Insight ON Gen Z Has a Question for Employers — How Are You Using AI?

Audio transcript:

Gen Z Has a Question for Employers — How Are You Using AI?

Josh Hori (00:03):

So I'm actually very worried about what AI holds. I've seen its capabilities firsthand in a big enterprise, so I'm honestly pretty worried about, especially for entry level positions, what that looks like for me.

Kiera Young (00:17):

I would be lying if I said I was a little bit scared, especially because I am so interested in creative writing and the expression of all of that. But I think at the same time, what maybe recruiters will be really looking for and what businesses will crave in the future is that human connection and those communication skills that AI can't replace.

Taylor Klocek (00:41):

I am not too worried because I think, especially at a workplace like Insight, they keep telling you it's just going to help your work be better, basically. It's not going to take over your job. I've been reassured that many times.

Tahir Larocque (00:55):

So if a company uses AI, would you want to work there? It depends how they use it, right? If you have a company that does not use AI, I think it would be like a red flag. There's a lot of

Jillian Viner (01:04):

Different reports and headlines about the fading away of the next generation of talent, about entry-level jobs disappearing from the workforce. But if those entry level jobs do disappear, what does that mean for the talent pipeline? In fact, what does it mean for the class that's graduating in the fall? Today, we're going to sit down with a group of interns and ask them those very questions. How has AI influenced their decisions while going through a college? What fears do they have about the future of work and what are their expectations as they enter the workforce? I'm Juliane Viner, and this is Insight on the Future of Work.

Taylor (01:43):

I'm Taylor Klocek, class of 2027 at ASU, majoring in supply chain management and business management.

Tahir (01:49):

Larocque, class of 2027 at ASU, majoring in digital marketing and data analytics.

Josh (01:53):

I'm Josh Hori. I go to Purdue University. I'm class of 28, and I'm majoring in actuarial science and applied statistics.

Kiera (02:01):

I'm Kiera Young. I also go to Purdue University. I'm class of 2028, and I'm majoring in marketing and creative writing.

Jillian (02:07):

So you've had a nine-week, 10-week internship here at Insight for the summer. I'm curious, from the very beginning, when you first started your college careers, how much has AI impacted your journey? Which of you think has the biggest maybe pivotal steps you've had to change because of AI?

Kiera (02:28):

I think that's a great question. And I think also maybe you'll agree with me in the fact that Purdue encourages us to use AI and they place little boundaries on it. I think when I first started college, I was mostly just prompting it and copy and pasting things into it, which maybe I shouldn't be saying. But now I think that I am getting more specific with it and I'm utilizing it a lot more to focus on what I actually want it to do. So for in my marketing classes, I think it's good at pulling from tools in history, and I think I've learned how to be more specific in the ways that I've prompted it, especially in my coursework.

Taylor (03:10):

I think honestly, opposite side of the story, ASU, I know you could probably agree with me as well, they frown upon it very heavily. Every professor that I've had is like, if you get caught using AI, you're going to be sent to the dean and write papers. And I mean, obviously we've all used it just to help us out, make work a little bit easier, but I know not to use it. If I'm writing a paper, I will not put any AI because it'll just get caught. And they use AI to actually catch our AI. But I just know that a lot of our professors have been very strict about that.

Tahir (03:44):

I think when I first started ASU, it was really frowned upon, you really don't want to use AI for anything. But I think as I've progressed and gone through my classes, I think the use of AI is more like you've used it as a tool, for example, to study to plan for stuff. I think it's not frowned about anything they want you to do that. Whereas if you're using AI, like you said, copy and paste for answers, stuff like that, I think it's not frowned up for sure.

Jillian (04:09):

When you are at the point when you're job hunting, will you care if the job that you're applying for, the company that you end up working for uses AI or not? Does that matter to you?

Taylor (04:21):

I don't think so, just because this was my first internship and they were pretty on board with using AI. Like Kiera said, we were given tools to learn. And I think that's good because like he said earlier, AI is our future. So they either get on board now or you're going to be left behind. Realistically, there's going to be no in between in the future, I think. So a company using AI isn't a bad thing. I think it's good. Maybe if they didn't use AI, I'd be not worried, but it would just, since almost everybody's going to be using AI in a few years, if they don't step on that, I'd be a little worried, but not really.

Jillian (05:00):

So if you show up at a company and they're like, "Yeah, we don't use AI here," you're not worried.

Tahir (05:05):

I think if we're trying to progress into the future, I think AI is the future. I though your question was if a company uses AI, would you want to work there? My answer is going to be, it depends how they use it. If they're using it for graphic content or stuff like that versus just helping stuff out, make stuff easier. But yeah, I think if a company does not use AI, I think it would be a red flag. If you're trying to progress to the future, you probably want to compete with other companies that are using AI. And I think the company that are using AI are going to win that every single time.

Jillian (05:38):

Yeah. That's an interesting distinction though. You're not just asking, are you using it? But you want to understand how the organization is using it and you're judging them off of that.

Josh (05:47):

I actually think that's an important distinction to make. If you're using AI to make almost creative things, I don't think I really want to work for someone that does that. I don't know, maybe that's just a personal preference, but if you're using it to augment and help your business processes, I think that is going to be the future for pretty much every business. So I think that's acceptable for me.

Kiera (06:08):

I also don't know if I believe that if a business told me we never use AI here, if they're actually never using AI. Yeah.

Jillian (06:17):

Somebody in your business

Kiera (06:18):

Is using AI. Exactly. So I think something that's important for that, and maybe a red flag for me is if they say they're not using it, then where does the transparency of it come in? I think that's really important. At least Insight is very transparent about how we use AI. I mean, that's kind of a whole business value. And so I think that that is something that matters more to me than them just saying outright, "Oh, we use AI or we don't," because I think it could also go the same way for a business telling me that they do use AI. So I agree. I think it goes into how they're using it and in what use cases.

Taylor (06:55):

I'd also want to know why they're not using it.

Josh (06:57):

I think over our college career, it's definitely developed in something bigger. I think right at the end of high school and our start of our college career is more of as a chatbot, just like, "Oh, do this and do that." And now it's sort of evolved into something that's actually really useful and can be doing stuff in the future.

Jillian (07:19):

What would you say has been your level of expertise or skill with AI? How comfortable were you walking into this internship with AI? And then when you started here and started working with people who were having to use AI in their daily jobs, did you feel like you had a leg up coming into this or did you feel like you learned a lot?

Josh (07:40):

I don't think I was using AI to the best of what it's capable of at the start. I was kind of like probably what any other college was doing, just maybe doing it to do homework. I'm not going to disclose that. But initially I was manually doing Excel formulas and stuff like that. And I was like, there was a pivotal moment for me. I was like, why am I doing this when I can just have the AI do it? So I think I've definitely evolved to see some of the more of the capabilities behind it.

Kiera (08:12):

I think coming into this, I honestly thought I was super, I don't know if you can be good at AI, but I thought I knew how to use it wrong. I use it totally different now, and I already have these ideas of ways that I can use it to help me in school, and I have some skill ideas and that kind of thing. I can also say that I'll probably be spending a lot more money on AI subscriptions when I get back to school. But yeah, I think I use it a lot differently. But I think I came in kind of thinking that I knew how to best use it, which is just not true.

Jillian (08:45):

Give me an example of that. What was something that you have learned through your internship about AI? What's a use case that you didn't know that you could do before?

Kiera (08:54):

I mean, there's so many things I didn't know. I think I didn't know that you could customize and build your own agent, I think, which also it's nice here because we have that ability. It's going to be a little bit more of a challenge going back to school. But I kind of thought that you were more restricted and that what you see on the surface level is all that you can do. But I think now I've learned that you can really go deeper into that kind of thing and you can build your own skills, for example, in different platforms without having the highest enterprise level of a subscription in that amount of tokens. But yeah, so I think just being able to customize it to your own needs, and I already see so many different places as a student that I can do it. It's really nice.

(09:39):

Yeah.

Jillian (09:42):

Was there a task that you guys did this summer during your internship that you were able to do quite rapidly because of AI, that you recognized that an intern five years ago or even a year ago would've taken them maybe days or weeks to complete?

Taylor (09:57):

I don't think it was. I've obviously used it to help me. Templates for emails and stuff that I've liked responding to, just the little things. But I saw it firsthand. One of my friends here, she created a whole website with AI, and that was just something that blew my mind. I was like, I had no idea that you can do this. It'll click on something, something will pop up. It has all these fancy things. And I honestly never knew you can use that. And I think that I will definitely use that going forward. And I think it made her job a lot easier because I don't know how to build a website from scratch. So I think her having the ability to use the AI agent or whatever tool she used to build that definitely was faster than doing that by hand.

Josh (10:38):

Sure.

Tahir (10:40):

I can definitely say the same thing. I think pretty much all aspects from research, I think research from our, I guess research done really quickly. I think creativity on graphic design content, I think I guess it went very well. And for me personally, I do data input for data analysis, Excel spreadsheets, stuff like that. AI gets it done super, super quickly. Sometimes it's incorrect. But then as the professional, somebody in the field that you're supposed to know information about, you can go and then correct or supposed to. So yeah, that's what I would say at first. Let me

Jillian (11:12):

Double down on that for a second because I think that validation piece that you just highlighted is something that has a lot of people, especially employers, concerned about that validation layer. When you're doing tasks, particularly when you're being asked in a workplace to bring AI into your task, how are you judging the quality or the truthfulness, the accuracy of what you're producing?

Tahir (11:35):

I think for me personally, I think it goes with what you do know if something is right versus what something is wrong. AI is great. It gets stuff done really quick, but like I said, the information might not always be accurate. So I think it's your job as professional to just dictate what is accurate and what's not and to make the best decision from there.

Jillian (11:54):

How are you discerning that skill though, if you're new to the field, new to the company?

Tahir (11:58):

I think it's just over time, you see what should be right, what shouldn't be right. Also, if you work with people that do know how things are supposed to look versus how it's not supposed to look. So it's communicating back and forth between the team that you work on and making sure that your work is correct for sure.

Jillian (12:15):

Any other differences, opinions there?

Taylor (12:17):

I fully agree with him. I think that you have to know the material before you use AI, because if you don't know it, if you just put it in, don't look at it. It could come out wrong and you could make a big mistake and you would never have an AIDS since you don't know it. So I think just learning that material and then double checking it as well, just making sure everything is in the correct place. And like Tahir said, having those coworkers and people that you work with, they're more advanced with those skills so they know what should be right, what should be wrong.

Jillian (12:44):

Do you think that you learned more from AI during your internship or more from people?

Taylor (12:49):

I think I can say I learned more from people just by talk. I've met a bunch of different people in different departments and talking to them has been really insightful because they started that job or whatever position they were in way before AI was a thing. So they have a lot of knowledge and just getting to know actual human knowledge compared to artificial intelligence is a very big difference. But AI has also been a learning curve in itself, but that's learning how to use it, not learning from it.

Kiera (13:17):

I think I've learned more of the functional skills and the vocabulary words of marketing from AI, just having those conversations and going back from projects. But I think that having those platforms and as I was saying, allocating that time and those different needs to AI has helped me to spend more time meeting people. And then I think that's where I would go in learning more about my communication skills and networking from different people and almost different career interests. Like Taylor was saying, the whole vibe coding thing, I didn't know that was an option, and I have actually dipped my toes into that as well. So I think that there's two different sides to it, but I would definitely say that using AI has allowed me to meet with more people that I probably wouldn't be able to have if I was spending my time with my head down at my desk.

Jillian (14:09):

So what I'm hearing is because you were able to do some tasks faster with AI, it gave you time to go make more connections with people.

Kiera (14:16):

Yes, exactly.

Jillian (14:17):

Interesting.

Josh (14:18):

I think I've learned both from AI and people like she was saying. For AI, I think I've learned the basics, what you were talking about, what these different departments do, especially being thrown into finance with a ton of different departments. I had to quickly learn all the functions. But I think talking to people is how you get to the nitty-gritty. What are their processes? How do they actually function? So I think that's where my sort of divide was, but I think I've learned equally from AI and people.

Jillian (14:50):

Your internship was a little bit unique as I understand. What were you told on day one?

Josh (14:55):

I was told on day one that I was going to be sort of a test subject for how is AI going to play a role into entry-level functions. So essentially they would throw me into all these different projects without telling me anything. And it was just go figure this out, use AI as much as you can. So I think it's definitely been interesting coming from school where they're like, "No AI, don't use AI to hear where just use AI." So yeah.

Jillian (15:25):

How did it go? How did you feel about the work?

Josh (15:27):

I thought it was really interesting. I've been in a lot of different high level, probably where I shouldn't have been meetings. So I've learned a lot about management. And something interesting over the summer is they introduced basically cost to AI, which is another cool factor that I've been interested in. But I think it's been cool interacting with all these different departments and seeing how AI is functioning in a really big enterprise insight.

Jillian (15:57):

As the guinea pig of what future entry level jobs could look like, do you have any advice for the team moving forward?

Josh (16:04):

I think more importantly, people have to look at critical thinking skills instead of if you're a coder or something, you might not have those communication or critical thinking skills that someone else might have. And I think with AI, it's allowed me personally to enhance myself. I'm not the best technical person, I'm not the best coder, I'm not the best Excel person, but I think my communication skills and my critical thinking have helped me along with AI to do these projects and sort of whatnot.

Jillian (16:38):

I want y'all to be honest with me here because I think a lot of us that are already established in our careers thinking about the future generation, we are worried for you to be frank. And want to know from your perspective, how are you thinking about AI in terms of your job evolution, your career path? I mean, creative writing, AI is one of the places where, well, generative AI is one of the places where I think people really feel the fear and we see the AI slop out there all the time. Finance, AI is taking a big chunk of that kind of compute work. So as you've gone through your college careers, how have you been thinking about AI? Are you afraid of it? Are you less afraid of it now? Has it changed what you think you might want to do for a living?

(17:26):

What's been the biggest thing maybe keeping you awake at night?

Taylor (17:30):

Honestly, I am not too worried because I think especially at a workplace like Insight, they keep telling you it's just going to help your work be better, basically. It's not going to take over your job. I've been reassured that many times. We have a guest speaker series that we're doing for my interns and we ask the AI question to all of them and they're higher ups and they're like, "It's not going to take over your job. It's just going to make it better in your work better." So I really am not too worried because AI can't talk to people face-to-face. They don't have those skills and those you don't have a personality as AI. So I think that we will do a better job because we have certain personalities, communication skills, just talking to people. AI can't do that. So I'm honestly not too worried about it since I can build those skills.

Kiera (18:19):

I completely agree. And I think also you kind of put it in there yourself when you said AI slop. I think at least I can, and maybe hopefully you guys can too, definitely recognize when something's been completely written with AI. And I would be lying if I said I was a little bit scared, especially because I am so interested in creative writing and the expression of all of that. But I think at the same time, what maybe recruiters will be really looking for and what businesses will crave in the future is that human connection and those communication skills that AI can't replace exactly what you said. And I think while AI will continue to get better and will learn from our voices and our writing styles, I think you really cannot replace the just connection of face-to-face work, especially in such a client-based industry. So I think that it'll look different in also different industries as well.

(19:24):

But I also, I don't know, I'm not too worried.

Josh (19:27):

Contrary to your guys' points, I'm actually very worried about what AI holds. I've seen its capabilities firsthand in a big enterprise, so I'm honestly pretty worried about, especially for entry level positions, what that looks like for me. I've considered almost a career change or not really a career change, but I want to keep my options open to see what I can do. But I am pretty worried because I think AI is going to augment the jobs. Like you were saying, it's going to change the jobs that are high level already that you're there. But when you're in entry level, coming out of college, I think it's definitely going to be harder for us to find positions and stuff like that.

Jillian (20:10):

Sorry, you're nodding along pretty agreeably to hear. What do you think?

Tahir (20:14):

This is an interesting conversation. I have a lot to say about this, but I'm not going to speak too much. I think AI can take over almost any job the next 30 years. I think what he was saying with entry level positions, it's unfortunate for people that are going to learn how to do jobs. I think we're going to be in a good position. We're learning how to do jobs right now. Maybe 10 years from now, you can have people's perspective of okay. You had to ask a question about what do you learn more from people or AI? And I was thinking I think I learn more from people because people teach you how to do the elbow grease stuff so that you don't want to do. AI just does for you. And I think in a job market where AI could take over, learning the skills that AI can do, which is something that you learn over time is very important.

(21:03):

And I think that if you're not able to learn those skills because of AI advancing and taking over your job, I'm very worried. I think it could take over in the long term. I think

Kiera (21:13):

Also a point that I'm seeing in both of your guys' conversations too is that keeping your options open. I think in 30 years there will be so many more jobs that we didn't even think could exist. And so I think that while entry-level jobs will never look the same, they'll just look different. And so that's what I have some sort of trust in because I think we have to look for something that people will learn and college classes will look different as well.

Jillian (21:48):

Do either of you have younger siblings? You do. Are you advising them differently about maybe their career paths? What are you telling them?

Tahir (21:56):

From my situation, my younger sister, she doesn't know what she wants to do, but she wants to be photographer. So for me, I told her, learn the difference between what's AI art versus what's somebody really put time to go do and see the difference, see the values that you can see in two different things. And I'm sure if you can see it, you can sell it. That's kind of what I tell her. But I think in every field is going to be different. Going to have to learn things differently now because AI can do things so much quicker than you can do.

Jillian (22:31):

Kiri too.

Kiera (22:32):

Yeah, honestly, the exact same. My sister is also very interested in art. She's a great artist. And something that I would've told her maybe before I came to college is that she should look into UX design or graphic design. I now would maybe advise against that. But I would agree, I think that there are skills that she has already adapted so much before even going into college that now she can grow on and take, especially in that humanities and liberal arts kind of field.

Jillian (23:10):

What's a skill that you feel like your group in particular has had to learn through this internship or not, but just in the reality of this new AI-driven world? So what's a skill that you think you've had to learn that maybe the groups ahead of you got to bypass or maybe are learning now?

Josh (23:29):

I think we're perseverers. We're all COVID sort of babies. I don't know what you want to call it, but we've all learned how to adapt. Well,

Jillian (23:37):

You're not COVID babies, but you're -

Josh (23:39):

High

Jillian (23:40):

School,

Josh (23:41):

Husband you went during lockdown. We went through that. So I think we've learned how to adapt. And I think just like any other technological advancement, I think AI is just another way we can adapt. And I think our generation is best suited to do that.

Taylor (23:55):

I agree. I also think that, I don't know, me personally, I've learned throughout this internship that self-promotion is a very big thing and you should be doing it. It's not bragging or anything like that. So I think making the point of the fact that you can do stuff that AI can't do, having a great conversation, interactions, networking, all of that stuff, I think that making that a point and promoting yourself to higher up people if you want to get this job or whatever, and just saying, "Oh, AI can't do that. I can do this instead of AI." I think that's a big thing because it just shows the people that you can do stuff that AI can't do.

Tahir (24:29):

I think one of the biggest things I personally learned from this internship is understanding a known difference when people are playing the part and really knowing what they're talking about. I think in this world with AI, it's really easy to play a part, act like you know what you're saying, follow a script, go up AI flow. But it's really understanding what you're doing, the work that you're putting in. Me personally, I think that's something I've realized.

Jillian (24:56):

Is there a guideline or a invisible barrier that you set that you say, "I'm not going to have AI do this thing, this particular work." What would that be?

Kiera (25:08):

I don't let AI write for me, but I think that that's also just important in my developmental stages of wanting to become a writer. I will say though, on the other hand, I definitely use AI to brainstorm and to ask me questions and to have a conversation. But I personally would never put out a piece or send anybody something that is just a doc that I downloaded from AI. So that is kind of my limitation, especially when it comes to creative writing and writing about my experiences. I just don't think that that is something that is worth it. I

Josh (25:45):

Also agree. I think writing is a big one for me, especially emails, something as simple as that. I feel like personal communication is something that I don't really want to be touched by AI. Unless it's automated, I don't think I want to have that sort of connection still with people.

Jillian (26:02):

You'll take flawed over AI perfection.

Josh (26:04):

Yeah, I'll take my weird typos and syntax over AI.

Jillian (26:08):

Yeah. I'm very amused by your earlier explanations about AI usage at your different universities. And it's funny that we have two ASU and two Purdue here. That was a coincidence. Thinking about the AI usage that you had here at Insight, not only what was taught to you, but maybe how you've observed others use it as well, what advice would you give to any university about AI and education?

Kiera (26:36):

I think also an AI course for just daily tasks would be a good idea because I would never have even touched or known of the things that I could take back from this internship and take to school if I didn't have this internship. And so I think that that would be a great thing for universities to incorporate and also just teaching its students to do more and learn more than just prompting it and just having it fulfill this most simple task when you really could go a lot deeper than that. So I think that actual courses that students could get credit from would be a great idea.

Jillian (27:19):

Back in the day, they used to be just a typing class and then it became basic computer class and now that makes sense as a logical evolution. Yeah.

Josh (27:27):

I think AI is the future. So if you want your graduates to be well-equipped and get jobs, I think it's going to be important to have that literacy and through maybe courses like that.

Tahir (27:39):

I think the use of AI can be as it's frowned upon right now. I say we should do the opposite. I think we should let people use AI in school. I think the difference, what we should do is that because we should be able to use AI, I think that if people actually want to learn that they're going to end up learning. Instead of having a grade system where you're trying to get 100% and try to have As on all your classes or whatever, I think that if you want to learn, you go out and you learn, you can fact check and you can go back and make sure your answers are correct using AI. And I think if people were to look at it differently that way, I think people would actually learn in school much quicker than just trying to do base assignments and get assignments done.

(28:19):

Test, test, test, quiz, quiz, quiz, test, test, test, get it out of the way. I think if you actually want somebody to learn, use AI as a tool in school and then you're going to make them be able to use AI as a tool out of school when they're actually in profession. So that's my opinion on it, but it could be.

Jillian (28:32):

I've joined you on your soapbox. I think sometimes in the workplace we get very caught up on just completing the tasks. And when you rethink what is it that I'm doing and the value behind it, it does change your approach. I think you got something there. What about for employers? You guys, again, during your internship, I imagine each of you, I know you have, had the opportunity to have at least some AI training, some AI coaching, maybe exposure to tools that you haven't had before. What would you say would be a benefit for organizations to adopt when it comes to AI adoption with their employees? How can they help with that?

Kiera (29:06):

I think something that they told us in the first few days is Insights AI Flight Academy. I think that's a great kind of idea to have employees integrate and learn with AI. I think the gamification of it all too makes it more exciting. So I would say, yeah, just giving people incentives to learn with it instead of just sending them on their way is something that I think employers could benefit from.

Josh (29:34):

Since I've been working directly with the AI adoption committee for finance, the Thundercats, I think I've learned a lot about how they're implementing it. So future employers could, I think one of the most important things is AI isn't click a button, do cool shit. It's more of a process. It definitely is something you go back and forth with and it Something where you don't start, it's definitely you have to practice it. It's almost a skill that you have to learn like music or something like that, which is kind of weird to say. But I think from when I started my internship, I was definitely a lot worse at using it than I am now.

Jillian (30:17):

So there's a lot of reporting, unfortunately, that's demonstrating that entry level jobs are more or less disappearing. There's a lot of factors as to why, but AI of course is pointed to as the reason why a lot of more entry level jobs are disappearing because that work is being automated, it's being put into AI. I think time will tell whether or not that's the reality. But for a business leader that is looking at headcount and trying to be strategic and minimize headcount while still creating opportunities for pipeline for their talent pool, what advice would you give that business leader about entry level jobs? And really what I'm really asking is for you to make a business case for yourselves, why should a business leader hire somebody fresh out of college versus figuring out how to just put all that work onto AI?

Kiera (31:11):

That's a great question. I think that one claim is that we could bring new ideas. I think we have a fresh perspective on it, especially because we started using AI and saw it being integrated when we were in high school. We were what, 15, 16 when this started being used.

Taylor (31:30):

If you don't have anybody that just came out of college 20 years down the road, you don't want people that are 80 years old working there still because AI took over all our jobs. I'd like

Jillian (31:39):

To retire someday.

Taylor (31:41):

So I think that just investing in them when they're young, because also fresh ideas, new mindset, we learned, I think college taught us a different way than even a few years ago. Their college experience is definitely a lot different than ours right now. So I think having a new mindset, but then investing in us because we're going to be the next leaders years down the road, but it's really important because AI can't take over leadership, in my opinion.

Josh (32:07):

I think for companies, I think the most important part is going to be figuring out who is this person? Who is the right entry level person? Especially if entry level jobs are decreasing, you're going to have to spend almost more time and consideration in which person do you want to invest? Which kind of sucks for us because there's going to be less positions. So it is going to be way more competition in my opinion.

Jillian (32:30):

During your internship, you are actually my intern, and you have been experimenting with me building a new AI system for the content team. What has that experience been for you and what has that shown you in terms of what does an entry level position or a junior position look like in the future?

Kiera (32:49):

It's definitely been interesting because I think I'm kind of playing devil's advocate. I'm on two different sides of it. One, I'm building a system that could potentially replace a lot of maybe the job description of these lower junior level roles. But then on the other hand, I am seeing more opportunity for different roles. I also think that building the system and seeing all of the different instructions and files and really the bones of it is important because it's showing me exactly what AI can do and its capabilities and where the gaps are as well and where I can fill in as the human in the loop kind of situation. So I think it's been very interesting. I almost have an angel and a devil on my shoulder. But yeah, I think that being able to take a look at the actual bones of the system has been really valuable.

Jillian (33:46):

You are helping to redesign a function, and that is a very interesting quandary to be in. I think you articulate that well, sort of the pros and cons and seeing both sides of it. If your current self could go back to day one of college and talk to that version of yourself, what do you think they would be most surprised to learn about you now?

Kiera (34:08):

I think that's such a great question because I think, and I actually was telling a manager this earlier, that I am so interested in tech. And I would love to say in this industry, day one of college, I probably would laugh in my face. I think the fact that it's so fast-paced and that it really pushes you to learn and get outside of your comfort zone, that's definitely something that I've done, is really exciting. And I think that that is something that I probably wouldn't have seen in myself going into college, especially with such a liberal arts focus. But yeah, I would love to stay in tech. So I think that's something unexpected for me. Yeah.

Taylor (34:46):

I wanted to be a lawyer when I went into college. Changed pretty fast. But even now compared to first day, I would tell myself, "Do not do that. You're not meant for that school."

Jillian (34:56):

Had nothing to do with AI. You just discovered that

Taylor (34:58):

That wasn't for you. Yes, I just discovered that that was not for me. I don't love reading. So I was like, "Yeah, maybe I should switch that up." But honestly, like Kiera said about the tech space, I really enjoy it. I'd like to stay there. So that's a very big difference from a lawyer. So I think I'd be just more shocked at where I am at now and what amazing company that we're all interning at.

Tahir (35:20):

So my freshman year, I did international business and finance. So I'm digital marketing and data analytics now. So it's completely different. I would say for me, I'd probably tell myself to slow down, probably learn as much as I could. I think my freshman year was prerequisites class and I was just flying through them, not really trying to learn anything. Like I said, task, test, test, quiz, quiz, quiz. So I would say just slow down, try to learn, take as much as you can from college because me freshman year, I had no idea I was going to end up where I'm at now.

Jillian (35:52):

I think freshmen to here would be amazed at how much you've matured. Without a

Tahir (35:55):

Doubt.

Jillian (35:56):

You're so wise now.

Josh (35:59):

I think I'd tell my freshman year self that you are good enough and you do have the skills to almost be in this place, in this industry. And I think something that was shown throughout this summer for me is that I do have enough understanding and I feel like I was almost insecure about it earlier. Am I good enough? Do I have the skills? I'm not a big coder and I'm in a big coding field. Can I do this? But I think AI has definitely helped me to realize my worth almost and see that yes, you are capable.

Jillian (36:35):

Guys, thank you so much for your time and your honesty. This has been so interesting and lovely to chat with you all. I wish you all the very best. We're going to miss you.

Taylor (36:44):

Thank

Josh (36:44):

You. I appreciate

Taylor (36:45):

It. Thank you for having me.

Close (36:47):

Thanks for listening to this episode of Insight On. If today's conversation sparked an idea or raised a challenge you're facing, head to insight.com. You'll find the resources, case studies, and real world solutions to help you lead with clarity. If you found this episode to be helpful, be sure to follow Insight On, leave a review, and share it with a colleague. It's how we grow the conversation and help more leaders make better tech decisions. Discover more at insight.com. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are of those of the host and the guests and do not necessarily reflect on the official policy or position of Insight or its affiliate. This content is for informational purposes only, should not be considered as professional or legal advice.