Gen Z Is Already Ahead of Amazon

The “Toolbelt Generation” Is Redefining What Progress Looks Like

Every day there’s another headline about automation or job replacement. And the big news this week is about Amazon.

Leaked business plans from Amazon, the country’s second-largest employer, show that the giant plans to automate up to 75 percent of its warehouse operations and “avoid hiring” over 600,000 workers, despite expecting to double its sales by 2033.

And yet, for all the talk about machines replacing humans, something interesting is happening: it’s not working quite like they said it would.

A recent MIT study found that most white-collar jobs aren’t as easy or cheap to automate as corporations predicted. The major study found that 95 percent of businesses wasted money and failed to implement the AI initiatives they had planned.

The 5 percent that did were media and tech companies, while other industries found the AI technology too incompatible with the humanness of their operations. Many office tasks still depend on nuance, trust, and creativity — things that don’t fit neatly into code. What a revelation! (sarcasm ;)

Meanwhile, robots are advancing fast and being integrated with AI developments, but humanoid robots are still far off from being agile, reliable or trustworthy enough to operate safely and usefully alongside humans. Amazon’s robot workforce are more like your robo vaccuum cleaner on steroids than the Terminator on two legs. (See here for the Darker Details of Amazon’s Robot Workforce)

So the so-called “replacement wave” is still being pursued by big corporations but it’s more hype than reality and not working nearly as well as they had hoped. It is far slower, patchier, and far more human than expected.

And that’s where Gen Z comes in.

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The Real Future of Work

While Amazon races to automate, Gen Z is racing to build.

They’ve watched 18.5 million Millennials struggle under student-loan debt. They’ve seen how half of college graduates end up in jobs that never required a degree in the first place.

They’re looking at the numbers and they’re making unexpected, but logical, decisions.

Trade-school enrollment has jumped by double digits since 2019. The Manufacturing Institute projects over 2 million skilled-trade jobs will go unfilled this decade because there aren’t enough trained workers.

And Gen Z is stepping into that gap.

They’re learning welding, HVAC, electrical work, carpentry, digital fabrication and then starting their own companies. Nearly 62 percent of Gen Z say they want to be entrepreneurs, and trades give them a way to do it.

The Wall Street Journal dubbed them “the Toolbelt Generation.” And it fits. They’re using the very tools that automation can’t replace: their hands, their judgment, their adaptability.

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Why It’s Happening

Gen Z is pragmatic. They grew up inside the algorithm. They’ve seen what it does to attention spans, mental health, self-esteem, and community.

So while corporations chase efficiency, they’re chasing stability.
While the system markets prestige, they’re choosing freedom.

Gen Z understands that a job that can’t be done remotely probably can’t be outsourced easily, either.

And it’s interesting to note that they’re not rejecting technology, they’re integrating it on their own terms. Skilled trades today use robotics, 3-D modeling, and AI-driven tools, but the human still runs the show. Gen Z doesn’t fear that at all because they’re already fluent in it.

Gen Z have seen the price of becoming data. Now they’re choosing to become builders.

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The Reality Check

That doesn’t mean everything is rosy.

Automation will keep advancing. Leaders of “progress” are pushing towards a utopian goal of “no human input required” and a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to sustain human living. AI is reshaping creative, analytical, and administrative jobs, while many of the systems running our economy still reward speed over meaning and productivity over purpose.

But these Gen Z choices toward skill, ownership, and tangible work may turn out to be one of the healthiest societal shifts in decades. And considering their

Every generation inherits chaos. What matters is how they respond to it. Gen Z has been scorned by older generations because of the enormous gap of understanding between their lives lived as teens and older generations who have struggled (or perhaps we haven’t tried hard enough?) to understand what it’s like to stand in their shoes.

And despite or because of the lack of understanding from many of their elders, this Gen Z, a generation raised on screens, seems to be reaching for tools and purpose instead of apathy or panic.

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What It Means for Us

Gen Z is growing up faster than we give them credit for. They’ve seen institutional collapse, cultural decay, and digital addiction up close, and they’re learning to filter it.
They’re becoming a generation of resilience, not in spite of their environment, but because of it.

They remind us that progress doesn’t have to mean dehumanization.
That work can still be purposeful, sacred, and human.
That technology should serve life and not replace it.

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What About You?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.
👉 What’s your biggest concern about AI, automation, or the future of work?
Is it job loss? Creativity? Purpose?

👉 What are your thoughts about Gen Z and how they are to shape the future of humanity?

The more we discuss about these issues that are reshaping society, the less any of us have to face it alone.

Click to add your comment.

And in this week’s Darker Details issue, I introduce you to Amazon’s robot workforce. Are these your future colleagues? If you want to see the future of industry, Amazon is the place to watch.

Till next week, stay calm, stay strong, and stay human.
~ Kay