61% said they’d use it to write and optimize their resumes. And 60% in that age group said they’d employ AI to help with cover letters, interview prep and job searching.

Robert Half’s survey found a “significantly smaller numbers of millennials, gen Xers, and baby boomers…use or plan to use generative AI for assistance with their careers.”

Feature image by iStock.com/BlackJack3D