Beyond the “job‑pocalypse”: a pragmatic path for CEOs

The recent British Standards Institution study headlined in several outlets as a warning that Gen Z may face a “job‑pocalypse” as firms prioritise AI over new hires is a useful alarm bell. It shows senior leaders are seriously rethinking the way work gets done. But the right response from responsible leadership isn’t fearmongering or knee‑jerk hiring freezes. It’s a balanced, pragmatic plan that combines technology with people and the policies that make both sustainable.

The temptation is obvious. AI promises faster research, cheaper admin and more consistent outputs. For busy CEOs under pressure to hit short‑term targets, the idea of automating entry‑level tasks rather than investing in long training programmes can feel like the rational choice. But if you automate without building human capability to govern, manage and optimise those automations, you create brittle systems that will break as soon as the humans who understand them move on.

The hidden cost of ‘we already have staff who can do it’

A common reaction from leadership is: “We already have people who can run these tools.” That’s true today but what about tomorrow? People change roles, retire or leave. If your AI processes rely on a handful of staff who alone know the assumptions, prompts and safety checks, that knowledge becomes a single point of failure.

Ask yourself: when those people leave, who will tune the models, fix the prompts, or spot when the assistant is drifting off‑brief? The answer must not be: hope and luck. The answer should be deliberate capability building.

A phased, people‑first approach to AI adoption

To avoid throwing the baby out with the bath water, companies should adopt AI in phases and make staff training non‑negotiable. Here’s a simple roadmap we recommend for boards and CEOs:

1. Phase your adoption. Start small with well‑scoped pilots that focus on measurable outcomes time saved on administrative tasks, improved accuracy in routine reporting, or faster response times for customer queries. Treat pilots as learning platforms, not product launches.

2. Train for AI fluency, not tool literacy. Train staff to think with AI. Tool knowledge (how to click buttons) ages quickly. AI fluency understanding prompts, guardrails, bias, data quality and governance is portable and strategic.

3. Assign ownership and governance. Every assistant or automation should have a named owner accountable for performance, risk and documentation. That owner must understand the business context and the AI’s failure modes.

4. Build reusable documentation (like our Core Documents). Capture why a workflow exists, what decisions it supports and what human checks are mandatory. Documentation is not optional it’s insurance.

5. Combine human expertise with tailored AI. Off‑the‑shelf automations are tempting, but well‑trained staff using tailored AI solutions solve problems more reliably than generic bots. The human+AI pair is where durable value appears.

Why training matters and how younger hires can help

It’s worth remembering younger employees many Gen Zers are often already AI‑literate from study and day‑to‑day life. Rather than viewing them as victims of automation, think of them as accelerators for your adoption. They bring prompt instincts, an appetite for experimentation and a tolerance for iterative improvement.

But fluency alone isn’t enough. Companies must combine the energy and fresh perspectives of younger hires with structured training, governance and mentoring. That way you harvest their skills and turn them into institutional capability.

At gecco, we’ve trained hundreds of people this year and supported them to build bespoke AI solutions within secure AI workspaces we set up. The result? Teams that don’t just use assistants they create them, adapt them, and keep them honest.

Practical governance avoids policy backlash and brittle systems

Two things often get overlooked when leaders rush into automation: governance and retention. Without clear policies on data, auditing and human oversight, automations can introduce risk to compliance, customer trust and employee morale.

Good governance is simple: document the data you use, log decisions the assistant makes, and require a human sign‑off for certain categories of output. Make sure legal and HR are in the room early so you don’t discover regulatory or contractual surprises later.

The leadership test: long‑term thinking over short wins

CEOs are judged on results. But the highest‑performing leaders marry short‑term gains with long‑term resilience. If you cut entry‑level roles today without investing in the people and processes that will keep your automations safe and aligned, you may save money now and pay a far higher price later.

The better test: ask whether your AI strategy creates capabilities that persist people who can maintain and improve systems, documented processes that survive staff turnover, and measurable outcomes that improve over time.

A final, practical note for CEOs and managers

At gecco we care about people. AI is brilliant when used to augment skilled teams. Done well, it frees people to do higher‑value work. Done poorly, it replaces understanding with brittle automations. The choice you make now will determine whether AI becomes a springboard for long‑term productivity or a short‑term fix that leaves your organisation exposed.

If you’re feeling the pressure from boards or markets to “do AI”, pause and ask three short questions: 1) What problem are we solving? 2) Who will maintain this solution in three years? 3) How will we measure success beyond cost‑cutting?

If you’d like practical support from scoped pilots and assistants to training and governance workshops we run advisory sessions and demos that show how to deploy assistants, automations and agents the right way.