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AI at Work: How to Supercharge, Not Surrender, Your Career · Unspoken Career Truths

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  Today we are going to address the elephant in the room and it
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  has 2 letters and it's called AIAI is a hot topic these days.
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  Carla, how many times do you hear the word AI every day?
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  I have not even attempted to count.
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  That is something I would rather have a machine do for me.
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  Ah, nicely done. Nicely done.
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  Welcome to unspoken career truths.
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  I'm Cara Wood. And I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert.
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  And we're here to be the Co workers you can trust.
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  In just 10 minutes, we'll cover the strategies you need, the
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  mistakes to avoid, and the insider secrets no one tells you
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  so you can show up with confidence at work.
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  There's so many things that AI is impacting, and AI has been
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  around for a long time, but generative AI and access to AI
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  more universally with the population is new.
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  So that's what we're seeing a lot of people working with,
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  whether it's ChatGPT or Perplexity or Clod or Gemini,
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  there's so many different large language models or LLMS that
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  people are using to help them do their job better.
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  And today we're going to talk about AI at work.
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  So I know that there's a lot of fear around AI and maybe a bit
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  of confusion. And the fear I hear around AI
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  is, Oh my gosh, it's going to take my job.
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  The way I look at AI is it's going to supercharge the way
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  that we do work and enable us to do more at scale.
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  Now, I do think that it will fundamentally disrupt a lot of
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  different industries, but what it will also do is create more
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  opportunities we just don't know about yet.
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  And so that's my take on AI, but what do you think, Cara?
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  It's so funny, I actually don't hear a lot of the fears around
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  AI and I think it's because I understand that they're, they're
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  out there, but I think it's because I work with a lot of
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  technology companies that are already embracing AI and there's
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  a different, there's another framework that I've used
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  throughout my career when it comes to technology in general.
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  I feel like a lot of times people think if you're native to
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  it, if it was something that was around in your youth, then
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  you're automatically comfortable with it.
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  But I would argue that's actually not the key to like
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  understanding anything new. And I always think of this as
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  the key is actually your willingness to break it and play
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  with it. And that happens naturally when
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  you are a kid. Oftentimes that is why you're
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  comfortable with a new tech. But with AI, for me, it's just
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  like you said, it's been around for a while.
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  I've taken a few AI classes like decades ago.
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  It drives so many things behind the scenes.
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  But now we're seeing it integrated with a lot of the
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  search engines that we use and with a lot of the media that we
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  use. And to your point, Lauren, it's
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  creating content, it's creating AI sloth.
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  We were seeing it everywhere on the Internet, seeing it in the
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  media. But if you are willing to play
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  with something, experiment with it, break it.
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  Like take apart your toaster, take apart your phone, take
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  apart and test AI. Like some of my favorite the
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  journalism articles when AI was first, like when Chachi PT first
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  launched were like journalists just playing around with like,
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  here's what AI did. Like here's how I'm seeing it
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  make mistakes. This is the long winded, but I
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  disagree with you that like it's automatically going to
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  streamline everything. Like of course, we're at a
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  moment that like it's groundbreaking change, but just
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  like computers, you have to know how to use them.
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  If your company is either mandating or integrating, just
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  like don't be afraid. Just try to break the thing.
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  And I totally agree, you still need people to operate it.
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  It's not going to fully automate everything.
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  And the way a lot of people say this, and I really like it, it's
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  the worst it will ever be right now.
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  It's only going to get better and it's only going to improve.
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  And the other thing that I love is the perspective that you
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  might not be replaced by AI, but you will be replaced by someone
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  who knows how to use it. So start playing around with it
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  and testing it and integrating it into how you work.
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  So I heard, and it's funny, I you, you had written this down
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  as a topic and then last week I actually heard the best thing
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  about AI. Oh, I'm.
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  Ready. Shout out to Ken Liu.
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  He's a fiction writer who said one of his book launch events
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  use AI only if it makes you feel more human.
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  If you're doing something with AI that makes you feel less
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  human, you're using it wrong. And I love that.
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  Yes, genius. I just think that that is also a
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  really great framework for it because like the whole, am I
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  gonna be replaced by it? Like all of these things or it's
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  only gonna get better, etcetera. Technology is influenced by its
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  users and AI is actually like, hugely influenced by it, I
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  think. What's the stat?
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  You just need to upload 250 documents to influence Chat
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  GPTS. Like fundamental learning, it's
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  always learning from what we're giving it.
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  So it's always learning from the Internet right now.
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  And there are plenty of people who are using their own personal
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  models and then adapting how they want to and, and that's
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  what we're seeing. So yeah, I think that it's
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  important to like center you and where you fit and what your work
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  is, and then seeing how that tool can be used to make you
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  feel more human. I love that.
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  That is such a great perspective.
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  I feel like we should just end the podcast there.
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  No, no, no, but great, great thought about it.
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  Try to make only use it if it makes you feel more human.
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  And I think humans will always remain super important in this
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  equation with AI. We just now have AI added to the
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  equation. So let's talk a bit about what
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  AI can do and what it can't do. And I think this fits really
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  well with what you just said, Cara.
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  So what it can do, it can automate repetitive tasks, it
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  can summarize, it can draft emails, it can rewrite things
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  like that. What it can't do, it can't
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  replace human judgement, it can't replace empathy or
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  creativity or work in the messy parts of work and also connect
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  the dots between a lot of different things.
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  So I also think about when you're thinking about how AI can
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  help you at work, try to identify what are the repetitive
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  tasks, what are some of the like, maybe like mindless type
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  of tasks where it could be really fast if it was done by AI
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  and then you checked it. So try to find areas in your job
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  or you can kind of test and learn and see what it can do and
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  how it would be helpful. And I would also say that as
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  part of that build and how you're going to test it, early
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  days of me using chat TPT, I realized how really is really
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  quickly that it was a really great intern that lied to me all
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  the time. And so it was not an intern that
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  I would hire. You know, people talk about
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  hallucinations, but if you're if you're setting AIA task, like
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  also think about how you would check up on it because there are
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  plenty of things that it either misconstrues or doesn't
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  understand the context of the instructions you've given.
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  Or it just fills in a gap really eagerly, like, you know, a new
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  employee that really wants to impress you and is willing to
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  lie. That is a great point.
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  I mean, because there are hallucinations, it's not always
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  accurate. You always have to check it.
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  Human in the loop is always super important.
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  And having the skill of knowing how to use AII think will be
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  like where we used to put like knows Microsoft Office suite on
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  our resumes. Like it's, it's going to be one
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  of those like needing to know AI will be kind of like a baseline
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  skill. Yeah, and I, that's where,
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  again, I would encourage you, like reflect on your own level
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  of comfort with technology. I know plenty of people who like
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  are manual first readers or they're like, let me watch a
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  bunch of, you know, YouTube videos of someone else
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  explaining it. It's what all of the search
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  engines are doing to us now. Like they're integrating it for
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  us. So we already start to use it
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  and see it everywhere. But decide for yourself.
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  Like you might be someone who just scans over that part
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  because you don't trust it, or you might be someone who clicks
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  through the link still test and learn like but is it serving for
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  you? Agreed.
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  Also transparency matters. Don't present AI as your own
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  work, use it as a partner, not as a substitution.
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  And I think we are because AI is so prevalent and we're seeing it
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  more and more like be very clear if it helped you or if it was an
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  AI generated image. Just transparency in general is
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  really important before we have more regulations around this.
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  And I think that's really important at work.
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  Like just be super clear that AI was involved.
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  And I'm seeing that on LinkedIn. I'm seeing that across blogs and
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  things like that. Just a little disclaimer that AI
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  helped to write it. And then another one, AI, I
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  won't fix a lot of like personal issues like bad culture or not
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  being able to communicate across teams.
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  So a lot of times I hear people say, oh, we're just going to
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  like add AI. And my question to them is,
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  what's the problem that you're trying to solve?
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  And can IAI actually help you solve that?
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  So for you personally at work or with your team, make sure
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  there's a very, very clear goal about why you're actually
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  implementing it and what it's going to do to help.
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  Yeah, that's reminding me of so many times again, with like AI
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  technology implementation, if you're not running a pilot
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  program and being super clear about the goals it, it's a
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  disaster. The other thing I think this
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  extends to too is when people are saying like AI might solve a
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  workload problem because AI could take some workload off,
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  but it might not like reduce headcount and it may it should
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  actually add work at the start, just like any other software or
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  new methodology that you're adapting.
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  Implementation. Yep, 100%.
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  Carl, what's one way that you use AI at work?
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  What's one example? My most common use case for AI
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  is actually to test my own thinking.
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  I love using it as like a Co philosopher, but what I feel
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  like AI has given me is another sort of brain that I can test
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  and learn from. And so often times I'll ask AI
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  to play out a role and then I'll just have a discussion with it
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  and I'll learn a lot about my thinking.
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  I'll learn flaws in my thinking. And so that is my primary use
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  case for AI. I love that.
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  I also use it a lot for like checking my writing or maybe
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  like cleaning up a sentence that I just can't figure out.
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  Like I wrote this sentence and it sounds wrong and I cannot
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  figure out how to say it differently.
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  I use it a lot for things like that, but I always make sure
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  that I'm putting my thoughts into it and not having it kind
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  of start from scratch. The other thing I really like is
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  brainstorming. So I write a lot of thought
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  leadership pieces and I'm like, hey, I have this idea and I have
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  this concept and here are the elements of what I'm writing
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  about. Or like here's my outlook line,
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  like what are other articles maybe that people have talked
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  about this already or like what is what are some thoughts around
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  my perspective to same point for you, Carl, like having a
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  discussion. So it can kind of challenge my
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  thinking outside of just what I know.
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  And you know what I'm reminded of another way that I've used AI
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  is that I've put transcripts of our from a podcast and I asked
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  it for feedback on how I could become a better podcast speaker.
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  How was it helpful? Yeah.
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  One of the things it suggested that hopefully I've maybe
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  started to incorporate is that I ask more questions about what
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  our listeners might be thinking. And as I say that out loud,
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  maybe I haven't, but. Good feedback.
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  Well listeners, what do you think about AI at work?
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  Tell us, We would love to hear from you.
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  So to close out, AI can supercharge your work.
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  It can enable you to do more. It can be a big opportunity for
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  you if you think about it in a way that really is shifting the
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  narrative from fear to learning and experimentation.
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  Treat it like a sidekick. Keep experimenting and just try
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  and play around with it and see how you can incorporate it into
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  your everyday. That's a wrap.
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  Thanks for joining us on Unspoken Career Truths.
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  Don't forget, follow us on Spotify and Instagram.
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  And if you like this episode, share it with a friend.