The age of experience: Why AI needs older workers more than we think

This article was first published in the latest edition of People Matters Perspectives. 

Ah, artificial intelligence!

These days, our social feeds are filled with AI-generated everything – fruits chasing corporate success, pets having hilarious conversations, deepfake celebrity videos, and even entire advertising campaigns created by algorithms.

A recent AI-generated ad, however, stayed with me.

It showed a woman in her 60s updating a paper resume as she prepared to rejoin the workforce after years spent caring for her family. Her son, probably in his late 30s, tells her gently, “No one carries paper resumes to interviews anymore.” She smiles and replies, “That’s alright. I’ll carry it just in case.”

Then comes the line that stings. “At least don’t mention 23+ years of experience at the top,” he says. “That’s not a strength anymore. Interviewers will just see that you’re old.”

It was only a 20-second advertisement promoting interview-skills courses for women returning to work. But it captured a growing anxiety many professionals quietly carry: In an AI-first economy, what happens to experience?

For decades, experience was something people accumulated with pride. Today, many worry it has become a liability, especially after career breaks, maternity leave, caregiving responsibilities, or simply reaching an age closer to retirement.

That question sent me down a rabbit hole. I started reading about ageing workforces, AI-driven transformation, and the future of work across Asia-Pacific. And what I found surprised me.

Just as organisations race to become AI-first, some are discovering that the one thing AI struggles to replicate is precisely what experienced employees have spent decades building.

For decades, professional success was measured by accumulating knowledge, solving difficult problems, and staying long enough to become the person everyone turned to when things went wrong. Today, as AI reshapes jobs at an unprecedented pace, that same experience often feels as though it needs defending.

The irony is that just as organisations race to become AI-first, some are discovering that the one thing AI struggles to replicate is precisely what experienced employees have spent decades building.

The expensive lesson AI couldn't teach itself

Few examples illustrate this better than Ford Motor Company. Like many global manufacturers, Ford invested heavily in AI to improve product quality. Hundreds of AI-powered cameras monitored assembly lines. Algorithms analysed designs. Automation was expected to eliminate inefficiencies while reducing dependence on human expertise.

Instead, the company encountered a different problem.

The technology could identify patterns, but it couldn't always understand why they mattered.

By 2026, Ford had quietly rehired over 300 veteran engineers, internally known as "gray beards", to solve quality issues its AI systems couldn't detect. Their role wasn't simply to fix manufacturing problems. They were brought back to mentor younger engineers and, perhaps most importantly, to teach the AI itself.

Ford later acknowledged what many organisations are only beginning to realise: artificial intelligence is only as good as the experience embedded within it.

Institutional knowledge cannot be downloaded overnight. Judgement developed over decades cannot be generated from historical datasets alone.

Experience, it turns out, may be one of AI's most valuable training assets.

Ford's story isn't unfolding in isolation. It comes at a time when demographic realities are forcing employers to rethink long-held assumptions about talent.

Across Asia-Pacific, populations are ageing faster than many labour markets are prepared for.

Singapore will soon have one in four citizens aged 65 or above. Singapore isn't alone. Indonesia has officially entered the ageing population phase, with nearly 12% of its population now over 60. Its working-age population has also begun shrinking after years of demographic advantage, a reminder that the region's workforce challenges are no longer a distant concern.

These aren't simply population statistics.

They represent a fundamental shift in how organisations will access talent, preserve expertise, and remain productive over the next two decades.

At the same time, AI, geopolitical uncertainty, and changing economic conditions are transforming the nature of work itself.

Speaking earlier this year, Singapore's NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng described AI, deglobalisation, geopolitical tensions, and demographic change as four converging forces reshaping work. His message wasn't one of resistance but of adaptation: embrace technology, but ensure the transition remains fair and inclusive.

Singapore's policy response reflects that philosophy.

The country is progressively raising its retirement and re-employment ages, strengthening support for senior employment, investing heavily in AI skills, and redesigning workforce policies to ensure experienced workers remain active contributors rather than becoming casualties of technological change.

It's a recognition that the future of work isn't simply about adopting AI. It's about deciding who gets to participate in it.

Some employers have already begun making that shift. At Novotel Singapore on Stevens, labour shortages prompted the hotel to view older workers not as a challenge, but as an opportunity.

Rather than forcing employees to adapt to traditional roles, the organisation redesigned work around people's capabilities.

Older employees received open-ended contracts instead of annual renewals. Equal pay policies reinforced their value. 

Physically demanding tasks were redesigned. Flexible work arrangements made continued employment more sustainable. Mature employees were also reskilled through government-supported programmes, with some moving into supervisory roles after acquiring new capabilities.

The lesson wasn't simply about retaining older workers.

It was about recognising that experience becomes far more valuable when organisations are willing to redesign work around it.

In many industries, the conversation around ageing still revolves around healthcare costs, productivity concerns, or retirement planning. 

Perhaps it should instead focus on knowledge retention.

Every experienced employee who leaves takes years of customer understanding, operational judgement, relationship capital, and problem-solving ability with them.

Replacing a position is relatively straightforward.

Replacing accumulated wisdom is considerably harder.

That may be why the most successful organisations are beginning to think differently about generations.

In a recent conversation, Marriott International's APEC CHRO Andrew Newmark reflected on how dramatically workforce expectations have evolved since he began his career.

Technology has changed. Employees have more choices. Younger generations question assumptions more readily. Digital fluency has become a core capability.

But Newmark believes the future belongs not to one generation over another, but to workplaces capable of combining the strengths of all generations.

Experienced employees bring judgement, context, mentorship and institutional memory.

Younger employees contribute digital confidence, fresh perspectives and a willingness to challenge established thinking.

Neither replaces the other.

Together, they create organisations capable of adapting faster than either generation could alone.

That vision feels increasingly relevant as research continues to show that AI isn't simply eliminating jobs—it is changing which human skills matter most.

As routine work becomes automated, qualities such as creativity, critical thinking, empathy, leadership, mentoring and contextual decision-making become even more valuable.

Ironically, many of these capabilities strengthen with experience rather than diminish. 

Thinking back to that advertisement, I wonder if we've misunderstood what experience means in the age of AI.

The son believed 23 years of experience would make employers see his mother as old. Increasingly, the evidence suggests it may become exactly what forward-looking employers need.

Not because experience alone is enough. Continuous learning, digital skills and adaptability remain essential for everyone, regardless of age.

But organisations chasing AI without preserving human expertise risk making the same mistake Ford did, assuming technology can replace knowledge before it has learned from it.

Perhaps the future of work isn't a contest between youth and experience, or humans and machines.

Perhaps it's about building workplaces where each makes the other stronger. The companies that succeed over the next decade may not be those with the youngest workforce or the most aggressive AI strategy.

They will be the ones that understand that technology learns fastest when it has decades of human experience to learn from.

And maybe that's the message hidden inside that 20-second advertisement.

In the age of AI, experience isn't becoming obsolete. It's becoming the knowledge that helps AI, and organisations, make better decisions.