08-25-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

We’re deeply underestimating young professionals

The AI experts you need are already on your payroll.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

BY Khozema Shipchandler

When I entered the workforce 30 years ago as a junior analyst with General Electric, I was shocked by how many accountants still preferred printing calculators and columnar pads over screens and Excel spreadsheets. Even at one of the world’s largest and most valuable companies, some of the brightest financial minds were doing complex calculations by hand.

Putting aside how much this anecdote dates me, my first thought was, “But why…?” My second was a lightbulb moment: Digital tools like Microsoft’s productivity software were skills to master, as well as my superpower in a highly demanding workplace.

The superpower for today’s graduates is AI.

Today’s workforce is the least AI-fluent it will ever be. Every successive wave of graduates will be more AI native than the ones before. This means our most adept AI talent are interns and entry-level associates just starting their careers.

I’m constantly humbled watching my own teenagers and our greenest employees at Twilio. Their speed. Their efficiency. Their adaptability. They’re unsatisfied with “Because that’s how we’ve always done it.” They challenge assumptions and question processes. They reimagine workflows the rest of us have long become resigned to. They ask, “What if…?”

We are deeply underestimating young professionals and their ability to unlock AI’s elusive ROI, even as they remain among the most apprehensive about its........

© Fast Company