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Unveiling the Workforce Impact of AI: Why it's Bigger Than We Think
As we stand on the brink of an era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are compelled to envisage what the future holds for the workforce in an AI-driven world. With comparisons drawn to remarkable innovations such as the Internet, the magnitude of the AI-driven transformation is pervading across sectors. Precisely as the steam engine revolutionized industries, AI's arrival stirs a wholesale change in the global economic landscape.
The Sweeping Impact of AI on Various Professions
AI's rise, particularly in the form of generative AI, promises both challenges and opportunities for professionals across diverse domains. From writers to developers, product leaders to entrepreneurs, all find themselves in the vortex of this disruption. The greater emphasis, however, is not on replacement but on evolution. Jobs are evolving as roles take on hues of AI—corporates continue to value human expertise for high-quality output, and proficient use of AI tools has become a prominent attribute of sought-after professionals.
AI and the Job Market Dynamics
The transformation brought about by AI does more than simply weed out jobs—it stimulates job creation too. There's a shift occurring—not of jobs getting erased, but being transferred to more productive and potentially higher-paying areas. Rather than a threat, AI emerges as a tool of efficiency, redirecting jobs to areas where human skills truly make a difference.
Leadership and Security in AI Implementation
Despite the compelling call for gearing towards AI, companies prioritize security in their adoption strategies. Leading the way for secure AI adoption are Chief AI Officers, who meticulously monitor the sources of training data. Recognizing the very real concerns of data trained on copyrighted material, organizations are inclining towards internally trained generative AI.
Harnessing AI for Efficiency and Coordination
AI adoption makes way for enhanced operational efficiencies. Leaders are urged to leverage AI tools for day-to-day operations—be it generating reports or orchestrating smaller tasks thereby freeing up human resources for value-creating roles. Effective AI assimilation, however, calls for a well-oiled coordination model akin to DevOps. Companies excelling in DevOps demonstrate better preparedness to weave AI into their operations compared to those grappling with managing their operations.
The Future of Application Development
We are moving towards an era where creating basic applications will no longer be an exclusive domain of the tech-savvy, echoing the democratization of website creation through platforms like Wix and Squarespace. Predictions lean towards a growing trend of software management rather than just creation, challenging the traditional developer role.
Preparing for the AI Integration
With the AI landscape being fluid and subject to rapid evolution, perpetual adaptation and experimentation become key to harnessing the power of AI. Company leaders are encouraged to experiment with AI tools to understand their potentials and limitations. Involving teams in this process not only mitigates fears but fosters a culture of innovation as well.
Final Thoughts
The current period is ripe for experimentation and small-scale product rollouts, providing the perfect sandbox to explore AI capabilities. AI's arrival should be embraced as a cooperative journey rather than a confrontational disruption. Indeed, the AI wave will wash over many elements of our work, but it's up to us to learn to surf these waves and use this force to propel us towards a brighter, more efficient future.
Topics Covered in This Episode
1. AI's Workforce Impact
2. AI's Impact On Various Professions
3. Economic Changes
4. Human-AI Collaboration
5. Leadership and Security in AI Implementation
Podcast Transcript
Jordan Wilson [00:00:17]:
It can be hard to wrap your head around the impact that AI may have on the workforce. Right? You're probably thinking about that all the time, whether you're a brand new employee to an organization or you are the decision maker, in charge of implementing generative AI and large language models across an entire organization. But today, we're gonna talk about that it's actually probably a bigger impact than you even might think. Even if you think right now, it's going to have a large impact. Alright. I'm excited for today's conversation, and welcome to everyday AI. What's going on y'all? My name is Jordan Wilson. I'm the host, and everyday AI, it's for you.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:00]:
This is your daily livestream podcast and free daily newsletter helping everyday people like you and me learn and leverage generative AI to grow their companies and careers. If You're brand new here, maybe listening on the podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to check out your show notes. The website's gonna be there. Go to your everyday a i.com. Sign up for that free daily newsletter. Every single day, we bring you all the latest that you need to know about AI as well as recapping, this very episode.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:25]:
So don't worry. You don't gotta jot down notes if you're out on your, on around or walking your dog. We're gonna recap it all for you. Alright. And also, yeah, bonus episode. We did a 2fer last night, with, ChatGPT, announcing their new model, the open a I o one, preview o one mini. So we already dropped that, so make sure you go check that out. We never leave you hanging.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:48]:
We got that bonus one. Alright. Before we get into today's topic, which I'm extremely excited about, let's go over the AI news for today. So Oprah Winfrey's AI special had sparked some debate on technology's role in society. So Oprah Winfrey's recent special on AI entitled AI and the Future of Us has ignited some good discussion online surrounding the potential and pitfalls of artificial intelligence. So the tone of the event last night leaned towards skepticism as prominent figures including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, FBI director Christopher Wray, and others shared their insights. So Oprah emphasized the irreversible nature of AI stating that humanity must learn to navigate its consequences, highlighting the need for vigilance as the stakes are high. CEO Sam Altman from OpenAI argue that current AI systems are learning concepts from data patterns, a claim that many experts contest asserting that they merely predict outcomes without true understanding.
Jordan Wilson [00:02:55]:
Also, Altman called for government safety testing of AI systems akin to regulations in aviation and pharmaceuticals, but his push for regulation faces criticism as OpenAI opposes certain safety bills citing concerns over innovation. Alright. Speaking of Sam Altman, yeah, his company will just give you the bullet points here of what happened as OpenAI unveiled its new reasoning model or what they're calling a reasoning model in o one, preview in o one mini. So they have announced the release of the new models, which are designed to answer complex questions more efficiently than previous iterations, going through in a more step by step, almost like a way a human would, tackle a problem, kind of using a chain of thought reasoning versus, you know, people who are great at working with large language models using kind of chain of thought prompting. So the o one model has demonstrated superior capabilities in solving multistep problems, particularly in coding and mathematics compared to its predecessor GPT 4 o. So right now that is available to all ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Teams users, with enterprise and e d u users expected to get access within a week. OpenAI has also said that free users may get access to the smaller o one mini model, but no word yet on the potential release dates. So in test, yes, the benchmarks are nutty, so make sure to just go check out the show on that.
Jordan Wilson [00:04:22]:
But the o one scored 83% on a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad, I IMO, significantly outperforming GPT 4 o, which only managed 13%. Yeah. Huge jump there going from a 13% score on that very famous, math, competition to an 83. Wow. Alright. So, yeah. We'll have more in the newsletter, on that, and make sure to go check out that bonus episode. Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:04:49]:
We we did a 2 for last night, late night. Alright. So now I'm excited to have, a guest here on the show. If you follow, AI at all, there's a good chance you've heard of our guest. So, I'm extremely excited to welcome on to the show. There we go. We have Pete Erickson, the, founder of MoDev. Pete, thank you so much for joining the Everyday AI Show.
Pete Erickson [00:05:11]:
Good morning, Jordan. Thanks so much for having me on.
Jordan Wilson [00:05:14]:
Oh, absolutely. It's gonna be a fun conversation as we talk about AI's impact on the workforce. But, Pete, before we get there, tell us a little bit about what you do, at MoDev.
Pete Erickson [00:05:25]:
Okay. So MoDev is a 15 year old organization. In fact, I'm I am wearing my 2,000 and 145 year anniversary shirt. I I did that in in honor of our conversation this morning. So for 15 years, I have been building technology ecosystems. Motive stands for mobile development. And, you know, when the iPhone had come out, I found myself having just come out of my, you know, 3rd startup over the previous 10 years, none of which had exited at that time. So feeling pretty much like there has to be something more here.
Pete Erickson [00:05:54]:
And, lo and behold, the iPhone and the Android come out, the app stores, and so I saw a need to build community. And I built a mobile developer community, and, just went on this journey I didn't expect, and that was a journey of building conferences and, you know, being at the heart of the conversation and figuring out how do we, you know, how do we lift everybody up and how do we give people opportunities. And and so that's been my life's work now for 15 years, and and here we are now in the AI era. And, you know, I come to you, it's Friday morning, and I'm kinda buzzing this morning because I'm also a musician. And, last night, I played this really fun show that was, for the DMV Rising event, which is a cybersecurity event in community, and it was on this rooftop in downtown DC. And it was really fun because my, you know, my musicianship and my technology, you know, ecosystem and community work all sort of came together. And, so, you know, played for a few hours on this rooftop last night. It was a lot of fun.
Pete Erickson [00:06:52]:
Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:52]:
That's that's amazing. And, hey. Real quick, shout out to our livestream audience. So everyone, Cecilia, Marie, doctor Harvey Castro back in the house, Denny, Rolando. Everyone, thank you for joining. If you have any questions, now is the time to get them in. But, hey, sometimes, Pete, we just skip straight to the end. That's what I wanna do here.
Jordan Wilson [00:07:11]:
So tell us, what is going to be AI's impact on the workforce?
Pete Erickson [00:07:16]:
It's gonna be massive, and, I've been a part of the workforce conversation for some time. Oh, by the way, I just want to say real quick in 2011, when Siri came out for the, for the mobile phone, we had an event, a 2 hour event where developers just gave testimonies about how voice AI could impact their mobile applications. That was in 2011. So, you know, here we are all these years later. So it's very fun to be thinking about this, but workforce transformation is a big topic. So another thing that I do, I organize the AI house at CES. So this year will be January January 28. That'll be on-site at the, Las Vegas Convention Center.
Pete Erickson [00:07:51]:
It's gonna be a lot of fun. But last year, we had, we had, Julie Su, the acting secretary of labor. We had Liz Schuler, the president of the AFL CIO. We had Jesse Ehrenberger, doctor Jesse Ehrenberger, the president of the AMA. Well, what was the topic of conversation? What was interesting is, acting secretary Julie Hsu was the moderator for this panel. So we had a secretary cabinet level secretary moderating a panel on workforce transformation at the hands of AI. So this is a very big topic. It's a topic globally, and what you're finding is big economic regions are making really strong place to be centers of excellence with regards to AI because it's gonna have a massive impact.
Pete Erickson [00:08:32]:
It's it's gonna, you know, it's gonna impact if you are a writer, a designer, a developer, a product leader, an entrepreneur. You know, if you are a city and you're trying to make plans, you gotta know that this is coming. And I would like it if it's a little, you know, it's a little like the, you know, the the arrival of the steam engine versus, you know, man powered labor. So we've got, you know, white collar workers and knowledge workers are basically have been using our our brain power and our our manpower to actually create things and that's gonna change. So there's a wholesale difference in the economic landscape landscape globally. I'm working on a book on this topic that'll be out in December about, you know, thriving in the era of the AI. So big, big impact, Jordan. I'd love to talk more about this.
Jordan Wilson [00:09:17]:
So, you know, you started to mention off, you know, and I like what you did there. So, you know, I think people think originally, you know, oh, AI, you know, large language models, generative AI, writers, but it's so much more than that. Right? Especially now as we get to more capable models that can exhibit, you know, almost this agentic behavior. And you even threw in there cities, right? Yes, entire cities when they're planning for their futures, they have to take this into consideration, but you know, I actually wanna tap into your experience here, a little bit, Pete, and you, walked us through now celebrating, you know, 15 years, at at MoDev. So can you kind of compare what you're seeing now with, you know, specifically generative AI as artificial intelligence has been around for many, many decades. But how has this kind of compared to other tech innovations, that you've seen, or or that you've kind of been through so far, and how do you think it might differ?
Pete Erickson [00:10:12]:
I do have the benefit of having, you know, graduated high school in 1984. And, you know, fun fact, I worked at the very first Costco store. I could, I could program computers when I was in high school, so I we got our first Apple 2, so I programmed computers. I saw the the arrival of the home personal computer, and the only way that you can actually, you know, do anything on it was actually to create your own software. So I was writing games, you know, and another kind of fun programs. And because I could do that when I was 18, I actually opened the Costco store, the very first store down on 4th avenue in Seattle, Washington. And I would get there at 5:30 in the morning. I would turn on the person, the PC.
Pete Erickson [00:10:52]:
I would download the pricing data from a 244 pod modem and burn it onto an 8 and a half inch floppy disk, put that disk inside the registers, and get the registers loaded up with the daily pricing data. I did that when I was 18. So I've seen I have seen the technology landscape grow from then, And I would compare what's happening today in generative AI probably compares most with the arrival of the Internet. You know, you know, I so the arrival of the Internet was a was a wholesale change. I worked for a dotcom company in the late nineties in Seattle that raised, you know, ungodly amounts of money. And basically, we we created a buy button. And the reason I bring that up is, you know, there was so much investment in things that were really quite frankly simple. And now we look at them, now we laugh.
Pete Erickson [00:11:40]:
But what's happening today is maybe something a little bit similar. Generative AI has so much promise. APIs are readily available. So you see a lot of companies and you see a lot of investment and growth in technologies that just in a few years are gonna see why did why did the whole company get stood up around that. So generative AI is driving, you know, a lot of a lot of innovations being driven at that time. You know, today as well, a lot of innovation was driven at the arrival of the Internet. So all those VC dollars that went in and then, you know, led to the dotcom collapse, you know, they actually had a long term impact. They they they they did eventually do good.
Pete Erickson [00:12:12]:
But we're combing through that right now. So, huge changes in organizations, how we use data, how we organize the work that we do, how we measure that output. And, you know, but we we're definitely going through, you know, a a the balloon is getting bigger. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, there will be a correction just because there's only so much, you know, absorption the enterprise can do with regards to technology. So, you know, the more the more startups you have, that's the more salespeople, the more sales cycles that are putting pressure on the c suite, you know, CIOs, CIOs, CTOs, CISOs to buy that technology. It just you know, it's like a bottleneck. It backs up. Eventually, you know, there's gonna be a bit of a challenge, but, but it's definitely an exciting time.
Pete Erickson [00:12:58]:
That's why I'm here for it.
Jordan Wilson [00:12:59]:
Yeah. Love love the story of the first Costco. I'm a huge Costco guy. You know? Love love my berryberry smoothie from there. You you know, but you just walked us through. Right? Like, you you were creating, you know, programs for a store to use. Right? Like, one of the biggest, you know, now retailers in the world. How do you see you know, I I kinda wanna go down that route a little bit here.
Jordan Wilson [00:13:22]:
I wasn't expecting to, but, you know, even creating applications. Right? This is something I'm not a a a technically a programmer. I can you know, I've been doing basic, you know, HTML, CSS, JavaScript for a decade or so, but, you know, now I can go in and create a script for a decade or so, but, you know, now I can go in and create a program for myself to solve a problem in, you know, a couple of minutes. What do you see as the future of of that? What do you see as the future of, you know, people Are we all just gonna be creating apps for ourselves to use? Is that gonna be a common occurrence even for people who are maybe nontechnical, and is that one of the ways that the workforce transforms?
Pete Erickson [00:13:58]:
I think basic apps, certainly, it's gonna be you know, you can do things just like you can stand up a basic website. Now you can go into Wix or can go to Squarespace, and, you know, you could do that. It's pretty, pretty cheap. Whereas, you know, just 15 years ago, it would've cost you ungodly amounts of money to do the very same thing. But I would say that, you know, we're ending an era of software management more than software creation. I don't believe that developers are just gonna, you know, be a thing of the past, that developers are gonna have to change how they work. You know, I'll use myself also. You know, I've I've run a company.
Pete Erickson [00:14:26]:
We hire people all the time, designers, writers, developers. I want, people that are using actively using AI tools. You know, I can go and create an image on, you know, on Midjourney or DALL E, but I'm not a designer. And quite frankly, my prompts are very simple, but a designer is gonna have the ability to write prompts that I don't. And they're gonna create much, much, much better images. Writers are gonna have understand writing structure and, you know, be able to actually produce much better output. So my encouragement, the reason I'm writing this book about thriving in the era of AI is that we really it is a time to really embrace these tools, and lean in on our humanity as it relates to AI. And that's gonna be the best result for anybody that's trying to get ahead in this market.
Pete Erickson [00:15:18]:
You know, so software developers, maybe they need to take a little bit more abstract view of software, but the good software development principles still apply. Right? Good rules of of thumb, really good hygiene when it comes to code. So, you know, if we rely a 100% on AIs and we don't know, you know, about that output, whether we're a designer, a writer, a developer, you know, you're gonna end up with not a very good product. So, yeah, you and I are pretty technically proficient. We can use AI to do a lot of things. But when it comes to, you know, when it comes to really mission critical things, I'm gonna hire developer. I'm gonna hire a writer. I'm gonna hire a designer.
Pete Erickson [00:15:55]:
I still do. That hasn't changed.
Jordan Wilson [00:15:58]:
Yeah. And and, you know, speaking of of thriving in the era of AIP, I I think a lot of the conversation and attention, over the past 2 years, especially since the, literal ChatGPT moment, right, has been on jobs. Right? There's been both the fear of, oh, is AI going to take my job? And then there's been the uncertainty of how do I prepare for what my my job, my career, or my company will become in the future. How should the the average everyday person, right, kind of regardless of of their role, how should they be following along? How should they be keeping up because the transformation is coming.
Pete Erickson [00:16:40]:
It's coming. We're all we're all gonna have to transform the way that we work and the way that we operate. And, you know, for the first time for the first time, my pen just flew. For the first time, Jordan, I know several developers that are out of work, and it is a direct result of AI. Don't get me wrong because what's happening is organizations are slowing down their hiring because they're trying to figure out how do they resource in the area of AI. It's not that they don't want to hire developers. It's just that, you know and it used to be that any developer that I knew that had maybe at least, you know, 2 or 3 years of experience was working. And I know several developers that have 25 or 30 years of experience that are not working right now.
Pete Erickson [00:17:15]:
And, you know, my encouragement with all of them when I speak when I speak with folks, and I'm not a recruiter, but I just do everything I can to try to place people into jobs if they're looking, is to really embrace AI. So I would say start getting you know, start understanding the tools. If you're a developer, you should definitely, you know, you should definitely be experimenting with Copilot and, you know, Codium and Tab 9 and some of the other platforms that are out there that can write code now. ChatGPT can write code and so can Cloud and and others. But, you know, really become a proficient AI developer. That means basically using AI to become a better developer. So I would encourage anybody that's out there, in the field of, you know, any any creation field. Right? Writing, designing, even user experience and, you know, software development, even product management.
Pete Erickson [00:18:04]:
Lean in lean in on the tools. Really understand them. So just really understand. Make it part of who you are. Make it part of your resume. Make it part of your capabilities. It's it's just no different than, you know, needing to be good at, you know, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint back in, you know, in the late nineties and early 2000, you really needed to know those things if you're gonna be in the knowledge working space. And if you didn't have that on your resume, chances are you were gonna have a hard time finding the job.
Pete Erickson [00:18:34]:
I think the same thing applies today.
Jordan Wilson [00:18:36]:
Yeah. That's that's a great point. Right? Yeah. Like, you know, if over the past 2 decades, if you, you know, don't have proficiency in something like Microsoft Word or Excel, it could be difficult to, you know, find and keep gainful, like, to to be gainfully employed. Right? So, you know, I I I both if if I'm being honest, I both love and I hate the concept, right, of of, you know, when when people say, oh, you know, you just gotta dive in and use it because it it seems so complex yet so simple at the same time. I love the example though that you gave there kind of about Microsoft products, but you know I'm curious Pete even for yourself. How has AI transformed your work personally? MoDev, the work you all are doing. You know, maybe if you can quickly give us an overview of that, could help us, kind of envision this bigger transformation that we might all have to start making.
Pete Erickson [00:19:28]:
Absolutely. Well, you know, when we so many different ways. For one thing, you know, my own writing, I I use I use several of the different tools for writing, just to, you know, I put in my own writing, and then I have it improve my own writing. I really want things still in my my own voice. But, now I'm neurodivergent. I have ADHD. So, the tools really help me become more productive. I use perplexity for a research.
Pete Erickson [00:19:53]:
All the time, I'm using perplexity for research. If I'm you know, an ex great example is we got asked by CES to produce a neurotech conference at CES this year. Right? I'm not in the neurotech space, but we I will be in the next month. You'll see the site come live and you'll see us announce this soon. Exciting. Really exciting. Well, I use perplexity to really help me understand more about the neurotech market. Who are the key players? If I invite speakers, who should I be thinking about inviting? Wow.
Pete Erickson [00:20:19]:
What a really great, you know, tool to have right at my right at my fingertips. And, you know, I encourage my teams as well. We really wanna make heavy use of AI wherever we can because it it quite frankly, it can help us. It helps us write better emails, write better marketing copy. And we're on HubSpot, so HubSpot's done a good job of incorporating AI tools into the into the platform as well. So I would just say anywhere I can use it, I'm you know, definitely use it. And, and, you know, I'm no less of a human being. I you know, it's it's I'm still doing the work.
Pete Erickson [00:20:52]:
And, but it does give me some it brings it gives me back some time, some time to, you know, create. I've got big plans for 2025. I mean, I gotta tell you, like, I'm making, you know, what I feel like are like impossible goals. We wanna launch this new conference called generate, which is all around AI upskilling. I wanna launch it on 5 continents. So, you know, how do we go do that? Well, AI is really helping me understand, you know, where are the, you know, what are the key market, what are the key markets I should be in in South America? Well, I can ask I can ask and not just one of the I ask them all. Let me lead you compare the diff compare the different answers, you know. Synthesize all those responses into 1.
Pete Erickson [00:21:30]:
Right? So there's just so many things, you know, we can do, with AI. And as a as community builder, I'm taking full advantage. But quite frankly, I think it just makes me better at what I do.
Jordan Wilson [00:21:41]:
Yeah. And you you mentioned something in there, Pete, this the concept of of upskilling. You know, it's it's it's now been the new, you know, buzzword of 23 and 24, I feel. Upskilling, reskilling, skill shifting. Right? What does that process look like? Because I think that is if if I'm being honest, I think that's gonna be one of the biggest impacts of the workforce because, you know, companies I think are going to see pretty sizable at least efficiency productivity gains, and then they're gonna say, okay. How can we start, you know, reapplying, some of that time to other areas, maybe new business, new areas of growth? How do you see, that playing out, or how should it play out?
Pete Erickson [00:22:20]:
Yeah. And I think you hit the nail on the head, Jordan. I think that this is about actually increasing productivity, increasing profitability, but not just getting not getting rid of people. This is not about I think I think organizations that see this as an opportunity to reduce headcount are seeing it the wrong way. Organizations that see AI as a as an opportunity to increase profit per employee are seeing it the right way. And, you know, people are hungry and eager to thrive in their careers to get ahead. And AI offers that opportunity is to just, you know, to to be more productive in regardless of what job they're in, whether they're an analyst, whether they're a writer, designer, developer. So I think smart organizations are embracing AI, getting their staffs trained up on tools that they can use in their day to day work to become more productive.
Pete Erickson [00:23:08]:
And like you said, I mean, I think what you're gonna see is, you know, every company has a release pipeline probably a couple years long. Right? They're like, I got product releases that are out. Wow. Imagine being able to shrink that timeline down. So you actually can have a better product out there. You have a better experience for your clients, whether you're a b to b company or a b to c company. You can really work on what we call CX automation or or CX experience, you know, customer experience. And you can start to pour into areas that are really quite frankly more important.
Pete Erickson [00:23:39]:
And I think companies will start to understand, like, wow, all that stuff we used to do, like, no one would ever see it. It was really expensive. It took a lot of time, and it didn't really do us any good at the end of the day. Well, all these efficiency can be gained by companies that really embrace AI. I think that's what's really exciting, and that's what that's what I'm gonna advocate for is for organizations. This is not about people losing their jobs. Right? 97,000,000 jobs are gonna be created in AI. The but is the flip side of that is 84,000,000 jobs are going to go away.
Pete Erickson [00:24:09]:
And and and when we say go away, what it really means is there's efficiencies that are gonna be gained. Those jobs can go into more productive areas and maybe even higher pay. So I think that there's a ton of opportunity. I had a great lunch with, with Kathy Hackel. If you don't know her, definitely follow her. She is, she is a a global leader on the on the on the AI stage. And she said it's a season of possibilities. And I love that term because that's really that's really what it is.
Pete Erickson [00:24:36]:
It's an exciting time.
Jordan Wilson [00:24:39]:
A great great question here from Rolando. So he's asking, how do you think generative AI will change leadership dynamics in team collaboration? What are the new opportunities? Speaking of season of opportunity. Great question there, Rolando. What are the new opportunities and challenges for executives as AI tools become more prominent in the workplace?
Pete Erickson [00:24:59]:
Yeah. That is a really good question. I think a lot of executives are thinking about security. Like, it's almost like they're thinking about security first. Right? So if we're going to start to utilize, you know, large language models internally and and open up, generative AI tools for our staff, where's that data coming from? What's it being you know, where where's that training data coming from? Are we opening ourselves up? If we're using let's say we're using data that was trained on copyrighted material and suddenly inside our organization, we're starting to use that. Does that open us up? So I think I think organizations and leadership leaders are really thinking about this. So that's where the role of the chief AI officer comes in is that companies are really working hard to implement policy, positions for their organization. So I'd say that's almost top of mind right now for a lot of folks.
Pete Erickson [00:25:46]:
Now there are capabilities and, you know, I spoke with, a a, a chief AI officer for a a big a global NGO, and they are using AI internally, generative AI. They're starting to adopt it internally, but it's all trained on their own data. They they, you know, they're not they're not allowing, you know, external data. There's that. And then I do believe that really good leaders are going to enable and encourage the use of AI tools incorporated into their day to day operations. So that let's say they have their, you know, monthly or their weekly stand up meeting. Come prepared with your reports. Use the tools to generate those reports.
Pete Erickson [00:26:23]:
Let's be as efficient as possible. So a lot of efficiencies can be gained, internally. Yeah. But I would say security policy, that's having a huge impact on companies internally right now. And then capabilities are gonna come next. And, you know, the fastest moving organizations are gonna be able to take the most advantage of those capabilities sooner.
Jordan Wilson [00:26:44]:
Yeah. And, you know, I love that, you know, toward the end of the conversation here, we're talking about, you know, chief AI officers, you know, kind of a a newer trend in 2024. Right? But who should ultimately you know, when we talk about workforce impact, I think there's there's reactive aspects of that. There's proactive, aspects of that as well. You know, who should be owning AI initiatives? Right? You know, whether companies have already gone all in or not, who should be owning it? Should they first be, you you know, appointing a chief AI officer? Is this a a a CTO, CIO thing? Who's who's owning this? Who's driving this?
Pete Erickson [00:27:19]:
Yeah. It's a great question. And I think, you know, what I'm finding is in the conversations I'm having with folks is AI is a data function. And so, it's almost like, you know, the data scientist side of the house, is I'd say paramount with regards to, you know, owning AI from many standpoints. But you've got to have the the chief technology, the chief IOLs, sir, and, and then you've got the CISO as well. It is a it's a group function, but I would say that, you know, most organizations, it seems to me that it's following, AI in terms of its its its use and its implementation seems to be a, you know, a data science, engineering side of the house. But that's not going to be true everywhere, but it seems to be, you know, my anecdotal data and the conversations that I've been having, that seems to be where it's falling. However, I will say this, you know, there's, people are familiar with the term, the term DevOps, You know, DevOps describes, you know, software development operation that involves really tight coordination amongst, you know, the CIO, the CTO, the CISO, even the the CMO as, you know, products and the chief product officer, there's just really good coordination in organizations that have a really good DevOps department that have really adopted DevOps.
Pete Erickson [00:28:39]:
And I would say those organizations are gonna be in the best position to to really leverage AI because they've already taken care of a lot of the challenges related to building products and getting those products to market. So people that are great at DevOps are gonna be good at AI. And if you're not great at DevOps, you're gonna have a very challenging time in rolling out AI.
Jordan Wilson [00:28:58]:
That's that's a great point. Yeah. You know, those companies that do excel, you know, specifically in DevOps. Yeah. It's it's almost like they were, preparing the groundwork, especially if they've had that, you know, for for a decade or so. So so, Pete, we've talked about a lot today so far. I mean, we've talked about data security, upskilling, reskilling, you know, even practical ways that, you know, you and your company are starting to transform your own work. But as we wrap up today's show, maybe what is the one most important next step, for, decision makers to, take right now as we are all either going through or embracing for, this big AI impact that is coming to the workforce?
Pete Erickson [00:29:42]:
I think use the tools. I mean, I you know, and we're at this you know, you mentioned at the top of the top of the, show that, you know, OpenAI announced all these new feature releases. Right? It's just that's gonna that happens all the time. Happens every day. It's why I decided I'm not gonna, you know, just be on LinkedIn, just, dropping, you know, release information on tech because you just pretty soon it's all in the noise and you can't keep up. But I would say adopting the tools, starting to use the tools every day, and just understand them better. So that's when I, that's when I really started to really started to open, man, open my eyes and go try them all out. Like this is a time, this is very fun.
Pete Erickson [00:30:17]:
I mean, there, it's really interesting. It's a great time of experimentation, So definitely be experimenting right now is a really good time to do it. You can get away with experimentation. Even, you know, if you want to experiment with some, you know, small pilot rollouts of products. I mean, it seems to be the rule now more than the exception Jordan is that, you know, big releases go out and like, you know, Microsoft has been very good at this and they're not ready. So it's like, oh, we gotta pull them back because it's not ready. You could do that on a small small small scale and get away with it. So I'd say it's a time of exploration, a time of experimentation, and I would say include your teams in the process.
Pete Erickson [00:30:55]:
You know, let them let them be a part of this process and, enable people, you know, to to utilize AI, overcome some of the fears out there. But, it's a it's a great time to great time to to take advantage of all these, you know, wonderful products at our fingertips.
Jordan Wilson [00:31:12]:
Such great advice. You know, this this was another one y'all. If if if you're listening to this, bookmark this one, come back, listen to it once a month. I think this is, great advice from Pete, from Pete that will not age. So, Pete, thank you so much for coming on the Everyday AI Show. We very much appreciate your time.
Pete Erickson [00:31:32]:
Thanks for having me on, Jordan. I enjoyed it.
Jordan Wilson [00:31:34]:
Alright. Quick reminder everyone, we covered a lot and there is as always a lot more. If you haven't already, please make sure to go to your everydayai.com. Go check out that bonus episode. Like I said, we already covered, the big announcement from OpenAI. So go to your everydayai.com. Sign up for that daily newsletter, and we'll see you back for more everydayai. Thanks y'all.