Perspectives on Talent | Reframing how AI will shape careers

Hi, my name is Greg McEwen, Director of Solutions here at Wilson.

I think there's great utility in the technology and what AI can provide workers. I'm hopeful that, in the advent of this new technology that companies will actually come to appreciate their employees even more than they do today. because they're going to recognize the amount of disruption or potential job loss that might come as a result of AI. But really, I think what it's going to unleash is just more human creativity, no matter your role. And perhaps, focusing on the 2 % that excites you about your job, you know, maybe that 2 % incrementally moves up to 20 and then to 40 and then to 80. But I do think there is an unlock here where the technology perhaps takes the parts of your job today that you do, but you don't love, and enables you to really kind of focus or blossom into the things you actually love. And that's where I see AI in particular creating a win-win for both companies to become more productive, but then the value proposition for employees to pursue more of their passions, right? And I think that has the potential to be very powerful for both employers and employees alike. I also think as it pertains to the multi-generations, technology like this can, you know, kind of bridge the, the generational gaps, that maybe exists from somebody starting their career to somebody finishing their career. I don't think that it's going to erode the amount of wisdom that people can ultimately pass to one another. you know, the technology itself won't replace the experiences that people have had or the experiences that people will have in the future. In any, you know, rosy scenario, it's going to enhance them.

You know, I think there's a tremendous amount of fear, anxiety and stress that whether people admit it or not, they have, right? It's a kind of underlying beneath the surface. Nobody knows where this is all going to go. you can speculate, you can guess, you can read about it. But at the same time, think a lot of people are optimistic about the future, right? hopefully, as it pertains to work and careers, I think we probably have all grown up, having some view or depiction of what a career should be. I think in some ways, and in some cases, in the best ways possible, the disruption that AI could cause, might alter that view. And that might be healthy. I think sometimes people think of their careers, like we mentioned, right, in a linear fashion. AI has the potential to perhaps give people that second, that third, that fourth chance on maybe what they want to accomplish in their, not just in their careers, but in their life. And if you look at it that way, it could be that you've known something or you've done something for 15 years like myself, but now all of a sudden you have this potential unlock to perhaps pursue something else or pursue something deeper and more meaningful. And that could be within your existing role. could be, you know, doing, your existing job function for the rest of your career, but just in a different light. And I think like the, there's a lot of potential in the future for, people and their career growth and what they want to do. So long as they lean into it with an optimistic view.

I'm not naive to the fact that everybody has things about their job they don't like, right? And things they would easily give up or replace or do away with. And there's potential here that the technology helps with that. there are jobs that existed 30, 40 years ago that nobody would touch today. Nobody would want to do. And that is because there are better opportunities that exist today compared to that job 30 years ago. It very well could be that we were experiencing the same thing again. And, there's infinite possibilities when you start to think about the second and third order effects to a technology as disruptive as AI. Many of which, and I know a lot of people are saying this, don't exist today and we don't even know what they are. That will be true. The scale and to the extent it will be true and does it serve the masses, we don't know yet, but I do think a lot of people a decade from now will look back on what they were doing and almost be in disbelief of what it was that they did on a day-to-day basis. I'm hopeful that those careers will certainly not be linear 10 years from now. They will have taken a left to right, up, down, etc. Perhaps for the better.

I think the thing that's really interesting about skills-based hiring is that, each individual person, each individual company is going to have, their own, view or iteration of a certain skill or background. as will each person. And I think authenticity, and putting your own spin on not only the work that you do, but the career, the network that you have. That authenticity, I think, is going to be really If you have, let's say, five people, they all contain the same domain expertise or skill. They're all suitable to work at company A. I think what really starts to set people apart is their own authenticity and the way they package that skill, how they talk about it, how they perform it. And I think that's where you get some of the distinction between talent and the future is that true authenticity. And there will be people who hesitate to do that, who put themselves in a box, who don't really kind of push the boundaries. But then other people will find creative ways to package their background, package their skills and that they bring to an organization. I think that has been happening for quite a while now, but I think it's only going to be enhanced in the future with skills based hiring.