Much has been made of the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence --5(AI) tools in the workforce, and the implications of this on higher education and career development. With two in college, I am following this trend with deep personal interest, for both Jada and Aaron are in a transition period from hitting the books in high school and living under my roof, to finding a job and living on their own. The question that awaits them has vexed many of their peers: do I have anything to offer to my future employer that would warrant their giving me a job and a salary and benefits?
In addition to being a parent, I also run a consulting firm. So I view this topic from that perspective as well. I often tell our employees that if we as a firm cannot add value to our clients we will cease to be in business, just as if we as individuals cannot add value to our employer we will cease to be employed. Which means that, yes we have to learn how to use AI tools, just like past generations had to learn punch cards and spreadsheets and coding. But it also means we have to do what AI can’t do.
And what is that? Some think that in a few short years the answer will be: very little. Which may be true. But there will always be a human element to our economy. I can give my restaurant order to a touchscreen, but perhaps part of the dining experience is interacting with wait staff. When buying a house, there’s so much information at my fingertips, but maybe when I’m making a huge financial decision that has emotional elements to it, I will want to access the advice of an actual human being.
Additionally, even the most tech savvy pro-AI people will also say that, beyond the value of the human touch, there is the notion in which even sophisticated models lack the nuance of smart and experienced human beings in navigating a complex problem. To give a programming example, experts consistently say AI tools turbo charge their work by automating mundane tasks like troubleshooting bugs but are pretty far away from providing the initial framework for solving a problem.
Which is why it is infuriating to me that far too many of our educational institutions and far too many of our young people view the classroom as a place to learn, memorize, and regurgitate rote content. Name the subject, and too much of the learning experience is digesting information and repeating it back in the form of homework and tests.
Which is why work experiences, and more broadly life experiences like volunteering and travel and civic participation, are so important to gain the life skills that employers are looking for you to bring into their workplace, "life skills" being an umbrella term to represent "how things work in the real world" or even better "how to get sh*t done in the real world." Which is why the best educational institutions are figuring out how to bake those experiences into students’ time on campus, whether co-op placements, study abroad, or service projects.
On that note, I am recalling my goofy high school friends of mine convincing our English teacher to convert our writing assignments into skits. She was an uncommonly good sport, and I think she enjoyed our humor, so we got many opportunities to do just that. I now realize that, in addition to the prep being much more fun – imagine the teen version of me and my guys figuring out how to translate a Greek tragedy into a modern-day tragi-comedy with contemporary cultural references – this is exactly the sort of applied learning that best prepared us for success outside of the classroom. (By the way, not coincidentally, perhaps this was the best way to learn precisely because it was fun, something today’s experts also espouse, which is that the best way to grow is to get into things that are enjoyable to you.)
The worst situation is when students get A’s but do so by getting good at spitting information back to their teachers. A better situation is when students use school as a platform to gain and use skills in a real world format that is applied, complex, and results-oriented. Even better when you can do skits involving costumes, funny accents, and hidden inside jokes. Thankful for my own educational journey, and hoping that in 2025 my own kids are able to navigate their own paths to future career success.
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