Former Meta exec launches nonprofit to help Gen Z find jobs as AI agents reshape entry-level market

Former Meta Executive Witnesses AI Agents Outperform Top Talent

Clara Shih spent 20 years working in AI at Meta and Salesforce, but nothing prepared her for the moment last fall when she watched AI agents match and even surpass some of her top employees across multiple tasks3

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. "In that moment I knew that nothing would ever be the same," she told Fortune. "You feel radicalized in that moment when you see it working"1

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. That revelation, combined with hearing from Ivy League graduates struggling to land jobs, prompted Shih to take action. The former senior advisor and founder of Business AI at Meta recognized that Gen Z workers who spent two decades training for traditional careers now face a fundamentally different reality1

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AI Creates Worst Entry-Level Job Market in Nearly Four Decades

Gen Z is entering what Shih describes as the worst entry-level job market in 37 years4

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. The challenging job market reflects a stark divide: those with AI skills find abundant opportunities, while those lacking such capabilities face unprecedented difficulties2

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. "We are living through the biggest reorganization of human labor ever," Shih stated at the TIME100 Summit. "It's faster than the Industrial Revolution. It's faster than the internet. And there's no equivalent to the G.I. Bill or the union yet defined"4

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. The AI-dominated workforce has created what Shih calls a "Tale of Two Cities" scenario, where deep users of AI have their choice of jobs while others face severe job security concerns2

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. Many Gen Z graduates are turning to alternative income sources, including gig work or returning to education to learn vocational skills less threatened by automation1

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New Work Foundation Launches Free AI Tools for Job Seekers

To address AI's threat to jobs, Shih launched the New Work Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a consumer-facing brand called Dear CC3

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. "I realized that the only way to help people keep up with the pace of AI was to give them AI tools," she explained. "Because if you use the traditional ways...it's just not fast enough to keep pace with how quickly AI is advancing"1

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. The foundation debuted with three tools designed to help young workers navigate the evolving career path landscape2

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. JobClaw maps individual strengths and interests to suitable roles without requiring a résumé, starting as an open-source prototype on GitHub with plans for consumer release2

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. Dear CC offers career advice detailing how AI development is affecting each profession, designed as a modern twist on traditional guidance columns2

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. Field Report helps recent college graduates identify the best jobs for their major, providing insights like the 31,500 open legal roles in the U.S. that face very high automation risk despite low competition3

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. Andrew Yang, whose 2020 presidential campaign focused on job risks from automation, joined the nonprofit as a founding adviser2

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Growing Concerns and the Critical Need for AI Skills

Public sentiment toward AI has shifted dramatically. Almost half of Gen Z polled in a recent NBC survey said they want to live in the past, with some citing AI as a specific reason1

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. A Gallup poll found that Gen Z's sentiment toward AI has grown significantly more negative compared to a year ago3

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. Nearly half of registered U.S. voters hold negative views of AI, while 79% of workers in a Checkr survey worry that AI adoption could result in layoffs and pay cuts1

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. Despite these concerns, evidence suggests that embracing AI tools is becoming essential. A recent survey from AI enterprise platform Writer found that employees actively using AI in their day-to-day tasks are more likely to earn promotions or raises compared to those refusing to adopt the technology3

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. Shih has a direct message for those eschewing AI for moral reasons: "While I admire their principle, I don't think they're doing themselves or society any favors. They're the exact young people that I want being part of building these AI solutions"2

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. She emphasized that "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"3

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. The message on the Dear CC site captures the urgency: "You did the work. You got the diploma. The economy moved. This is not your fault -- but it is your future, and you can own it"1

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