Good morning. Are you communicating the goal of AI to your younger employees? Most fear AI will take their jobs, according to new data from Harvard.
The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School released its publications in fall 2025. Harvard Youth Survey Thursday, which finds a generation deeply tested. The national survey of 2,040 Americans ages 18 to 29 was conducted Nov. 3-7. For these interviewees, instability – financial, political and interpersonal – has become a defining element of daily life.
Young Americans see AI as more likely to remove something than create something new. A majority (59%) see AI as a threat to their job prospects, more so than immigration (31%) or the offshoring of jobs to other countries (48%).
Nearly 45% say AI will reduce opportunities, while only 14% expect gains. 17% expect no change and 23% are unsure – and this applies to all education levels and genders.
In addition, young people fear that AI will undermine the meaning of work. About 41% say AI will make work less meaningful, compared to 14% who say it will make work more meaningful and 19% who think it will make no difference; a quarter (25%) say they are unsure.
In my conversations this year with CFOs and industry experts, many said the goal of using AI was to remove the mundane and manual aspects of work in order to create more meaningful and engaging opportunities. However, this message does not yet seem to resonate with young employees.
There is a lot of public debate and widespread fear that AI will primarily eliminate jobs, but research from the McKinsey Global Institute released last week offers a different perspective. According to the report, AI could, in theory, automate about 57% of work hours in the United States, but that figure measures the technical potential of tasks, not the inevitable loss of jobs, as the report shows. Fortune reported.
Instead of mass replacement, McKinsey researchers say the future of work will be defined by partnerships between people, agents and robots, all powered by AI but dependent on human guidance and organizational redesign. The main reason AI won’t immediately sideline half the workforce is the enduring relevance of human skills.
The Harvard survey also finds that young people trust AI more for school and work tasks (52% overall, 63% among students) and for learning or tutoring (48% overall, 63% among students). But confidence drops sharply for personal questions.
Young employees are considered AI natives. However, it is important to recognize that they have not experienced as many major technological changes as more experienced employees, such as during the dawn of the Internet. This is not to say that AI will not change the workforce, but there is still room and need for humans. It is up to leaders to clearly communicate how AI will change roles, what tasks it will automate, and also provide ongoing training and guidance on how employees can continue to develop their careers in an AI-powered workplace.
Have a good weekend. See you Monday.
SherylEstrada
[email protected]
Ranking
Fortune 500 Power Moves
Amanda Brimmer was appointed CFO of leasing consulting and head of corporatedevelopment at JLL (No. 188), a global commercial real estate and investment management company. Reporting to Kelly Howe, JLL CFO, Brimmer partner with business leaders from around the world to drive financial growth and performance. Brimmer brings more than two decades of experience to the Boston Consulting Group, where she most recently served as Managing Director and Senior Associate.
Galagher Jeff has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer of ARKO Corp. (No. 488), one of the largest convenience store operators and fuel wholesalers in the United States, effective December 1. Jeff most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Murphy USA, Inc. Prior to that, he spent almost 15 years in management and finance leadership positions with retailers including Dollar Tree Stores, Inc., Advance Auto Parts, Inc. and Walmart Stores, Inc., in addition to a ten-year career in financial and strategic consulting with organizations such as KPMG and Ernst & Young.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column follows leadership changes at Fortune 500 companies:see the most recent edition.
More notable moves this week:
Michele Allen was appointed financial director of Jersey Mike’s Subsa franchisor of fast-casual sandwich shops, starting December 1. Allen succeeds Walter Tombs, who is retiring from Jersey Mike’s in January after 26 years with the company. Allen brings more than 25 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Allen began his career at Deloitte as an auditor.
Nick Tressler was appointed financial director of Vistagen (Nasdaq: VTGN), a late-stage clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, effective December 1. Tressler brings more than 20 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer of DYNEX Technologies, and prior to that he was Chief Financial Officer of American Gene Technologies, International and Senseonics Holdings, Inc. Tressler has also held financial leadership positions at several biopharmaceutical companies.
Mike Lenihan was appointed financial director of Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (NasdaqGS: TXRH), a restaurant company, effective December 3. Keith Humpich, who served as interim CFO, has been named the company’s director of accounting and financial services. Lenihan has nearly 30 years of experience in finance, the last 22 of which have been in the restaurant industry. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer at CKE Restaurants, Inc.
Big deal
THE ADP National Employment Reportreleased on December 3, indicates that private sector employment fell by 32,000 jobs in November. ADP found that job creation remained stable during the second half of 2025, while wage growth continued its downward trend. Hiring in November was particularly weak in manufacturing, professional and business services, information and construction.
“Hiring has been challenging lately as employers face cautious consumers and an uncertain macroeconomic environment,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said in a statement. “And while November’s slowdown was broad-based, it was led by a decline among small businesses.”
ADP’s report is an independent measure of labor market conditions based on anonymized weekly payroll data for more than 26 million private sector employees in the United States. The next major U.S. employment report (Employment Situation) for November is scheduled to be released on December 16 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Go deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
Heard
“The Fed no more “determines” interest rates than a meteorologist determines the weather.”
—Alexander William Salter states in a Fortune opinion article. Salter is a senior fellow at the Independent Institute and professor of economics in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. He writes: “The Fed does not set interest rates. As powerful as the U.S. central bank is, it is only one player in a global ocean of financial markets. Instead, the Fed sets targets for short-term interest rates. These target rates indicate the general direction of the Fed’s monetary policy, but they are not the substance of monetary policy.”
