The South China Morning Post reports growing anxiety among young jobseekers across Southeast Asia that AI is hollowing out the first rung of the career ladder. Nafeesa Azman, a 24-year-old Malaysian marketing graduate, has applied for hundreds of jobs in two months without finding a permanent role that pays what she needs or uses her skills.
Joshua Nai, a Singaporean, finished a three-year diploma in animation and game art at Singapore Polytechnic in 2024. He gave up on a gaming career after seeing more AI-generated artwork used in the industry. Natthanicha Intawong, a final-year media arts student in Bangkok, describes her peers as terrified.
What this means for Singapore graduates and creative-course applicants
- Joshua Nai's switch away from gaming after his 2024 Singapore Polytechnic diploma shows creative courses can lose their job pathways even after graduation.
- Nafeesa Azman's hundreds of applications in two months suggest that years of study, and the money spent on it, do not guarantee a fitting first job.
- The excerpt gives personal accounts, not job-loss figures, and does not cover Hong Kong, so the wider scale of the problem is unclear.
Before choosing an animation or media course
- Ask course staff how recent animation and game art graduates are finding work, given AI-generated artwork in the industry.