Episode 474

AI Fluency for Future Careers and Training

In today's episode I'm talking about AI fluency and why becoming AI fluent is quickly becoming essential for your future career.

I hope you enjoy it! As always you can learn more and connect with me on my website (andystorch.com) or LinkedIn. And you can find my books - Own Your Career Own Your Life and Own Your Brand, Own Your Career - on Amazon.

Transcript
Speaker:

Hey, thanks for listening.

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This is Andy.

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I'm excited to talk with you today, and

today I wanna talk about AI, something

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I've been talking about a lot lately,

and it's on the top of minds for so many

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people out there in the working world.

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And a lot of people are following

the news, as I have been, and hearing

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about a lot of these big macro issues.

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And there's a lot of big debates going on

about government involvement, the ethics

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of some of the tech founders who are

running these AI companies, the battles

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between these companies and the public

markets, backlash against data centers

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being built across the US and other

places, and so many other things like

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have we reached AGI, artificial general

intelligence, or when will we reach AGI?

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There's debates about all these

macro issues, and it's interesting

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to follow what's going on.

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But I've also thought a lot about the

fact that we as individuals cannot do very

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much to change or shift what is happening.

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In fact, this giant AI wave is

pretty much happening and going to

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happen whether we like it or not.

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So I know there are a lot of people

out there who are ethically against

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AI or scared of AI, and in fact,

if you dig into the most recent

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numbers, they show that a majority of

Americans, and probably people around

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the world, are generally against AI.

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And the numbers go up when

you look at Gen Z, the younger

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generation that's out there.

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And I've heard this directly firsthand

from my daughter, who's Generation Alpha,

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who tells me all the time not to use AI.

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We saw in the news a lot of people

booing commencement speakers at

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college graduations when they talk

about AI and the AI revolution.

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We've seen backlashes against the data

centers, and a lot of politicians starting

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to get involved, even though most of

them don't quite know what to do yet.

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Elon Musk has promised to solve that

problem by building data centers in space,

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which probably creates a whole host of

other issues that we need to figure out.

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But my stance is that while it's good

to pay attention to all these things

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that are going on, and of course,

we need to exercise our rights and

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democracy to vote and support people

who are supporting the causes that

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we believe in the AI wave is going to

keep going whether we use it or not.

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And so we might as well learn how to

use these tools and become AI fluent.

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And I would take that a step

further to say I've been studying

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this industry and this space.

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I've been going to conferences.

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I've been having lots of conversations

with many of you out there in

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talent development, learning and

development HR while reading the

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news and seeing what's going on.

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And the way I see it is that going

forward into the future, most companies

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are not going to hire people for

corporate jobs unless they are AI fluent

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and they have strong AI skills and can

work with AI and know how to use it to

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be more productive, more innovative,

more efficient, that sort of thing.

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And that's gonna be the same for

big companies and small companies.

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I just had a call right before

this catching up with a friend I

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made at a conference many years

ago who's working for a small

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company, and he said the same thing.

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"I would not hire anybody who

is not highly AI fluent, and I

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have my whole team, I'm trying

to get them all using AI now."

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And so there's the current challenge

of getting people on the team in the

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organization to start using AI more,

and then there's the partial solution

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of, "I'm only gonna hire people in

the future who know how to use AI."

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And when you think about it, for those

of you that are, maybe over 30 or

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over 40 like I am, when I graduated

from university in:

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valuable to put the phrase "proficient

in Microsoft Office" on your resume.

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I remember having that on there because

I had learned how to use Excel and Word

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and PowerPoint, and I don't know if I was

terribly good at it when I graduated, but

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I felt like I knew how to use it, and so

I felt confident putting it on my resume.

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I later went to work for an insurance

company, and I learned a lot about Excel.

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In fact, I got a job with a really

cool consulting firm back in:

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one of the reasons I got the job was

because I came to the case interview and

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I wowed leadership with the way that I

took the data they gave me in an Excel

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spreadsheet and turned it into charts

and graphs in PowerPoint, something

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that I had learned how to do in the

insurance job that I'd been in before.

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And so that helped me land a six-figure

job, having those Microsoft Office skills.

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Now, that wasn't a key component or

requirement, of the job when they

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were hiring, but it's something

that helped me get the job.

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And I think AI proficiency or AI fluency

is just like that Microsoft Office

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proficiency, but times a thousand.

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It's wildly more important because unlike

Microsoft Office, which is one product

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suite, albeit the most popular, being

used by, I don't know, I would guess maybe

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thirty, forty percent of corporate jobs.

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AI is something that's going to be used

across multiple platforms in almost every

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job in America, unless maybe you're in a

trade like a plumber or an electrician.

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Even then, those that are figuring out

ways to harness the power of AI are

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probably going to be more productive

and efficient than the ones who are not.

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And there's plenty of studies to

show that people who use AI tools

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in the right way are more productive

and efficient than those who don't.

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Now, there's a lot of

controversy around that.

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There's people who are using AI tools and

just trusting them blindly, and they're

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actually producing worst, worse work

than the people who are not using AI.

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So it's not definitive that just because

you use AI, you're going to be more

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productive and more efficient than others.

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But those who are using it the right

way and who are still using their

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very human skills of critical thinking

and judgment and connection and

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relationship building with others are

going to be far more valuable than the

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people who just refuse to use AI or

just don't ever learn how to use it.

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Now, the good news is that anybody

can learn how to use AI tools.

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Once you get past either your fear or

your ethical stance against AI, you

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can go learn how to use it, whether

you take a training class or you just

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sign up for one of the platforms like

Claude or ChatGPT or Gemini, and you

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just start asking it questions and

say like, "Hey, how do I use you?"

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Or go to YouTube and start watching

videos The challenge is a lot of people

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are not doing that, and companies are

buying licenses for these AI tools and

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these AI products and turning them on,

paying thousands if not millions of

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dollars, and hoping that if we turn these

on and make them available to people

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without giving them much guidance or

direction, they're going to magically

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start using them, and our whole workforce

is going to become more productive.

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I've had many conversations with people in

talent development, with consultants who

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are working in this space on the outside,

and they're telling me that this is just

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not working, that those licenses are being

turned on, but people are not using them.

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I was having a conversation with someone

the other day, and I posited that I

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bet 20% of people will willingly and

voluntarily grab onto those tools and

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start using them, and maybe 20% of people

are totally against them and refuse to use

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them, and then there's 60% in the middle

who just don't know what to do, but they

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would use them if they had direction.

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This person corrected me and said,

"Actually, it's much lower than 20%

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who are the fast adopters who are

just grabbing onto these tools."

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And I think over time, we've seen

more and more people using them.

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The latest stat I read in an article

today was that something like 49% of

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Americans are using AI on a regular basis.

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Now, I would assume most of those are

at a basic level, just a chatbot asking

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questions for research purposes, almost

like a glorified Google, if you will.

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But there's some that are using it on

a deeper level, and I bet if you look

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at your team, there are probably a

few people who are the leaders who are

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using AI every day, who are digging

in and maybe even coding features,

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who are starting to make stuff, using

it to disseminate data and whatnot.

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And then there's a lot of people who

just haven't gotten started with it yet.

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And I see a big opportunity

in this space in two ways.

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One is we all in talent

development, learning and

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development have a big opportunity

to make a difference for people.

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Because getting people using AI or

increasing AI adoption is not just

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about helping the organization.

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Obviously, companies are motivated to

get people using AI because they want

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people to be more productive and more

efficient and more innovative because

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it's going to benefit the company overall.

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But as I said earlier, I see a future

Coming very soon where nobody's

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going to get hired unless they are,

quote-unquote, "AI fluent" or AI

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ready or using AI on a regular basis.

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They're gonna get asked in every

interview, if they're not being

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asked already, "How do you use AI?

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What's your level of AI proficiency?

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How have you used AI to change

a system or make something more

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efficient in a job in the past?"

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And if you can't answer those

questions, then you're probably

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not going to get the job.

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You know, there's a very popular

phrase that has been repeated over

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and over again in many places, that

AI is not going to take your job, but

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someone using AI will take your job.

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I'm sure you've heard that if

you're in the corporate world,

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if you're in talent development,

you've been going to conferences.

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And it's getting a little bit cliché at

this point, but I do think it is true.

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I do optimistically think that there will

still be jobs for humans going forward,

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and maybe even new jobs will be created,

but it's going to be the people who know

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how to use the AI tools who are going

to be the most valuable and the most

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proficient and the most innovative and

the most well-paid in the marketplace.

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And the people who don't learn

it are going to fall behind.

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And so it's imperative that we help

our people learn how to use these

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tools so that they can still be

valuable to the organization, and

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they can get jobs in the future.

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I got hired recently by a SaaS

organization, a software company, to speak

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to their people, and I have the session

coming up next week, because they've been

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doing a lot of AI training, and people

are starting to ask questions like, "What

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does this mean for me and my career?"

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Some people are afraid, and

some people are just not taking

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advantage of the training.

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And the message that they wanna get

across is, "Hey, this organization

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may not be around forever.

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It's more of a startup, and they're

planning on trying to sell the

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company in the next 18 months.

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But you still have a longer

career to think about.

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And if you go and take advantage

of the training that we're offering

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you for free, obviously there's

an incentive for us as well, then

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you get to keep those AI skills.

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You get to keep the things that you've

learned for the rest of your career.

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You don't have to give it back.

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In fact, it would be impossible

to give that back, right?"

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And I know if you're working in

talent development, leadership

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development, learning and development,

I'm preaching to the choir, right?

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It's so important to give

development and training to people

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that most workers are hungry for.

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They wanna know, "How

can I grow in my career?"

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Well, this is it.

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We can be offering that AI training

and development, and it will benefit

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the company, but It also greatly

benefits the individuals who choose

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to take advantage of that training

and learn how to use the tools and

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become AI fluent and AI proficient.

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Now, for my part, I plan on doing

what I can to help with this.

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Traditionally, I have spoken for

the most part in organizations

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about career development.

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I also speak about the most viable skills

of the future and leadership and personal

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brand, but I'm making a big move into

AI enablement and AI readiness, and I

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have an AI Kickstarter program that I'm

going to start offering in the fall.

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It's a 90-minute workshop where

we get your team not only learning

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about the importance of AI, but

actually using the tools and creating

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and doing something during that 90

minutes so they have clear output.

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And then they get to see what it's like

if they haven't been using the tools,

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what they can actually do with them.

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A lot of people are seeing and finding

that for most people, they just

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don't know where to start And they're

overwhelmed by all of it, and we just

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have to get them started, just have to

show them how to use a couple things,

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and then they can be off to the races.

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Now, there will be more advanced

workshops that I'll be offering.

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I'm going through a couple different AI

programs right now, getting certified,

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and I'm really excited to bring this

to all of you in the corporate space

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and be hopefully part of the solution

that is going to be helping not only

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organizations to improve AI efficiency

and AI fluency and overall productivity

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and growth, but also really helping

employees to gain those AI skills so

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that they can remain or become more

valuable in the marketplace in the future.

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So if you are in a place where

we need to do more in AI, we need

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to get our team using it, you're

ready to at least start with a

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Kickstarter workshop, reach out to me.

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I'd love to talk to you and see if

this is something I can help you with.

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My email is andy@andystorch.com.

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Or if you've already been doing AI

training and AI enablement work and

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people have been using it or learning

how to use it, but a lot of people are

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maybe refusing to take advantage of it

or they're afraid of what the future

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looks like, reach out to me because I'd

love to do a session where we talk about

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the importance of owning your career

and taking advantage of the development

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that's available to you so that you

can set yourself up for future success.

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That's exactly the session I'm going to

be doing with the software company next

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week, and I think it's a really important

message that we need to be bringing to

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people all over the corporate world, that

you need to take ownership of your career.

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You need to set your intention with what

you wanna do, what you wanna accomplish.

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You can't sit on the sideline.

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You can't wait for someone to bring

something to you, and you need to take

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advantage of the development opportunities

that are available, especially when it

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comes to AI training and AI enablement,

because it's imperative that our people

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learn these skills so that they remain

valuable or can provide even more

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value and get more jobs in the future.

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I'm doing my part by investing quite a bit

of my own money and time in learning AI.

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I'm playing with the tools every day,

reading books, listening to podcasts,

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using different things, following

experts on Instagram and YouTube, and

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just trying everything I can, talking

to friends, to become as proficient as I

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can so that I can then also help others.

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Because I don't want you or

your team to fall behind either.

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So if you're ready to take it to the

next level, you're ready to talk about

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AI, or maybe you wanna talk more about

career development, I'm here to help you.

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You can reach out to

me, andy@andystorch.com.

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My website is andystorch.com.

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And let me know how it's going.

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I would love to hear from you,

and I will talk to you later.

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Cheers.

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