Uncertainty in the technology sector has reached the family dinner table, where parents who work in the industry are weighing what advice to give their children about pursuing careers being reshaped by generative AI.
To understand how changes in the workplace could affect the next generation of technology professionals, Katie Shilton, a professor in the College of Information with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), is leading a research project that examines those conversations.
While researchers have devoted significant attention to how AI is changing corporate operations, fewer studies have explored how those changes influence the ways families prepare young people for increasingly unpredictable careers in technology.
Shilton’s project, “Discovering Changing Values in the AI Workforce,” approaches the evolving technology landscape through the generational handoff from parent to child.
“Generative AI tools are changing workplaces and practices, and the workers who build these technologies are among the most immediately impacted by tools like coding assistants,” Shilton says. “At the same time, there’s lots of new instability in the tech sector. Educators interested in responsible and ethical AI need to quickly understand how AI is reshaping both the values and skills needed in tech workplaces.”
Shilton, who is also a co-principal investigator in the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), will collaborate with Norman Su, an associate professor of computational media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Using their university networks, the researchers will recruit technology professionals who are parents, conduct field interviews and observe career events in major technology hubs such as Silicon Valley.
Recruiting participants and conducting fieldwork within a rapidly changing industry will present challenges, but Shilton wants the project’s central themes to emerge directly from workers’ experiences.
“I’m hoping the concepts will emerge from interviews themselves,” Shilton says. “I’m interested in the levers tech workers see in their existing or future workplaces to ensure their jobs remain creative and fulfilling. I’m also curious to understand what skills tech workers hope schools will teach kids in the face of changing work practices.”
The project received one of 11 grants awarded in June through the 2026 Research Seed Award Program of UMD’s Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). The program supports early-stage, innovative research exploring how emerging technologies can address complex societal challenges and generate meaningful public impact.
Shilton plans to use the findings to help shape academic programs that prepare students for the changing workplace, collaborating with colleagues across the university.
“I am hoping UMIACS faculty will be a sounding board, as well as a resource for helping develop curricula that respond to project findings,” Shilton says. “I’m planning to conduct workshops with interested faculty from AIM, UMIACS and the College of Information to discuss what we might learn as instructors and academic program developers.”
Sustaining the research beyond its initial phase will depend in part on securing external support. Shilton has drafted a proposal for foundation funding and plans to explore federal grants focused on AI workforce development.
Over the next year, the researchers will recruit tech-worker parents, conduct interviews and visit high school career fairs. Their initial findings are expected to identify emerging themes in how AI-driven changes to technology work could affect the skills, values and career choices of the next generation.
—Story by Melissa Brachfeld, communications group