From digitalisation to AI readiness: an exploratory baseline study of youth labour-market adaptation and employment risks in Latvia

This paper examines whether digital familiarity among young people in Latvia can be interpreted as an analytical baseline for discussing future readiness for work in increasingly artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated labour markets. The study analyses the evidence from the 2023 survey on youth digital behaviour, labour values, and employment strategies as a pre-AI baseline for understanding emerging labour-market vulnerabilities. The study applies a risk-oriented analytical approach combining a literature review with the empirical analysis of two anonymous online surveys conducted in Latvia in 2023. The first survey, which serves as the primary empirical source, included 98 young respondents aged 15-29. The second survey, which is used as contextual evidence, included 113 respondents from Riga’s working population engaged in information technologies or the regular use of digital tools. The 2023 data are reinterpreted in light of labour-market, technological, and regulatory developments in 2024-2026.

The findings show that the surveyed Latvian youth demonstrated strong everyday digital engagement and generally positive attitudes towards digitalisation. At the same time, this digital familiarity coexisted with pragmatic labour values, non-linear employment strategies, an education-employment mismatch, side employment, and limited use of educational or knowledge-oriented digital resources. These patterns do not provide direct evidence of AI readiness; rather, they indicate baseline conditions that may become more significant as labour markets become increasingly shaped by AI.

The paper contributes by formally distinguishing between digital familiarity and AI readiness and by showing how pre-AI empirical data can be used as an exploratory baseline for analysing youth labour-market adaptation in a small European economy. The findings highlight the need for AI literacy, competence-oriented education reform, career resilience, and youth employment policies that address not only access to work but also employment quality, adaptability, and long-term professional sustainability.