An HP senior vice-president has rejected claims that Generation Z lacks interpersonal skills, saying he finds young workers in his team excel at listening, building trust, and understanding what customers need, with their Gen Z AI skills giving them a further edge in the workplace.
George Brasher, SVP and managing director for North America at the $27 billion technology company, told Fortune the criticism of Gen Z’s people skills is a myth he simply does not recognise.
‘I’ve got a reasonable population of Gen Z folks in my team, and I find people with great ability to listen, great ability to build that trust, to build that relationship, and then to understand really what customers need,’ Brasher said. ‘I don’t see that at all.’
Gen Z AI Skills Driving Business Wins
Brasher said growing up as digital and AI natives puts younger workers in a strong position. ‘Gen Z and millennials have the highest use of AI, highest use of the technology,’ he said. ‘The fact that they’re digital natives and AI natives really puts them in a great position to have that use of technology that will give them a healthy relationship with work.’
HP employs about 55,000 workers globally and has said it believes the youngest generation of employees is helping to create a more ‘interconnected, inclusive, and conscientious world’.
More than one million US job postings required AI-related skills as of last year, a 66% increase from 2024, according to a 2026 PwC analysis of Lightcast data. The demand for such skills is not confined to the US: Livemint reports that India recorded nearly 2.9 lakh AI-related job postings in 2025, with hiring demand expected to grow to close to 3.8 lakh this year, a rise of nearly 32%.
Gen Z workers appear aware of what that labour market requires. According to a KPMG intern survey cited by Fortune, 76% of Gen Z interns said long-term career success will require both strong human skills and the ability to direct AI agents effectively.
Business Leaders Push Back Against Gen Z Stereotypes
Brasher is not alone among senior executives taking a positive view of younger workers.
Sally Massey, CHRO of $73 billion Colgate-Palmolive, told Fortune earlier this year that Gen Z workers are ambitious and ‘incredibly tech savvy’. ‘They bring with them new ideas, new perspectives, curiosity,’ she said. ‘They’re pushing us to get better and to do things differently.’
Emily Glassberg Sands, head of data and AI at $159 billion financial services company Stripe, said last year she actively seeks out recent graduates, singling out their tech adaptability and cutting-edge skills as reasons to hire them.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman has also said that young people’s AI fluency could be their biggest advantage in a tough entry-level market. ‘Bringing the fact that you have AI in your tool set is one of the things that makes you enormously attractive,’ Hoffman said in a video on his YouTube channel last year.
Not all voices are positive. Actress Jodie Foster said she found young staffers on set ‘really annoying, especially in the workplace,’ and Whoopi Goldberg has claimed Gen Zers ‘only want to work four hours’ yet expect to live in comfort.
Brasher’s advice to those entering the workforce is straightforward: make sure you are the best prepared. ‘I think everybody coming into their initial career into companies needs to make sure that they’re the best prepared for that,’ he said.
