GLORY PARIS is an advertising communication agency & Social Media founded by Hugues Pinguet and Arnaud le Bacquer. Elected iconoclastic agency of the year 2022, Glory Paris has regularly distinguished itself, since his birth, for his creative audacity and his ability to create a high level of understanding for his clients. In this text, Arnaud le Bacquer gives his opinion on what AI represents for Generation Z, the first to master digital language as much as their mother tongue.
Today we are witnesses to an era where humans are in total co-evolution with technology, and in particular AI, which revolutionizes and will continue to revolutionize every aspect of our lives. There emerges an ultra-connected generation, Gen Z, who fully embraces this era and for whom the digital language is just as natural as their mother tongue. Considering all that AI has to offer, the questions of chronic laziness syndrome and stupidity of young people remain. If their parents once struggled to access information, the difficulty of the research nevertheless created opportunities for chance discoveries. We were looking for information, we found another, and we nourished a culture by principle of serendipity. Today, Gen Z navigates an ocean of instantaneous and almost infinite information. Everything is just a click away, and even an ultra-simplified voice command. Seen from this angle, we could seize the easy card of backwardness by announcing the end of the curious and wandering spirit of yesteryear, for the benefit of a lazy generation, dependent and impatient. And we wouldn't be the first to do it !
Gen Z, a lazy generation ?
Already in 2011, the newspaper Le Monde was worried about the future of a society driven by lazy youth (53% of French people thought so, including 65% of those under 30), self-centered (63% of French people thought so, including 70% of those under 30) and not committed (64% of French people thought so). So many refrains in the end ! Inventors of a term with which they are overwhelmed, these young people are adorned with stereotypes of all kinds with that of laziness as the standard bearer. Since Gen Z entered the job market, we can no longer count the number of articles that flourish on the web about this lazy generation which is shaking up work codes. If this youth so destabilizes its employers and colleagues of previous generations, this is for two major reasons. The first is in the relationship it has with work : we don't live to work, but we work to live. Today, Gen Z wants to choose the job that best aligns with their values and in which they will truly thrive. In this, it is in the process of achieving a reversal of the employer-employee balance of power. The second reason lies in its research and learning methods. “New technologies” have never been new to Gen Z ; they are acquired. This is why it has always been natural for this generation to seek information on the Internet., and in particular to watch tutorials or, now, to ask an AI directly. Choose to listen to the words of a computer or a potential amateur, rather than searching on verified sites or in old grimoires, this is where this harsh judgment of laziness of Gen Z could reside.
L'IA, mirror of the human being
However, Jean d’Ormesson said it : “Laziness, wonderful ! » There is good in laziness ; it is also what pushes us to be creative and innovative to make our lives easier. Inspiring generation, Gen Z has even managed this feat of making us question the harmful side of laziness in order to see it, behind, a generator of reflection and inventiveness. In reality, what Gen Z could be lacking would be the lack of perspective and critical thinking regarding AI. To begin with, we must keep in mind that AI is a creation of man and is even his mirror. Because it feeds on what we want to share with it, AI is just an aggregate of human knowledge. So if human speech is not always true, that of AI is even less so. For example, the Heetch “Greeting from the suburbs” campaign uses AI as a reflection of a common imagination, but wrong, from the suburbs. It must therefore be discussed and used with caution., by being placed in the light of what she already knows.
L'IA, unique source of thought ?
In a second time, AI is designed to personalize its responses based on our past preferences. This means that ultimately we will exchange information and opinions with this technology which will only confirm our existing beliefs., thus creating filter bubbles. By never being exposed to new ideas, it is easy to fall into the abyss of narrow thinking from which we cannot escape without confronting points of view. This raises the question of the future of Gen Z’s social skills.. Finally, digital natives, for whom AI has become a familiar tool, use it in various ways, the most surprising being the aid in decision-making (52 %). Would there then emerge a society tempted to avoid risk-taking or choices based on intuition? ? In our field, this questions the future of brands and advertising agencies and their ability to offer products, innovative services and messages. Because if AI concatenates everyone’s thoughts, it could be that we all have the same thinking dictated by AI. After all, AI is not so dangerous for Gen Z, it is the lack of pedagogy around this tool that is. The risk is not so much in AI, but in our behavior towards its use. Finally, if the answer to the question of the intellectual future of Gen Z is not yet there, it opens other fields of questioning, particularly on the intellectual inequalities between those who will use and those who will not use AI.
