The big picture: Employers and HR pros say they're willing to take chances on otherwise less qualified candidates if they have AI experience, Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at entry-level job platform Handshake, tells Axios.

• Gen Z "is likely to be the generation that is going to help teach the rest of the workforce GenAI," Cruzvergara adds. "They're more comfortable with it, they don't mind experimenting with it."
• The share of job descriptions on Handshake mentioning generative AI more than tripled from 2023 to 2024 — but still represented fewer than 1% of listings in April 2024.

Case in point: Avalon Fenster, 23, taught herself how to use AI in her personal and professional life — then wound up showing her older coworkers the lay of the land during internships.

• Fenster now runs a platform called Internship Girl, which uses AI to help provide career resources to about 350,000 young women from more than 100 countries.
• She promotes AI to level the professional playing field, especially for first-generation college students or non-native English speakers.

Threat level: Fenster, now a law student, is concerned about AI's impact on critical thinking skills, and wants companies and schools to provide AI literacy training.

AI's environmental toll is a turnoff for other young people.

• "I personally took a stand to not use AI because of the climate impact," says Katya Danziger, a 25-year-old computer science student and research assistant at Parsons, who stopped using AI chatbots about six months ago.

Career impact is also a Gen Z concern.

• In a recent Pew survey, 35% of U.S. workers between 18 and 29 said they think AI will lead to fewer job opportunities.

Yes, but: "Sometimes having a little bit of nervousness around the fact that it might impact your career is not a bad thing," Cruzvergara says.

• "It keeps you on your toes."