AI - A useful tool or an uncertain future? : A qualitative study of how students percieve artiificial intelligence in relation to their future working life

Sammanfattning

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how tasks are performed across industries, which raisesquestions about which competencies will remain valuable in the future labour market.Students are a relevant group in this context, as they are currently developing knowledgeand skills in preparations for their future working life that AI is expected to influence.Despite the growing research on AI and its implications on the labour market, little attentionhas been paid to how the future labour market entrants form their perceptions of AI beforeentering organizations, and how those perceptions shape the human capital their develop.This study addresses the gap by researching how students’ perceptions of AI in relation totheir future working life is formed. A qualitative research design has been used, where thefindings are based on 15 semi-structured interviews with business students and civilengineering students at Umeå University. A thematic analysis has been conducted toidentify patterns across the two groups.The findings show that the formation of students’ perception of AI in relation to the futureworking life is shaped by the interaction of three conditions: educational background, socialenvironment and prior experience with AI tools. These conditions determine what aspectsof AI students attend to and what they view in terms of potential gain and loss and perceivedcontrol. Both student groups express a concern about skill devaluation, but differ to someextent in their defensive strategy: civil engineering students argue that staying competitivemeans deepening their technical knowledge and developing AI literacy, and businessstudents argue that what will protect them is being good at things AI cannot replicate suchas communication, relationships and judgement. Both groups manage uncertainty throughdistancing by locating the threat another occupational fields or further into the future. Thedominant perception pattern across both groups is a split view by viewing it as anopportunity on an individual level, and a threat at the societal of macro level. Perceivedcontrol has a consistent split across both groups where the respondents perceive high controlover their own usage but near zero control over how AI develops at the macro level. Finally,formal AI education produces different perception formations. Civil engineering students,with greater formal exposure to AI, develop more analytically grounded views whilebusiness students rely more heavily on media and peer networks.This study contributes to business administration research by extending perception theory,specifically König et al.’s (2021) two-factor appraisal framework and Dearborn andSimon’s (1958) selective attention concept beyond their original organizational contexts. Itdemonstrates that the educational field can function as a shaping condition for howindividuals form and structure perception. Further, the study contributes to human capitaltheory (Becker, 1962; Schultz, 1961) by introducing perception formation as a variable ininvestment decisions for future labour market entrants. It shows that human capitalinvestment decisions is not a rational calculation, but rather shaped by how they perceiveand appraise AI. Key words: Artificial intelligence, perception, creative destruction, business students, civilengineering students, human capital, selective attention, perceived employability,opportunity-threat appraisal