For Gen Zers in their mid-20s, the contemporary birthday cake tends to arrive iced with commentary: “quarter-life crisis,” “twenty-fine,” and “officially too old for DiCaprio.” One faintly clinical message on social media reads “Fully Developed Frontal Lobe”—a reference to the region of the brain associated with planning, impulse control, and decision-making, which neurologists say doesn’t finish maturing until around age 25.
This sugary script may be a cheeky way to mark a birthday, but it also reflects a generation that’s unusually attuned to the state of its own cognition. That same sensibility gave rise to “brain rot,” a catchall term for the mental dulling attributed to endless scrolling and exposure to low-grade content. Oxford even crowned it the word of the year in 2024.
There’s also the professional wrinkle to consider. In the AI economy, “brain capital”—the combination of brain health (a state of optimal brain functioning) and brain skills (the foundational abilities that enable people to adapt, relate, and contribute to society)—matters more than ever. Even so, global policies and investments have long underprioritized brain capital. That’s the big finding from a new McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) report by Erica Coe, Kana Enomoto, Lucy Pérez, Jacqueline Brassey, and their coauthors, published in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.
According to the authors, the costs of that lack of emphasis are already showing up. For all the good that AI can do, such as boosting innovation and helping people and organizations be more productive, it has its downsides (we must resist being pigs at the trough of AI slop). AI “can erode attention,” says Coe. “If we let computers do too much for us, it can lead to increased stress and trust issues.”
For Gen Zers, AI’s potential impact on cognition is particularly salient. The youngest Zoomers are in their early teens and still developing brain skills that will be essential to their success later in life. They run the risk of cognitive underdevelopment if they outsource their thinking and problem-solving to machines (becoming “sloppers”) and never exercise those critical skills. Older Gen Zers may, by birthday cake standards, now possess “fully developed frontal lobes.” But the brain is plastic—capable of being sharpened or dulled, depending on how it is used.
To build their brain capital, Gen Z needs exposure to formative experiences early in their careers—projects with ambiguity, feedback loops, and real stakes. Delivering that gets harder when entry-level work is automated, compressed, or redesigned around AI-enabled efficiency. Boosting Gen Z’s collective brain capital could also help protect the pipeline of future leaders. When employers are asked which skills are most critical for the workplace of today and which are most critical for the future, those defined as “brain skills” are overrepresented in both categories.
While AI’s ultimate impact on the brain is still very much TBD, the MHI report finds that there are financial and competitive implications for investing in brain capital. For instance, scaling proven brain health interventions could reduce the global disease burden by more than 260 million DALYs (years lost to early death or lived with illness or disability) and unlock up to $6.2 trillion in cumulative GDP gains.
The good news is that brain capital is investable. In their report, the authors found that one sportswear company created an employee program that included access to a self-care library, coaching sessions, internal well-being workshops (including developing brain skills), and interpersonal-skills training for managers. The company increased the return on its investment from this program by more than 11 times.
In the age of AI, Gen Zers don’t need another lecture about screen time. They need schools, workplaces, and managers that prioritize brain health, which can help them become better thinkers, more resilient employees, and more adaptable leaders. Brain rot may be a joke. Brain capital isn’t.
|
