TIAA survey finds 51% of Gen Z see AI as a threat to their retirement saving

Take the 11-point gap off the 51% and the survey's national average comes out at 40% ^[12]. Gen Z's lead grows when the question is about work. On AI disrupting a career or cutting earning potential, the youngest workers lead millennials by 9 points and Gen X and boomers by 14 ^[13]. On the fear of drawing down too fast and running out of money, their lead over Gen X and boomers narrows to 5 points, while over millennials it is 12 ^[14]. Against the oldest group, the career gap is nearly three times the drawdown gap ^[15].

Fear of outliving savings is spread across ages. Fear that AI cuts pay before retirement is concentrated among the young. In a 401(k), pay is the input. A worker who expects lower or less certain earnings is worried first about what goes into the account, and only then about how long it lasts.

Fortune notes that youth unemployment has not dramatically spiked yet ^[16]. TIAA's chief executive, Thasunda Brown Duckett, has argued that the fear is justified anyway. "Industries, vocations, and jobs that once seemed reliable may not be the havens they once were," she told graduates of Florida A&M University earlier this year ^[10].

For a plan sponsor, the worry could lift deferral rates, the precautionary response. Or the cash could go into liquid accounts an employee can reach if a job goes. A third outcome is that it stays a survey answer and never changes a contribution. I'd expect the second, partly because Duckett herself says retirement saving should not come at the expense of basic financial security ^[11]. "Max out on your retirement, have your rainy day fund to make sure that you can afford the flat tire and all the basic things that life will give you," she said. "Then you can start investing." ^[8] The case against my view is her other instruction, to "max out before you get the check, because once you get it, you will find ways to spend it" ^[7]. That advice puts the 401(k) first in line for every paycheck. Duckett followed it herself at her first job, at Fannie Mae, in the 1990s ^[9].

The survey, "Retirement In the Age of AI and GLP-1s" ^[2], measures what people fear. Fortune's account does not include its sample size, its fieldwork dates or how TIAA drew the generational lines. The emergency-fund view is wrong if the Gen Z workers most worried about AI turn out to defer a larger share of their pay than their less worried peers.