Back in January, Priscilla Abii kicked off her new year the same way a lot of people did: by mapping out her goals and resolutions for the year.
Abii, 25, was just a few months into a new role as a marketing assistant and wasn’t sure her career was going in the direction she wanted it to. She tried talking to her friends and family about work, but they’re unfamiliar with the marketing world and would just ask: “What do you do for work?”
So, she turned to a different resource a lot of people are finding useful for life’s bigger questions: ChatGPT.
In the few years since generative AI chatbots have been easily available to the public, people have turned to it for therapy, to combat loneliness and isolation, to work through relationship problems and more.
Naturally, they’re also turning to AI for career advice.
The exercise was helpful for Abii, who lives near Baltimore: “I had heard of other areas of marketing that potentially would make more and could increase my earnings down the road,” she tells CNBC Make It. “So I was like, let me go to ChatGPT just to see the options I have.”
Abii’s research helped her explore different specialties in her field, like growth marketing and data analysis, as well as what certifications could help her learn necessary skills for them. While she hasn’t left her current job, she says her research at least gives her some guidance of where she can take her career next.
AI “gathers information from everywhere, which is helpful, because sometimes you don’t even know where to start, you don’t even know the best places to find answers, and sometimes you don’t even know what questions to ask,” Abii says. “It was a really helpful tool.”
People are using AI to map out their careers
As people become more familiar with AI tools, they’re getting more specific in the problems they want it to solve for them. Users of Claude, the gen AI assistant from Anthropic, are shifting their career-related queries from straightforward resume writing help, and referring to the platform for more long-term strategic planning.
Nearly 20% of all career-focused conversations are to help users create a personalized career map, according to an Anthropic analysis of 4.5 million Claude conversations provided to Make It.
AI can be especially helpful to young professionals just getting started. Jeanie Thompson, 23, a writer and marketer in Boston, recently started poking around Fide, an invite-only career app where one feature allows users to ask an AI agent about topics like preparing for a job interview or getting started in a certain field. The app also prompts her with daily questions to help her shape her long-term goals, like what she considers her marketing superpowers to be, and what boundaries she hopes to break in the marketing world right now.
Beyond the app, Thompson still prefers to ask friends and colleagues for help navigating big career questions, even though doing so can be hard as a junior worker.
Jeanie Thompson, 23, is a writer and marketer in Boston.
Kayla Simone
Thompson says she’s worked to “overcome the embarrassment of feeling silly for asking questions,” she says. “I’m still young, and so I know there are things that I don’t know, and I think it’s really important to utilize the resources around you,” like the expertise of senior colleagues.
“I’m just looking to soak up and absorb everything, because I know that they have stories to share.”
Where AI career advice falls short
AI is great for handling administrative work and aiding research but isn’t a substitute for connecting with other people, says Ruth Gotian, an author and expert in mentorship and leadership development.
Guidance from a chatbot is “going to be very generic,” Gotian says, while a mentor can give you insights from their firsthand experience and possibly connect you to other opportunities.
Then, there’s the emotional support that AI can’t offer.
“There are two roles for mentorship,” Gotian says. “One is to help you with career guidance — apply to this, talk to this person, etc. But it’s also to help with the psychosocial support, which is being your cheerleader, being your shoulder to cry on, helping you come up with a game plan if you don’t get exactly what you were seeking. AI doesn’t do that yet.”
AI technology doesn’t foster the same sense of trust and empathy that humans have with one another, she adds. That’s one reason why some people avoid getting overly personal with chatbots, says a 26-year-old partnerships manager who goes by Rai Tryna on social media.
Rai Tryna, 26, is a partnerships manager for a tech company in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Courtesy of subject
“I know a lot of people ask ChatGPT for relationship advice and therapy advice, and I’m just not personally comfortable doing that just yet,” says Rai, who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.
AI query results can also be overly self-affirming, he says: “It doesn’t necessarily give you the real critiques that you are looking for in your self-development.”
That sentiment might not last forever, he says, as AI platforms are continuously fed new data every day. “I think over time, the AI is forever evolving, and will get better at providing more sound advice to people,” Rai says.
Ziad Ahmed, 26, thinks AI technology can improve a lot of the world’s problems, like in medicine and manufacturing. But the Gen Z brand expert in New York City is concerned about using AI as a replacement for human connection, including in the workplace.
“I think folks might be turning to AI because of a lack of the prioritization of in-person mentorship and training,” he says, “that really workplaces and society and governments ought to be offering.”
A good place to self-reflect
For now, some users see AI as a good place to prompt some self-reflection.
Michael Campbell, 41, is an HR professional in Dallas. Over the past year, he’s used ChatGPT to take personality tests and figure out if he’s in the right field altogether.
“Everybody has their idea of a perfect career, and I was curious: Does my idea align with my personality?” Campbell says AI tests have helped him realized he’s risk-averse and hates stress. His AI searches “helped me understand how I can provide [HR] solutions and not have to stress out about it.”
AI helps him plan out his career options: How could an MBA change his trajectory? What job titles would put him on track to becoming a chief HR officer one day?
Michael Campbell is an HR worker in
Courtesy of subject
It’s helpful to hear about potential outcomes based on unlimited experiences recorded on the internet. “Even if I had a CHRO friend, they could tell me their experience, but it would be anchored on his or her knowledge,” Campbell says.
Ultimately, Campbell sees his AI career searches as an enhancement to his current job search, not as a replacement for people in his network. “You still need people to tell you, ‘Hey, maybe you’re totally off here,'” he says.
Plus, since he’s feeding the chatbot his prior work experience, it usually validates that he’s suited for another HR job, and it hasn’t opened up entirely new career opportunities.
“It hasn’t given me anything totally off the wall, like you’d do better as a pilot,” he says.
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