How recent graduates entering the job market can outperform AI

AdvertisementArtificial intelligenceOpinionWorld OpinionEric StrysonOpinion | How recent graduates entering the job market can outperform AIAs automation erodes cognitive and interpersonal skills, those who embrace the struggle of enhancing offline reasoning will thriveReading Time:3 minutesWhy you can trust SCMPEric StrysonPublished: 9:30am, 15 Feb 2026Artificial intelligence (AI) is eroding the very capabilities young professionals need to remain valuable in a machine-automated era. That is the real challenge facing graduates entering the workforce. It is not simply a case of AI destroying jobs – though it is – but that it is undermining our cognitive and interpersonal skills.The numbers are starting to confirm what we suspected. Hong Kong graduates in 2025 found 55 per cent fewer job opportunities than the year before. Over 12 per cent of those aged 20 to 24 were unemployed in December, the second-highest figure on record.Given a roughly 40-fold reduction in the cost of synthetic cognition (AI) per unit of output, a 2023 prediction that 25 per cent of the city’s workforce would need to change careers by 2028 now looks conservative. Many of Hong Kong’s thousands of legal jobs are threatened by products like Anthropic’s recent plug-in for legal work. Other local applications are bound to come.AdvertisementHiring managers make decisions based on economics, not social good. They need to be convinced that a young human worker is a better investment than a machine. Many employers are reluctant to bet on people with no practical experience and no domain knowledge.Management may prefer to upskill experienced staff to use AI to do more of what they already do. A perceived preference for job-hopping among younger workers only compounds the disincentive. This conforms to our experience as a small company paying high Hong Kong rents.AdvertisementThe “productive struggle” of thinking through hard problems, failing, retrying and eventually making breakthroughs has always been at the core of genuine learning. That this struggle is increasingly bypassed is what keeps educators and developmental psychologists awake at night. It’s also what troubles managers when junior staff expect work to be easy. The friction of navigating daily life, of developing street smarts, is being removed for AI natives.AdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x