At the United Nations, young people are not asking for a place in the AI future – they are drawing the blueprint

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At the United Nations, young people are not asking for a place in the AI future – they are drawing the blueprint

Young visionaries at the United Nations aren’t waiting for the AI future – they’re boldly designing it right now

Prof. Dr. Anabel Ternès von Hattburg

NEW YORK – In a city where artificial intelligence is often discussed in terms of disruption, risk and regulatory delay, more than 60 young people from around the world gathered at United Nations headquarters last week with a different proposition: the future of work should not be designed for them without them.

The occasion was a side event at the ECOSOC Youth Forum 2026, partnered by AIESEC and We Empower, titled “AI’s Impact on Youth Employment: Co-Creating Pathways to Decent Work.” The premise was deceptively simple. Bring together mainly young people ages 18 to 27, give them a structured framework, and ask them not only to diagnose the problem but to design solutions.

What emerged was a kind of youth-authored policy draft for the age of AI,  one that reflected urgency, realism and a striking refusal to frame young people as passive victims of technological change.

The challenge they described was not abstract. Across countries and sectors, participants said they are already seeing entry-level roles disappear, internships reduced or automated, and recruitment processes increasingly mediated by algorithms. For young workers, this means the traditional first rung on the career ladder is becoming harder to reach just as the labor market itself is changing fastest.

Their response was not anti-technology. It was anti-inaction.

After impulses and an experts panel discussion with Carmen Gamon Lazaro, Management and Programme Analyst Strategic Workforce Planning Section Office of Human Resources Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance of the UN, futurist and psychologist Prof. Dr. Anabel Ternès von Hattburg, psychologist and former Vice President of AIESEC International Lorena Stephanie and executice director of Ontario Montclair School District Veronica Bucheli, moderated by Abdul Wasay, President Communications of AIESEC International, the workshop with all participants started. 

Through a structured “Reality Mapping” exercise, participants identified three patterns that cut across geographies and industries: a widening gap between what education systems teach and what the AI-era labor market requires; deeply unequal access to AI literacy and training; and a shrinking pipeline of entry-level jobs as organizations automate tasks once assigned to junior staff.

One participant group captured the situation in unusually direct terms: young people seeking entry-level jobs face uncertainty because organizations are adopting AI so broadly, and so quickly, that the pathways into work themselves are breaking down.

That diagnosis shaped the room. Rather than dwelling on fear, the group moved into design. Over the course of the workshop, participants developed eight concrete proposals – each one aimed at a different pressure point in the system.

One proposal combined government oversight with what its authors called “Employment EducAItion”: a two-part approach in which governments create accountability mechanisms for companies adopting AI, while NGOs and third-party organizations educate both employers and young applicants about responsible AI use. Another advocated a portable micro-credential system tied directly to industry needs, so that short, practical training could travel across borders and local labor markets. A third called for AI literacy to be embedded across all school subjects, not treated as a niche technical elective but as a basic competency for life and learning.

Several groups focused on governance. They argued that AI in recruitment should be regulated, with human judgment preserved at the center of hiring decisions. Others proposed youth-led local training chapters that would start with community surveys to identify real skills gaps before designing training responses. Still others emphasized access and equity, warning that AI training restricted to privileged settings would only deepen existing inequality.

Taken together, the proposals pointed to a larger conclusion: the question is no longer whether AI will reshape work, but whether institutions will adapt fast enough to make that transition fair.

That point mattered because the people in the room were not speaking in the abstract. They were speaking from lived experience. Many are already navigating job markets in which AI tools screen résumés, draft job descriptions, filter applicants and absorb tasks that used to give new workers experience. As organizations automate more of the entry-level pathway, they risk narrowing the pipeline that produces future managers, specialists and leaders.

The youth participants were not asking for protection from the future. They were asking for participation in designing it.

That distinction ran through the entire session. Again and again, the discussion returned to the same idea: young people are not the problem to be fixed. Instead, employers, universities and governments must redesign their systems to reflect the realities of a labor market shaped by AI.

The final discussion pushed beyond skills toward values. If AI is going to structure the next generation of work, then the capabilities that matter most will not be technical alone. Participants pointed instead to critical thinking, empathy, ethical reasoning, collaboration, creativity and adaptability, the human capacities that allow people to work with change rather than be overwhelmed by it.

What made the session notable was not just the quality of the ideas. It was the premise behind them. At a global forum where youth are often invited to comment on policy after the fact, these participants were asked to build the policy from the ground up.

And they did.

Their message from U.N. headquarters was both practical and pointed: the future of work is already being built, and if institutions want it to be decent, inclusive and durable, young people need to be co-authors, not afterthoughts.

Dr. Anabel Ternès von Hattburg : As a futurist, TEDx Speaker, Managing Director of the SRH Institute for Innovation and Sustainability Management, entrepreneur, bestseller author, journalist, podcaster, editor of magazines, and radio and TV host, and correspondent of MAHABAHU for the EU [ Headline photo from UNRIC.ORG: As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes economies and labour markets, young people find themselves at the forefront of both the opportunities and the challenges presented by this rapidly evolving technology.]

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