Every generation feels AI’s impact but perhaps none as much as Gen Z. Its members are seeking to find their place in the world amid AI-prompted job cuts and mixed messages about the unprecedented technology: some encouraging them to embrace it and others recommending resistance. So, how does this cohort caught in the middle view AI ethics? It’s not what you may think.
Undergraduate student teams representing eleven colleges and universities from across Pennsylvania recently gathered at Messiah University to share their AI perspectives at the Finale of the Mindful Marketing Ethics Challenge.
The competition is an initiative of the American Marketing Association of Central Pennsylvania and was sponsored this year by WebFX. In just its second year, the Ethics Challenge has grown from four mid-state schools to a statewide competition.
Ten days before the Finale, teams submitted 1,500-word written responses to a unique ethics case about a hypothetical video production company whose partners felt challenged to determine how they could successfully employ AI while preserving their firm’s human-first focus and genuine storytelling.
A panel of six accomplished marketing professionals evaluated the essays beforehand and at the Finale, scored teams’ five-minute oral summaries of their case responses.
The students’ insightful work gave everyone in attendance a wonderful window into how members of Gen Z believe AI should and shouldn’t be used.
Following the competition, several members of the top three teams kindly offered their personal reflections, not just on the event but about how their attitudes toward AI evolved through the competition. Five themes capture their sentiments.
1. Rapid and Unavoidable Change
Given they’re known as digital natives and might be called Gen Tech, it’s natural to think that college students in Gen Z are ‘all in’ on AI and leading the way in its rapid adoption. Although some surely are, many have given AI a more measured embrace, astonished by the speed of change and resigned to the technology’s inevitability:
Brianna Strittmatter, a sophomore marketing major at Penn State Berks, shared such feelings: “Learning how to use AI ethically opened my eyes to how quickly our world is transitioning toward an AI-driven future.”
Likewise, Ana Grozea, a sophomore cybersecurity major at Cairn University, reflected, “We cannot avoid AI; it is the next marvelous development in technology, much like the Industrial Revolution and the advent of computers.”
2. Benefits to Business
These Gen Z students understand that one of the main reasons AI adoption is happening so quickly with no end in sight is businesses’ thirst for the technology because of its game-changing efficiency and effectiveness.
To that exact point, Roger Han, a sophomore finance and entrepreneurship major at Penn State Berks, remarked that he now sees “AI as a useful tool for research and efficiency.”
Similarly, Bucknell University senior Skyler Agresti, an English/Creative Writing major with minor in Markets, Innovation, and Design, shared from her experience, “I learned how useful AI can be and how much time and money it can save. One of my jobs on campus is consulting with the local Small Business Development Center, so I know firsthand how much work small business owners have and how little time they have to do it.”
3. Apprehension about the Future
Unfortunately, AI’s remarkable capabilities can come at a human cost – jobs. The possible loss of livelihood is a sobering thought for anyone, especially for young people lacking experience and trying to enter the workforce for the first time.
Suiwai Li, a sophomore finance major at Penn State Berks, voiced his career-related concerns, which many of his peers undoubtedly share: “If all the entry jobs for marketing are taken and AI is applied to other entry-level jobs, I am worried about not being able to get a job to start.”
4. Value of Human Creativity
However, these emerging professionals also are optimistic, not out of naivety but because even against AI’s tremendous strengths, they see human creativity as a competitive advantage – something the Ethics Challenge case helped bring to light.
Cairn University sophomore cybersecurity major Ana Grozea shared from her experience, “I believe that AI is a remarkable tool that can be used to enhance human creativity but can never replace it. By participating in this challenge, I have gained a better understanding of how AI can be integrated into the creative process while still honoring human creativity, discernment, and originality.”
Her team member, Sam Prieto-Cross, a junior majoring in History and Politics, shared similar insights: “The more I researched, the more I found myself becoming intrigued by human design. I realized there was an important connection between human desire and AI, our modern machinery. As human beings, we desire beauty and truth, meaning that when an audience witnesses an over-implementation of AI, the only natural response is disgust. Why? For the sole reason that AI cannot create but merely re-create. Human beings carry the innate desire to create, and whenever that innate desire is threatened with extinction, the human race will revolt by instinct.”
In a sentence, Penn State Berks’ Han affirmed both these thoughts: “Human creativity and judgment are still essential in business and marketing.”
5. Understanding Ethics
Whether with AI or with humans, doing well means much more when it prioritizes doing good, i.e., acting ethically. Ethics Challenge participants’ writing and presentations demonstrated not just genuine concern about moral issues involving AI but keen insights into how they may be addressed.
A good solution begins with identifying the problem, as did Po Chang (Jason) Chiu, a sophomore finance major at Penn State Berks: “Working with my team on an AI marketing ethics case showed me how real and specific these ethical questions are for businesses today.”
Meanwhile, his team member Kofoworola Taiwo, a senior marketing and management major, shared more specific analysis: “I learned that while AI can improve efficiency and creativity, it must be used responsibly. Protecting client privacy, obtaining consent, and maintaining transparency are essential to building trust and ensuring that technology is used ethically in the workplace.”
Cairn’s Grozea also recognized the need to employ AI judiciously: “Rather than rejecting it or blindly embracing it, we should seek to understand its capabilities and responsibly establish guidelines for its use.”
Bucknell’s Agresti echoed the pivotal role that ethics must play: “I now understand why ethics are so incredibly important when it comes to AI. It can be very useful and very dangerous, and the only factor that balances it is the ethics of the company using it.”
The insights that Agresti and the other astute Gen Zers have offered might be summarized in a final theme:
Humans must embrace AI ethics.
Whether we are avid proponents of AI or determined detractors, we should commit not just to monitoring AI’s moral progress but to anticipating where infractions are likely to occur and to preemptively establishing guardrails. The technology’s speed of change is too fast and its impact too pervasive to stand idly by.
AI already benefits many individuals and organizations, and it promises to do much more. Members of Gen Z who participated in the Ethics Challenge see that potential as well as the need to keep moral standards at the center of the advance. Their insights can help all of us think more intentionally about AI ethics and their crucial support of Mindful Marketing.
