When Anisa* graduated from her second degree, she felt "fairly confident" that her postgraduate studies, double-major undergraduate degree and years spent balancing two volunteering roles and a part-time job would account for something in the job market. She applied to every entry-level or junior role she could find in her industry, tracking each application's outcome on a spreadsheet. Before she knew it, "applying for jobs became a full-time job": in total, she applied for, and was rejected from, 350 jobs before finally landing one 18 months later. And she believes that AI – in particular its use in screening applications – is a huge part of the reason. "The rise of third party, AI-run digital online forms are a huge pain point for so many jobseekers," Anisa says as she recalls uploading CVs alongside filling in digital forms.

Bob Smith sits upright on the sofa as his grandson, Louis Brow, prepares to quiz him on youth slang. We are sitting in the living room of Louis's family home in Ilkley, West Yorkshire; Bob has travelled over from Walton-le-Dale, Lancashire, in his Nissan Micra. "Would you know what flexing is?" Louis begins. "If I was to flex on the Gram?" "You're bending, you're a contortionist," suggests Bob, gamely. "Nowadays it's someone showing off," Louis explains. I might say to my mate, that's a big flex, you're flexing, you're looking good." "Why not say the correct word?" Bob might not know the terminology, but he has had a major flex on social media recently. Louis is the Yorkshire Challenge belt (69kg) boxing champion and credits his success to the outdoor boxing gym, nicknamed the Dojo, that Grandad Bob helped him build in the back yard of the family home. A TikTok video of Louis using a tyre as a punchbag while his grandfather eggs him on went viral this year. Today, Louis confidently reels off his social media wins to Bob. He just hit 1m likes on TikTok; their video garnered 2.4m views. "Well, people like watching things," Bob says, sagely. Talk turns to another modern phenomenon: dating apps. Bob explains what dating was like in his youth. "There would be these dos in the church with disco dancing.