We’re going to get a whole lot closer.

For years, social scientists have documented the rise of antisocial behaviour and the beginnings of an “anxious generation” – attributed mainly to mass unregulated screen time of young children right into their teens, which reduces dopamine sensitivity and dysregulates executive functions in the brain. Above all, youths are getting less practice in real-life interactions than previous generations, often prioritising screen time over putting themselves out there in the real world. The Gen-Z stare has become a behavioural phenomenon, whereby the younger end of Gen-Z (those who grew up with social media) has been known to stare for seconds before answering any question posed to them in person by an adult. This is hypothesised to be due to the relative lack of human interaction compared to other generations; everyday interactions are often replaced by interactions with their screens, resulting in a lack of habitual practice in everyday conversation and on-the-spot thinking. But technology is also encouraged by other social factors. In line with the growth in technification of society and our youth, standards for entry into schools and jobs have risen relative to 20 or 30 years ago (mainly because of increased access to education and therefore greater competition)– encouraging youths to spend even more time alone in their rooms to work to meet demanding intellectual standards. Many predict that AI will exacerbate this antisocial behaviour. And sure, in the short term (10-20 years), we will probably continue to struggle to regulate, to properly sift between the positive and negative aspects of AI, particularly with a generation (Gen X) of regulators who have only just been introduced to social media and how to use it. But in the long term, I have a different theory - primarily inspired by Mo Gawdat (former Google X CBO). AI will undoubtedly alter the job market significantly, and if you’ve been job searching recently, you’ll already have noticed it. AI is writing job descriptions, resume screening processes, and even conducting interviews with candidates for companies. Not only is AI handling a significant portion of the recruitment industry’s work, but it is also poised to replace other occupational tasks. AI is even predicted to be able to do some tasks for surgical procedures in the future. Indeed, in the short term, people will undeniably need to reskill as the workforce reshuffles – it’s already happening in the form of ‘the skills gap’ - whereby graduates are wrongly fitted to their jobs and employers don’t know how to train them. This is mainly because AI is adapting so quickly - employers don’t know what they need to train these graduates in or even what they need themselves. Many businesses will be able to eliminate various administrative jobs, including personal assistants, data entry clerks, and administrative assistants, among others. Many are frantic at this prospect, the idea that the lower-level tasks will largely be removed from human-filled jobs. Except these jobs were taken by overqualified graduates anyway – people that are trained to do much harder and complex jobs (ever heard of the Millennial barista?). So many more people have university degrees today (48% of 25–34-year-olds in OECD countries compared to 26% in 2000) 1, and so many youths have been studying for the greater tasks. Ultimately, society must reshape itself so that these graduates can begin their own pursuits with the assistance of AI, particularly because AI can democratise services. Gen-Z will be given greater responsibility than the traditional phone answering – over-qualified, glorified assistant, passing as an internship opportunity. So, what will these knowledgeable graduates do with all of this responsibility and spare time now that they have more assistance with administrative tasks? Crave connection. The mass exposure to technology and elimination of administrative tasks will only create more desire and time for people to invest in human-to-human connections and self or relationship improvement. Already, we are seeing an unprecedented growth in the global valuation of mental health and relationship health. The Global Mental Health industry is predicted to grow from USD 451.58 billion in 2024 to USD 623.07 billion by 2032 2. People are finding the over-technification difficult in terms of honest communication and authentic storytelling. As a result, companies that focus on relationship building are predicted to rise in value and prevalence, and this sentiment has already started. Since its inception in 2019, Ren Systems has raised over USD $12 million in funding to develop "relationship intelligence" technology, which enables professionals to connect and meet with one another 3. In fact, the corporate wellness market is set to rise to USD $85 billion by 2030 4. Just because technology is becoming more integrated into our society and social structures does not reduce the need for humans for human-to-human connection and shared experiences. The ability of AI to do many an administrative task does not change the fact that ultimately it will never be able to replace people sharing their lived experience and advice through their service and person-to-person collaboration – even in industries based on product. Even the ability of AI to do these tasks doesn’t mean it can promise success and prosperity for those who use it as a replacement. Research by the Upwork Research Institute and Accenture found that corporations that balance a focus on technological advancement as well as wellbeing-focused leadership outperform those that pursue technology alone. We are overestimating the ability of humans to completely rewire their DNA and consciousness, to merge with technology, and to devalue the human experience and our opinions entirely. Technology cannot have children, tell stories of connection, sit with you as you cry, convince a co-worker to invest in your company or even convince your boss to be passionate about a new project. The human experience makes the world go around – and that can never be eradicated. Our increased valuing of mental health and relationship building is proof of this. Gen-Z has undeniably been handed the short end of the stick – entry into adulthood in a time that even adults don’t know how to navigate correctly. In a period of unprecedented innovation, our young are learning how to balance technology with authentic connection. But they are also entering adulthood in a period where connection is more valued than ever. Nobody knows what the future will look like or what the next market-changing innovation will be – but one thing is sure: we will not lose our humanness, and consequently, we will never become of no value. If anything, we are all going to become a lot more aware of how each other are feeling – and we are all going to become a whole lot closer than we’re used to. References 1 OECD. (n.d.). Population with tertiary education. OECD Data. https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/population-with-tertiary-education.html 2 SkyQuest Technology. (2025). Mental health market size & share | industry growth, 2032. https://www.skyquestt.com/report/mental-health-market 3 Tracxn. (2025). Ren - raised $12.1M funding from 5 investors. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/ren/__M8vsNA0-pij3ZUcE23sYDX0KKbBWkVrarhblct3t4K4/funding-and-investors 4 Mordor Intelligence. (2025). Customer relationship management market size, share, growth - industry forecast 2025 – 2030. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/customer-relationship-management-market 5 EO Global Leadership Conference. (2024). Mo Gawdat on AI ethics: How to ensure artificial intelligence benefits humanity. EO Network. https://eonetwork.org/blog/mo-gawdat-on-ai-ethics-how-to-ensure-artificial-intelligence-benefits-humanity/