- Billionaire parents worry about kids' careers amid AI-driven job market challenges
- Traditional stable careers in tech, law, and healthcare no longer guaranteed for youth
- Wealthy parents fear loss of purpose and confidence despite financial security for kids
With AI taking over entry-level jobs, Gen Z is facing tough competition and slowed hiring. As a result, even America's richest parents are worried about their kids' financial futures and ability to maintain a career -- essentially echoing concerns typically voiced by middle-class families. Tom Thiegs, managing director at Ascent Private Capital Management, told Fortune that billionaires have the means to support their kids financially but struggle to define what else they need to succeed. Thiegs highlighted that despite their wealth, these parents face the same anxieties as less affluent families.
Wealth manager Patrick Dwyer, who works with clients with net worths between roughly $100 million and more than $1 billion, told CNBC, ''Millionaires and billionaires are recognizing this is not the same game they had to play. Families have to rethink … what it means to support their children. And we're not talking about spoiling your kids. We're talking about: What if your kid needs retraining at 33?"
The anxiety manifests in several ways:
Erosion of Safe Careers:
Wealth advisors note that traditionally stable paths in technology, law, and healthcare are no longer seen as guaranteed long-term careers for the younger generation.
Patrick Dwyer, managing director at Aligned by NewEdge Wealth, noted that ultra-high-net-worth families are realising the rules have changed. Parents with $100 million to over $1 billion in net worth see their 22- to 35-year-old kids struggling to secure stable jobs in tech, law, and healthcare, as AI disrupts traditional entry-level roles.
Purpose vs. Finances:
While these parents have the funds to support their children, they worry about the loss of identity, sense of purpose, and confidence that comes from a stalled professional life.
"They're not usually worried about the financial security of their children; rather they worry that the job market will impact their child's sense of purpose, identity, and confidence. They also worry that significant wealth will dampen their drive or desire to work," Tom Thiegs stated.
Inheritance Shifts:
Some billionaires are adapting by planning earlier or larger wealth transfers to ensure their children have "agency" in a world where they might not be able to accumulate wealth through traditional employment.
"They're] realizing that if they don't pass on more meaningful wealth to their children, or their children are not able to accumulate wealth ... their kids could have [less] agency over their lives than they did," Dwyer said
The AI Threat:
Many parents are advising their own children to avoid large corporations and instead target small businesses where they can lead AI implementation to remain indispensable. With a financial safety net, they can afford to take risks, experiment, and learn from failures - a luxury not available to most. By supporting entrepreneurship, parents hope their kids will build successful businesses and develop skills to thrive in an uncertain job market.
"These young entrepreneurs, if you sit and talk to these 25- or 26-year-olds, they understand marketing. They understand finance. They understand how to build a business. It's really something that is worthwhile ... and I think they will be increasingly sought after in the marketplace," Dwyer explained.
The US job market has especially become tough for young people, with the unemployment rate for recent college graduates hitting 9.7% in September 2025, up from previous years. In fact, 2025 was the weakest hiring year in the US since 2009, excluding 2020. This trend is driven by factors like AI automation and slowed white-collar hiring, affecting even those with college degrees.
