Latest / WOC and Allies: Business and Career Realtalk with Elaine Lou Cartas / 125: Future Jobs & AI: Why Emotional Intelligence is Important (replay from Dubai)

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125: Future Jobs & AI: Why Emotional Intelligence is Important (replay from Dubai) · WOC and Allies: Business and Career Realtalk with Elaine Lou Cartas

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hey everyone, I just came back from Dubai to speak at Function One, an AI conference where I found myself in front of 10,000 plus AI founders and engineers and leaders talking about not necessarily AI, but EI, emotional intelligence.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I know what some of you are thinking already.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, how?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get people who train to think in the left side of the brain, systems, logic, and optimization to care about emotional intelligence?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the truth.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Humans are humans.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: You need to speak their language, or in this case, their code, so they can understand you.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: So just like them, as AI leaders and engineers, I had my scientists' glasses on and I spoke in a language they understood.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Treat them like an engineer, right?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Where I explained that communication is reviewing the data, reflecting on what worked, and edit and try again.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: So why did I go to Dubai?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I flew across the world to speak on a panel called the skill set of tomorrow, preparing for jobs that don't exist yet.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: And the one skill when I was preparing for this panel that I kept coming back to was emotional intelligence.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the reality as a business and executive coach, where it's interesting.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: This past year, my business has been doing well in an unfortunate way.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: This is what's happening: layoffs, reorganizations, accelerating, people being more protective of their careers by preparing for their worst or even in their own business.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: And people just feeling uncertain, overstretched, under-supported, burnt out.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And there's also grief in it.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, and I promise it's not trying to be completely positive about it, where it's toxic positivity, but there's also possibility in that.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: And there's choice on what we're going to do in those moments.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: So today you're going to hear the full replay of the talk I did with my panel with some brilliant humans I share the stage with.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: So it's Adil Ol Islam of Microsoft, Mohamed Bensikhar of LinkedIn, Professor Ubilasha Singh of American University in the Emirates, Ahmed Motwali of Sphinc, Himet Pandy of Hustling Engineering, and me.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So grab your tea, coffee, and boba, and let's drop the beat.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_09: I have a stacked list of guests here.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_09: Let's start from Arah Mohammed Benzakur, a senior customer success manager at LinkedIn, based in Dubai.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_09: He's helping governments, universities, enterprises across the MENA region, build AI-ready workforces and strengthen their talent and learning strategies.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_09: And he is the regional AI champion for LinkedIn MENA, bringing over a decade of experience across digital transformation and employee experience from Microsoft to Deloitte across Europe and the Middle East.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_09: We also have to his right Professor Abilasha Singh, Dean and Professor of HR and OB at the American University in the Emirates, seasoned academic leader who has held several senior academic administrative positions, including President, Provost, and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_09: We have Ahmed as well, founder of Sphinc, redefining how companies verify technical talent.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_09: Over the past decade, Ahmed has architected mission critical software systems at industry-leading companies, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Surfer, where he built production grade applications for government and enterprise clients.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_09: We have Emant, a software engineer with eight plus years of experience, built large-scale systems at Meta, Salesforce, and Tesla.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_09: And Hemant also mentors engineers on how to level up, get paid more, and build side hustles through his cohort course, content, and newsletter.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_09: Finally, we have Elaine at the end, a business and executive coach.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_09: For the past eight years, Elaine has worked with 20,000 plus clients in 58 different countries.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_10: Well, that's a great question, Adil.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_10: Well, look, I think we are all in this room now thinking about which jobs will exist in five years and which ones won't.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_10: And what I can tell you that our naked research shows that by 2030, just in five years down the road, 70% of the skills required to perform our jobs will change.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_10: So more than half of the tasks and the skills required to do your job today, where you are, are gonna be either augmented, automated, replied, replaced also by AI.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_10: Now, what does that mean for us?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_10: This means that even if you don't change job, your job will change on you.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_10: Now we are in an era where humans will collaborate with generating with AI agents.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_10: So we'll have organizations that will run on both human and agent, and that's where we will see a lot of tasks that are going to be replaced by AI, and the focus will get more on the soft skills.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_10: So AI can replace tasks, but humans will add value.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_10: And all the tasks where you add value is there, and I'm thinking about communication, leadership, critical thinking, collaboration are some of the most important skills that will help us succeed in the future.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_10: And actually, if I look at this year, 2025, we have seen that learning how to use an AI agent has been the fastest growing skill this year.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_10: But at the same time, when we look at the top 10 skills on the rise globally, we see communication is one of them.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_10: We see adaptability.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_10: Learning how to learn, relearn and unlearn skills are just becoming the next power skill that's we all have to embrace.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_09: We have very human problems that we're trying to solve, and so certainly you've echoed uh a lot of that.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_09: Uh Professor Singh, uh universities are told to teach for jobs that don't currently exist.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_09: So, which curriculum components like studio courses or challenge-based learning have you seen actually scaled at the university?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, uh Adil, for that question.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh at the outset, uh I'm very grateful to the to Function One for picking up such a wonderful topic and bringing us together.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that's a very powerful question, and especially it is challenging us to think beyond the curriculum design.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: So at American University in the Emirates, just to give you a brief about the university, we are internationally accredited by SAC COC.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we are one of the most promising and innovative university located in Dubai International Academic City.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: When we talk about the curriculum design, we should not consider the curriculum as something which is static.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: We should see it as a living ecosystem, and that's a very important thing to uh for anyone working in the higher education sector to think about.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: We very closely work with industry.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we are known for our industry collaboration.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the courses which we are offering, I can see that 15% of those course deliveries are based on co-development and co-delivery.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: So we bring the industry speakers, we work very closely with the industry so that we can bridge the gap uh between theory and practice.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right from the strategic plan of the university, which is already published on the website, so uh anyone can see, 70% of the curriculum is more focused on hands-on.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we at uh just to give you an example of uh College of Business Administration, uh, we started a course which is integrating AI.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this integrated AI course is not only for the business students, it is for everyone.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: So anyone coming from any Asia, we offer media education course, we offer business courses, and everyone, it is mandatory for them to take those courses.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: But what sets us apart is not only the curriculum design, it is basically we track the progress.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we have re-engineered the complete curriculum to make it more future ready.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So the focus is always on the future readiness.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is one.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure many of you are aware about the conceptual framework which has been provided by PWC or Cisco, which is digital workforce readiness.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have the same kind of skill tracking for our students.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Are they AI proficient students or not?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we do have courses like business analytics.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: We started a program, Masters of Science in Business Intelligence.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: We have a doctoral program as well, doctorate in business administration.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the question here comes back again: are those students future ready or not?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: So tracking their readiness is very important.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Digital workforce readiness is just one aspect.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Then we also use another tracker, which is skill obsolence and reskilling.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So replacing the skills which are becoming obsolete with something new, which the market demands.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a simple course on operation management can be replaced easily with something on sustainability and AI.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what at American University in Demritz we are doing, and the outcomes are great now.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we we are here, we have an indirect measure, we talk to the industry people, though those are our industry advisory board members, and they tell us about the employability.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not only keeping a track on the employability, they see that the students are more adaptable, as Mahapad mentioned.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they are more adaptable, they are more resilient now.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: They don't focus on only the jobs, they focus on co-creating the job.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's very important for us.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one last point, which is also critical, that we as educators in higher education, we we cannot predict the jobs for tomorrow.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: What we can predict is we can just create the uh those skills which are never going to be obsolete.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And those skills are soft skills like curiosity, imagination.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we don't we allow every student to use Chat GPT or any regenerative AI tool.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: But then we ask them to question it, to critique it.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that is more important.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much for the answer.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_09: And I like to speak for my generation, because I am still young, um, that kids nowadays are being born into AI.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_09: They're expecting AI to be part of a curriculum.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_09: So it's lovely to see that education has come a long way, that it is improving with the industry, as you said, um, and uh becoming much more hands-on.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much for your answer.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_09: You are redefining how the world discovers and trusts technical talent.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_09: What signals best predict true engineering ability in 2025?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_09: Uh is it cold tests, the OSS graphs, uh, internet write-ups, architecture reviews?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so your question was how companies actually uh start to discover talents in uh in the AI era.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: I see it as uh a lot of people have skills and they claim to have the all the skills in the world, and especially with AI being like learning new technologies is coming pretty um is becoming pretty easy now.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_05: But what's better than I think what's better than actually having static skills is having the ability to learn, as Mohammed mentioned earlier, uh and reskilling as Dr.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_05: Abit uh mentioned as well.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_05: So uh I think the skill that's actually important for in this era, in AEI era, is um learning how to learn and and verifying and and and more importantly, the speed of how you learn.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: So basically skill velocity.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: This is basically a concept that I just made up, man.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: And um it just means that how fast can you get from zero to hero in a in a technology stack that just came out?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_05: So later on, when um a new technology comes out, engineers basically just take it out, take it on, and and start building something with it as soon as possible, as quick as possible.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_05: Uh that's better than having static skills that's always depreciating, because having uh a skill that's static, it's gonna be depreciating from now on, as uh LLMs basically start taking over a lot of uh repetitive tasks and those types of stuff.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: So uh I think the skill that's m everyone needs to work on today is learning how to get from zero to hero to production as quick as possible.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_09: Helps that uh a lot of these new products that are coming out, new technologies that are coming out are being documented really quickly, really thoroughly.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_09: It helps really uh students and everyone else adopt that kind of practice, that mindset when it comes to upskilling.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_09: Absolutely.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_09: Uh Hamat, you are a coach for senior ICs and leads.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_09: What are three career accelerators engineers ignore beyond code quality uh that create outsized opportunities in the AI era?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_06: First of all, thank you guys for attending, and and that's a good question.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_06: I I think in this era of AI, right, writing a good quality code is probably the bare minimum for software engineers, right?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_06: And I think Abilasha also touched base on that, that for any job, especially for software engineering, I think the number one skill needed is communication, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_06: We don't just write code, you need to work with product managers, you need to work with your GTM team, you need to work with your leadership, and then you basically build and launch a product.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_06: So, in my in my experience of eight years in software engineering, a lot of projects which have been blocked are due to alignment issues or collaboration issues.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_06: So I think uh improving your communication skills, honing your collaboration skills is probably the most important skill, especially in this era.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_06: If I need to pick a second skill, I think it's gonna be move fast, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_06: AI has opened a lot of doors.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_06: Earlier, the like MVPs or the products which were taking months can now be built in weeks.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_06: So you can experiment a lot.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_06: You can build a quick MVP, you can launch it out in the market, you can do some beta testing and figure out if the product is working or not.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_06: If not, it's even better.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_06: You fail fast and then you move to your next experiment.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_06: So moving fast is also like one of the skills.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_06: I think as a software engineer, we need to develop and start evolving.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_06: Third, uh, I think is basically you can like it's a it's a team sport, right?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_06: Software engineering is a team sport.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_06: So you can be the AI POC in your team, right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_06: We are all AI enthusiasts attending this conference, attending the talks, but not everyone in our team is, right?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_06: So you can be the person who can, you know, find problems in that process or in the development, and then you can basically figure out which AI tools we can use, how we can automate the problem, how we can solve the problem, and then basically present that solution to your team or the leadership, right?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_06: So you will be seen as an AI expert in the team, and people will start looking up to you.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that's that's probably a lot of uh that's one of the quick way leaders or senior leaders in it are executed in the career through.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_06: So so yeah, probably I think communication, moving fast, and then being uh AI TOC in your team is something which is very actionable and you can start doing uh in in just a few weeks or months.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_09: What I've seen at Microsoft is a lot of our customers adopt a top-down-up approach.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_09: So bottom-up, like you're saying, these users who are testing out these tools, becoming uh an expert within these tools, starting out building in their own workflows, which is great.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_09: And I think on top of that, there needs to be a strategic part to it as well.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_09: The organizations need to uh top-downs uh need to also think strategically how can we start using these tools to not only gain individual efficiency bonuses, but organizational wide efficiency bonuses.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_09: And Elaine.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_09: Uh as AI reshapes work, what human skills will matter most in the jobs of tomorrow?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to add to what everyone was sharing here.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is we're at an AI conference, right?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so what to add to that is EI, emotional intelligence.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's about 10,000 of us here at this conference.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: Why are we not in front of Zoom or Teams?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: The reality is as human beings, we build trust.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I know some of you, some of you are probably looking for funding, collaborations, connections, possibly a job.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: And sure, you probably inputted the whole list, all the speakers into Chat GPT.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Who should I talk to?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: But do you know when you go into a room, can you identify who who's of influence and affluence?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell who the decision makers are?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: Even if you talk to someone that might not have a fancy title, do you realize that person's a gatekeeper to the decision maker you're about to talk?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: And how do you start doing small little steps to get to your goal?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: I know this episode is so good.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, how can I get more of this?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I have a newsletter that comes out every Thursday that's free, fun, and full of real talk.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's a live journal Zanga on leadership and life with actual scripts, behind-the-scenes stories, and lessons from mistakes I've made so you don't have to for work and life.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Just go to elanelu.com forward slash join.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's E-L A-I-N-E-L-O-U.com forward slash join.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: All right, back to the episode.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: There's a way you could use both AI and EI, which is I'm gonna give you like a simple thing you could do and use AI.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: We love spreadsheets, but you could create a simple dashboard, put people that you're want to talk to, um, direct reports, people that you want to get sponsorships from, and put, okay, what's their communication styles?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: What's their KPIs?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Who do they work well with and why?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And not from a place of judgment, but in a place of curiosity.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then how can you improve the relationships with them?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: And then after each connection and talk, see how can you improve it, then you could use AI to help you, hey, I'm preparing for this meeting.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: How do I do this?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: We often work on projects and models, how we can we continue to improve it and workflows, but what we don't ask ourselves is how can I improve this relationship with this individual and team?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: If we come from a place of curiosity, that's how we could improve working with our teams as well as using AI prompts as well.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much for the answer.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_09: Uh sometimes I hear people say instead of uh artificial intelligence, augmented intelligence, because the whole point is we have these ways of working as humans, we have human connections and relationships.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_09: How can we augment that to be faster, be more optimal, but bolster that relationship that we have with each other?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_09: Because at the end of the day, as I said earlier, we have human problems and human issues that we're trying to solve with our our tools and our organizations.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_09: Uh we have uh a couple of closing questions here before we close of the session.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_09: Um, this one's for Ahmed and uh Himad.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_09: So AI is now handling tasks that used to define what it meant to be uh a good engineer, you know, writing clean code, uh implementing APIs, for example.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_09: But what's the capability that separates an engineer who gets replaced from the one who becomes irreplaceable?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_09: Uh and how should they start building it today?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um that's a great question because uh a lot of the AI tools that's coming out, it will definitely uh eliminate some jobs for sure.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_05: But I don't like calling that elimination because it basically redefines how uh work is done.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_05: So instead of Saying someone is gonna lose their job or get replaced.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we should probably mention that they should uh leverage the new tool, and by by that I mean delegate as much as the engineer can do um to get as to get more productive by uh delegating the the repetitive tasks or anything that AI could do, we should never be competing with AI.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_05: Instead, we should be leveraging the uh the power of it and m doing more that the AI could never do, which is human communication solving real problems.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_05: AI could solve a technical problem once the human actually tells them what it is.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_05: It wouldn't know what the problem is if you don't tell them.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_05: So our our duty is understand the problems from actual users, speaking to users, and and and um no one understanding their core problem and then explaining that to AI in the most simple form so that they can help with the implementation.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_05: They would not know how to solve it without our help.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_05: So that's the type of engineers who will never be replaced.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_05: Amazing.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_05: And uh Ahmad, your thoughts as well.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_06: Sure.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I I would just like to add on uh that human judgment is still our superpower, right?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_06: What AI can do now is that it will list you in ways that, hey, these are the ways you can use and you'll get a solution to the problem.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_06: But as a human, it's a superpower that we can determine that with the set of resources we have, with the specific context we have, you know, like every company has a different code base, different resources, the scale at which they are operating.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_06: And what AI currently does is it tries to present a very generic kind of picture which will not work for all.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_06: So I think you need to figure out, you know, which architecture we can use, which resources we can use, and based on the budget, based on all the constraints we have, which solution will work?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_06: And I think I haven't seen AI doing very well.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe it will do in the next four or five years, but as of now, I think the judgment, the experience which comes with working on different kinds of projects, I think that is still uh something which AI cannot compete with us currently.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_09: Amazing.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_09: Our final closing question if technical skills have an expiry date, what mindset will never go out of date?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_09: This is for uh Mohammed, uh Professor Ablasha and uh Elaine.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_09: Mohammed, if you wanted to.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_10: Well, I believe that critical thinking will become the cornerstone of every job in the world.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_10: And as AI students are getting more confidence, and I'm sure a lot of you have doubted themselves, the human judgment skills when they read the results of AI, but realized there was some bias, there was some context.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_10: I mean, for underlying information that you have not taken into account, and believe me, this critical mindset, this critical mind will be the most important skills to embrace the IR and you know how to utilize AI agents.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_10: Now, I can take the example of recruiters.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_10: How many filmed room have written a C B or a LinkedIn profile with AI?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_10: Can you raise your hand?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_10: Great.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_10: Well, look, you're not alone.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_10: There are millions right in the CVs with AI.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_10: Now, to make it to the critical thinking, the recruiter of the future will have to differentiate the best fit to the company.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_10: The candidate who is bringing the right skill sets, and that requires a critical mind.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_10: And that will apply to every job in the world.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_10: So please work on that so understand how the larger push model are working, how they are trained, which informations are there, which context is there, where are they biased, and really make sure that when you're getting these results, you're challenging them before you're presenting them to any stakeholder.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much, Alan.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_09: Professor Avlo.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if the jobs are continuously evolving, the only mindset which I think will be important and which is inspired, is learning agility with ethical intelligence.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: For me, or for I think anyone who works in higher education sector, ethics are very important.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh academic integrity is very important, agility is very important, resilience is important.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the more they are adaptable, the better it is.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: It is this kind of mindset is never going to expire.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: One point which, you know, uh if you if you remember what Alvin Kafler has said, that the illiterate of the 21st century will not be the one who cannot read or write, will be one who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the important part.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And those those uh uh as higher education sector, you know, we are working in higher education sector, our role is that our graduate should never become obsolete.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we work more on the technical skill, yes, which is the knowledge proficiency, but also on the skill application, also on the mindset, you know, that mindset is very important.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Mindset of always being curious, mindset of always being adaptable.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this kind of mindset will never expire in future.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so yes to everything that my colleagues shared.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: But another thing to add to that, which you just alluded to, is curiosity.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: How many of you love sports, used to play sports?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now you probably don't I probably don't seem like it to you, but I've been a fighter for 21 years.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: I've been in the boxing ring and I study my opponents.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: I know when they're about to do a jab, I know when they're about to do a hook, I know when I need to block it, and I know I need to pivot it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: We could look at the stats.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: We see this with our favorite sports teams.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: But as humans, we have to decide and discern are they really going to do that?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's very similar.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I'm using sports analogy, but it's also at work too.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay, we're having this conversation, possibly getting this fundraising.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: I used to be a former fundraiser, I raised millions of dollars.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: I always come from a place of curiosity with each individual that I try to get funding with, not even them, but also who are the stakeholders, who else should I get to know, not just in terms of affluence with money, but influence and how do I get to know them.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_09: Maybe just the last point just to add from myself is it's always gonna be about mindset.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_09: It's never about the tool.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_09: The tool itself doesn't really matter.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_09: How we approach the tool, how we use it correctly, how we try to solve problems, is certainly going to be really important.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_09: I want to thank everyone here.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_09: I want everyone to give a round of applause for all our steam guests.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_09: Thank you so much.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, there is a yeah.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: Hi.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um so being someone who is 22 and graduating, work seems to be more on foundational aspects of any sciences that we are studying, and people who have more knowledge about the foundations seem to be hired more often than not.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um so my question is do you think after the point like people will just be hiring founders and employees will no longer start existing?
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: Because employees are basically just to graduated from college and they kind of don't know what to do.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_03: Their critical thinking might not be up to the point, and they're coming to jobs instead of learning more things or exploring more things.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: Do you think the job market is inflated right now with too many people?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for that question.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, with all due respect to a 22-year-old, I would like to say that don't think that you know anyone who is graduating uh is going to become an employee somewhere.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Students are graduating the way we are teaching them, they become entrepreneurs.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: So at American University in Memritz, it is not only there is not only a course on entrepreneurship.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: We are we are bringing like we do a kind of shop tank at the uni.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we bring the investors, the VCs, the venture capitalists are there, and the students they pitch their idea.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And one of them, who is just a high school graduate, freshman, studying in first semester, he came up with an application.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: So there are not everyone wants job these days because your generation, I come from a different generation, but your generation wants to work at their own time and pace.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: And their mindset is different.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: For us, also, it is very challenging to work with your generation, by the way.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's just completely uh your expectations are different, right?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I have seen students, and I can I don't have a clear percentage to share, but I can say a lot more students are now becoming entrepreneurs, uh giving jobs, you know.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: They are co-creators of the jobs.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: I want to add, first off, congratulations for being in this conference, because we probably make assumptions with your generation that you would probably not be here and you're on TikTok instead.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: But this is a great thing that you're doing.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so we shared earlier having a place of curiosity.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: You are with 10,000 people, put your scientist research glasses on, ask them, hey, what's your biggest challenges right now at your company or job?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Gather that data and then the human side of it, filter it.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: What makes you curious?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: What makes you interested?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then, in addition to that, we have LinkedIn.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure you get their info, follow up with them, but don't just add them, send a personal message, hey, it was great talking to you by the booth, and we talked about this, would love to do like a quick chat and get more feedback.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: When you start building those relationships, then it could build into either having your own business or possibly getting a job.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: But you're here now, and that's a great first step, so congrats.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_04: I've had a specific question to uh Arky Lasha for you.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_04: So I completely agree with the mindset, it's kind of uh about the research mindset, right?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_04: So and at the same time, the tools we currently have can speed up the research significantly.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: But at the same time, to acquire PhD, for example, you still need four years.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_04: So to perform uh such such such some kind of research for the four years, it everything will change significantly.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_04: So do you see it as a challenge for the uh for the industry, for the uh education in general?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh thank you very much for that question.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just to let you know, every anyone who is coming from who is not from UAE, the nation itself is focusing a lot on outcome-based education.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: So there is a new framework which has come up in UAE, which is focusing on outcome-based education.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: I agree with you that some degrees may require more hands-on, and that's the reason that the uh the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, now they are saying you can add specialization courses and you can reduce the duration of the degree.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: So the four-year bachelor's degree program is now, some of the universities are now uh uh starting a three-year bachelor's degree program.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Coming to your specific question on doctoral degree program of four years, now what happens?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: We do give, we have a DBA program.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: So the courses can be done in one year.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the time which a student stake is more to do research.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's usually it takes two, two and a half years.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: When I did, I it took three and a half years, four years, you know.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Nowadays, they if they are able to finish it a little early, it's a dissertation.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: So they can the minimum duration is like now three years, if you are able to do that.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: But in most cases, the current student demography is more than 70% of the students are working students.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they cannot focus only on taking a degree.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they have work-related commitments.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot more students coming to us and asking that can we uh take a semester off or two semester off?
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the reason they take time.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't see for doctoral degree, I don't see it as a challenge.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe for a bachelor degree or a gra master's degree, yes, we are offering more and more and focusing on the micro-credentials.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: So micro-credentials are becoming very popular.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, thank you so much.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Estefania.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all of your insights.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have a specific question because I am myself a founder, but I'm also into leadership and communication development.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um, especially for backgrounds like uh software development, right?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're Ahmed, you're coming from this background.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: What's like the number one shift when a founder is scaling in terms of leadership development?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you go from developing to managing people.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was uh for you or for anybody in the panel, the biggest shift into scaling and impacting more people?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_05: Um that's a great question because and it's actually very relevant because I've been in this experience um throughout the past, I would say, nine months.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_05: So originally I'm a software engineer, I've been doing that for about nine years now.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um so um, the thing is that uh about scaling and building a business, it requires a lot of different skills other than just software development.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_05: So I was able to build the whole software by myself.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_05: It took me a while, but I was able to do it.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_05: However, when it came to the other part of business, like the operation part or the marketing or sales or those type of stuff.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_05: You definitely have to go with delegation.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_05: You have to find the right people to do the right thing.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, instead of wasting the time to learn how to do it, and you won't have the time.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you might as well just spend that time uh in something that you know how to how to do and and deserves your time more.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_05: And delegation is a key word here is give it to somebody who knows how to do it.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I'm I'm just uh gonna add that I think this is a great time to you can probably do both of the things, right?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_06: I I am a software engineer, I have a nine to five job, and then I'm also running the ethics startup, right?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_06: So earlier, if I talked to founders like five years before, they were like that you you have to do sales, marketing, everything on your own, and it's very hectic now.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_06: But now you have tools like maybe Apollo or Clay, right?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_06: Through which you can automate a lot of stuff.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_06: So this is probably the best time to you know explore a lot of things, right?
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_06: You can be a founder, you can be in a nine to five job, you can experiment the thought, you can feel, and then you can, you know, so so that that's the beauty of the I think the AI era we are living in.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_07: All right, and we'll have one last answer here.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_07: We're gonna finish off this panel, guys.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, something really practical and simple.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: So have a box, four corners, right?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: There's what you love, what you like, what you don't like, what you hate.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, before you do that, do a time audit, everything that you do, including responding to emails, and then organize it in those four boxes.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: Your goal is to be in this, what you love doing.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: The things you hate, start delegating it.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_07: Boom, and a perfect answer and response.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_07: So give him a big round of applause, everyone.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_07: Thank you guys.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_07: Let's go ahead and take a quick picture before we get you guys.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_08: Amazing job, great insights.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_08: All right, thank you.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_08: Great job, guys.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_08: Great job, great job.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_08: Amazing, amazing.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_08: Great, great panel, great panel.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_08: Thank you, appreciate it.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you enjoyed that panel.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: And what I'm so grateful for being part of this panel is that every single one of them I've become good friends with.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: And one of them, one of the panelists I spoke to, Ahmed, we talked about two things you need to understand when it comes to having a successful career in business before this AI world happened, which is one, understand the problem, two, understand the solution.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: But now, in this AI-powered world, he added a third.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: Understand the tech that can support you.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: Case in point, I'm literally using tech right now to record this podcast.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: When I first started this business three years ago, I used to host free monthly events.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: I was also younger, I was in my late 20s, and I love doing them, love meeting with people, but it also exhausted me.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: Now, does that mean in-person events don't work?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I flew all the way in Dubai to do a conference.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: If anything, I'm more discerning and picky with what events, what meetings I do in person.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: And even though I don't do those monthly in-person events like I used to, I still, and maybe this comes from my nonprofit background, I still want to teach, serve, and create where I didn't drain my nervous system.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why this, this podcast, became a space for me.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: And even with AI, I've been able to use it in my workflow.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, mind you, it is me talking right now.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is not AI, it is me.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yet I have had AI help me with my workflow, specifically with my podcast, right?
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: It helps with my transcripts, my show notes, it helps my team save time.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the voice, the stories, the strategies, you hear, that is all human-lived experiences.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: That is all me.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: EI, emotional intelligence.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: And if this conversation resonated with you, then I highly recommend you follow all my fellow panelists on LinkedIn.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: I've put all their LinkedIn links in the show notes.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: And if you actually didn't know, I've created two AI courses on LinkedIn learning, which I'll also have in the show notes.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: One is the AI Edge for Entrepreneurs.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: Two, using AI to make a career switch.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: And if you loved this episode, it would mean the world if you left a five-star rating in review so that more people like you can find this podcast.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're in this moment of navigating whatever season of life, career, or business you're in, and you're interested in wanting to work with me, well, you could schedule a call with me at elaneelew.com forward slash call.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's E L A I N E L O U.com forward slash call.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because you don't have to do this alone.