Millennials and Gen Z in Peru lead GenAI adoption at work, but training gaps persist

In the span of a few years, generative AI has moved from laboratory curiosity to everyday tool. A new survey from Deloitte, conducted across 44 countries and including 414 Peruvian respondents, captures the moment when younger workers have stopped asking whether to use these systems and started asking how to use them well.

The numbers are striking. Two-thirds of Gen Z workers in Peru—65 percent—now employ generative AI in their regular work. Among millennials, the figure is 53 percent. These are not early adopters experimenting at the margins. They are the mainstream. Content creation leads the pack: 54 percent of millennials and 41 percent of Gen Z use the technology to generate text, images, and campaigns. Strategy development follows close behind at 52 percent for millennials and 37 percent for Gen Z. Data analysis, once the domain of specialized teams, now reaches 38 percent of Gen Z and 33 percent of millennials. The applications sprawl across design, customer support, project management, training, and software development—each with its own adoption curve, each reshaping how work gets done.

Three-quarters of young professionals globally expect generative AI to fundamentally alter how they work within the next year. In Peru, the expectation runs even higher: 74 percent of Gen Z and 77 percent of millennials believe transformation is coming. The sectors leading this shift are predictable in some ways, surprising in others. Marketing, advertising, and digital design have embraced the technology to produce materials faster and at scale. But finance, insurance, telecommunications, and retail are equally aggressive, using AI to process data, automate routine tasks, and optimize operations. Tech startups, operating with lean teams and tight budgets, have adopted these tools with particular intensity—they have little choice but to move fast.

Soledad Ruilopez, the human capital leader for Deloitte in Spanish Latin America, frames the moment carefully. The growth in everyday use has been exponential compared to 2024, she notes, and Peru is tracking that global trend. But beneath the adoption numbers lies a harder problem. Data analysis, she observes, is where the technology is being applied most broadly across organizations, especially those with data-driven cultures where AI can process enormous volumes of information in near-real time. The tool works. The question is whether people know how to use it responsibly.

Here the survey reveals a gap. Young professionals have received some training in generative AI, yet the organizations employing them have not yet built the frameworks to guide its use. Some Peruvian companies have begun adding AI training to their internal programs. Deloitte itself has developed proprietary tools embedded with strict ethical principles. But most organizations have not yet established clear protocols, governance structures, or ethical guidelines. Without these guardrails, Ruilopez warns, younger workers—who are demanding and quick to frustrate—may lose interest or, worse, use the technology carelessly. The risks are real: workers may accept AI outputs without critical scrutiny, share sensitive information without understanding the consequences, or deploy the systems without considering algorithmic bias, intellectual property, or confidentiality.

What emerges from the data is a hunger for human guidance. In Peru, 94 percent of Gen Z and 87 percent of millennials say mentorship from experienced colleagues is essential—figures that exceed global averages. Formal training programs matter to 93 percent of Gen Z and 90 percent of millennials here, compared to 81 percent worldwide. Peer learning is valued by 93 percent of Gen Z and 90 percent of millennials in Peru, again outpacing global norms. These young workers do not want to figure it out alone. They want structure, wisdom, and accountability.

The broader picture suggests that soft skills have become as important as technical ones. In Peru, 94 percent of millennials and 95 percent of Gen Z recognize the importance of communication, leadership, empathy, and relationship-building—well above global averages of 85 and 86 percent. Time management, project oversight, industry knowledge, and sustainability competencies all rank higher in Peru than they do globally. These are not the skills of isolated technicians. They are the skills of people who understand that AI is a tool within a human system, not a replacement for it.

As for what comes next, Ruilopez points to the horizon. Universities and institutes are already integrating generative AI into academic projects. Young Peruvians have access to free or low-cost tools like ChatGPT and AI-enabled Canva. They approach these systems with curiosity and ease. The comparison she draws is to the spread of the internet across Peru and Latin America more than two decades ago—a moment when technology became ambient, ordinary, inescapable. But she also sounds a note of caution. The adoption will accelerate among those with resources and access, particularly in major cities. Others risk being left behind if digital and educational gaps are not addressed deliberately. And in four years, the first members of Generation Alpha and Beta—children who have never known a world without generative AI—will begin entering the workforce. The transformation is not coming. It is already here.