Clara Shih watched it happen in real time last fall: Meta’s AI agents matched and then surpassed some of her top employees across multiple tasks. That moment shifted everything. Shih, a 20-year AI veteran who has held executive roles at Meta and Salesforce, realized the AI agents job market was no longer theoretical—it was here, reshaping entry-level hiring right now.
Key Takeaways
- Clara Shih observed Meta’s AI agents outperforming top human employees across multiple tasks in fall 2025.
- She launched the New Work Foundation nonprofit (consumer brand: Dear CC) to train Gen Z for AI-dominated workplaces.
- Gen Z sentiment toward AI has soured: Gallup found excitement dropped from 36% to 22% in one year.
- Entry-level job market is the worst in 37 years, with Ivy League graduates unable to secure positions.
- Shih argues every job is now an AI job; workers must master AI agents to find and keep employment.
“In that moment I knew that nothing would ever be the same,” Shih told Fortune. “You feel radicalized in that moment when you see it working”. That realization sparked a nonprofit response to what she saw as an urgent crisis: Gen Z entering a labor market where AI agents job market dynamics are eliminating traditional entry points, yet most young workers lack the tools to compete.
Why AI Agents Are Outpacing Human Workers
Shih’s observation at Meta reflects a broader acceleration. When AI agents began matching her top performers—not on narrow, specialized tasks but across multiple work categories—she understood the threat was immediate and systemic. Unlike earlier waves of automation that targeted repetitive factory work, AI agents are now competing directly with knowledge workers in roles Gen Z expected to fill.
The job market context makes this timing critical. Entry-level hiring is described as the worst in 37 years, with even Ivy League graduates reporting they cannot land jobs. This is not a cyclical downturn—it is structural displacement happening faster than traditional education can adapt. Shih heard directly from friends’ and family members’ kids about the impossibility of breaking in, which pushed her from observation to action.
“I realized that the only way to help people keep up with the pace of AI was to give them AI tools,” Shih explained. She rejected the premise that Gen Z should wait for policy or corporate training. Instead, she built the New Work Foundation to arm young workers with the same AI agents their competitors—and their employers—are already using.
Gen Z’s Darkening View of AI Agents Job Market
Gen Z’s sentiment toward AI has shifted sharply downward. A Gallup poll tracked the shift: excitement and hope around AI dropped from 36% to 22% over the past year, while anger rose significantly. This generational souring makes sense—AI is not abstract for Gen Z anymore. It is the reason they cannot get hired.
Shih’s nonprofit directly addresses this disconnect. Rather than lecturing Gen Z about AI’s benefits, the New Work Foundation gives them practical access to AI agents and trains them to use these tools competitively. The philosophy is blunt: “If you want to find a job and if you want to keep your job, you need to learn how to get really good at using AI agents”.
This approach sidesteps the moral objections many young people hold toward AI displacement. Shih actively wants skeptics involved: “The people who have moral objections to AI, those are actually the people that I want involved, making sure that we steer these systems in the right direction”. The nonprofit is not selling AI as inevitable and good—it is treating AI agents job market dominance as a fact and building survival skills around it.
How the New Work Foundation Differs From Traditional Job Training
Conventional job training moves slowly. Gen Z cannot afford to wait for university career centers or government retraining programs to catch up. Shih’s insight is that speed matters more than credentials now. “Because if you use the traditional ways…it’s just not fast enough to keep pace with how quickly AI is advancing,” she said.
The New Work Foundation operates under the consumer-facing brand Dear CC and focuses on hands-on AI agent literacy rather than academic instruction. This is not a degree program or a bootcamp. It is direct access to AI tools paired with practical training on how to deploy them in job searches, portfolio building, and work simulation. By giving Gen Z the same AI agents job market tools that Meta employees use, the nonprofit levels a playing field that traditional education cannot match.
The contrast is stark: a Gen Z worker trained by universities and job boards is competing against peers using AI agents to generate portfolios, write applications, and practice interviews in real time. Shih’s nonprofit puts young people on the same technological footing as their AI-augmented competitors.
What Happens When Every Job Becomes an AI Job
Shih’s core argument is that the distinction between “AI jobs” and “regular jobs” no longer exists. “Every job is now an AI job,” she asserts. This reframing is crucial. Gen Z is not preparing for some future AI-dominated workplace—they are entering one today.
The implications are unsettling. Employers are not waiting for Gen Z to graduate and get trained; they are deploying AI agents now to handle tasks that would have gone to entry-level hires. The New Work Foundation’s response is to flip the script: instead of waiting for employers to train workers, train workers to use the same AI agents employers are using. This creates a feedback loop where Gen Z workers become more attractive to employers precisely because they are comfortable with AI agent workflows.
Shih’s experience at Meta gives her credibility on this front. She did not theorize about AI’s impact on jobs—she watched it unfold in real time among her own team. That observation gap between executive awareness and Gen Z reality is what the nonprofit aims to close.
Is the New Work Foundation a solution or a stopgap?
The nonprofit addresses immediate job market survival, but it does not solve the underlying problem: there are fewer entry-level jobs because AI agents are doing them. Giving Gen Z access to AI tools helps them compete for the remaining positions, but it does not create new roles or restore the traditional pipeline that once existed.
Shih seems aware of this limitation. She frames the nonprofit not as a permanent solution but as a bridge—a way to help Gen Z navigate the transition while society figures out longer-term answers. The focus is on speed and practical competence, not on systemic change.
How does the New Work Foundation train Gen Z to use AI agents?
The research brief does not specify the exact curriculum or training methods the New Work Foundation uses. Shih’s nonprofit provides Gen Z access to AI tools and trains them to use AI agents competitively in job searches and work contexts. The emphasis is on practical, hands-on literacy rather than theoretical instruction.
What does Clara Shih mean by “every job is now an AI job”?
Shih argues that even traditionally non-technical roles now require workers to understand and use AI agents effectively. Whether you are writing, analyzing data, or communicating with clients, AI agents are integrated into the workflow. Gen Z workers who cannot use these tools competently will struggle to compete, making AI literacy essential for any job, not just tech roles.
Why did Gen Z’s sentiment toward AI drop so sharply?
Gen Z excitement about AI fell from 36% to 22% in one year, while anger rose, largely because AI is now directly threatening entry-level job prospects. What seemed like a distant future concern has become an immediate barrier to employment. The Gallup data reflects generational anxiety about a job market that is closing before they even enter it.
Shih’s nonprofit is a pragmatic response to a crisis that policy and traditional institutions have not addressed. By giving Gen Z the tools to compete in an AI agents job market, she is not solving the deeper problem of job displacement—but she is giving young workers a fighting chance in the labor market they actually face, not the one they expected.
This article was written with AI assistance and editorially reviewed.
Source: TechRadar
