Are you setting yourself up to be blindsided by not learning AI?

Your hesitancy to embrace AI may cost you your job!

Welcome to Own Your Ambition, a weekly newsletter with valuable tips and inspiration for professional women to succeed at every stage of their career.

As a former CEO and now executive coach, I help women overcome their challenges, own their value, and stand in their power. I provide practical and strategic advice and inspiration from my own experience and industry experts along with information on current gender issues in the workplace and beyond.

I wrote this article below to bring awareness to the importance of learning generative AI for professional women. Your avoidance of embracing this tool, could cost you your job….so listen up and read!

And thanks for being here! I welcome your feedback and questions.

Bonnie

True confession: I’ve been resistant to figure out the whole AI thing. Like many of my female colleagues, my belief in the importance of critical thinking has contributed to a reluctance to jump on the AI bandwagon. Turns out I’m not alone. According to a recent study by Devry University, only 68 percent of women say they fully understand what AI means and the value of AI skills. You could say I’m in good company, but the point is that as a professional woman, if you hesitate to embrace AI, you are setting yourself up to be blindsided. It could cost you your career.

Why? Because nearly 80 percent of today’s female workers are in jobs exposed to automation via generative AI. A report by Goldman Sachs sends us a warning. “These jobs held by women that involve automation will not be replaced by artificial intelligence per se, but by people who have mastered AI. And at the moment, that means MEN!” as men are more likely to understand AI and recognize the potential of AI in helping them advance.

Oxford Economics along with Cognizant sends us another wake up call. Ninety percent of jobs will be affected by generative AI by 2032, and “between 2023 and 2032, the percent of jobs with high exposure points to AI could increase sixfold, from eight percent to 52 percent.”

Could your age have something to do with your reluctance? Certainly, we might assume that older workers lack the training and will to learn AI.

Harvard Business Review addresses this concern,

“this new technology is promising but potentially intimidating, especially to those who have yet to work immersed in technology. Older generations tend not to jump into technological trends as much as younger ones”.

But it turns out age is not the whole story!

A recent article in Fast Company set me straight on the age factor, citing that as AI tools are integrated into the workplace, it may put Gen Z women at a professional disadvantage.

According to research by the Oliver Wyman Forum of 25,000 working adults surveyed, the gap is widest among the youngest of workers: 71% of men ages 18-24 say they use generative AI weekly, compared with 59% of women.

This disparity unaddressed could increase gender imbalances in traditional “pink collar” occupations susceptible to automation, such as customer service, education and healthcare, but also limit opportunities for women in the occupations of the future.

Have I got your attention yet?

What’s clear is that no matter where you are in your career, if you want to stay relevant, marketable, and you have the ambition to advance, find a job, or keep your current job, you need to learn AI!

To be able to offer you some sound advice on what you can do NOW to get in the AI game, I reached out to expert, Lisa Lambert-Weaver, author of The AI Value Playbook, which is a practical guide to AI for non-technical executives. In the book, Lisa provides knowledge as well as practical approaches to understanding AI for business as well as the ability to navigate the potential impact. Her background at Microsoft and Accenture, as well as private equity, provided her the opportunity to incorporate AI into her business skills and deepened her understanding of the time, investment and iteration it requires to derive value.

According to Lisa,

“women need to understand the impact on their industry and job type as well as the job types emerging in AI, and they need to know that the ability to work with AI ensures adaptability in a rapidly evolving job market.”

Her excellent advice: Be hands on and strategic in the following ways:

Jump in. Engage with AI tools and platforms directly. Experiment with large language models (LLMs) and explore their capabilities. Make a list of things you want AI to do and try that. Embrace a trial and error approach. Document your successes and failures to gain a deeper understanding of AI’s strengths and limitations.

Learn from many free online courses or tutorials available on AI basics from leading tech companies, universities and others.

Understand the impact for your industry. Understand the job types emerging in AI and how AI will impact the industry and job roles. For example, Lisa spoke of a women with a background in Law who moved into data governance. There are a ton of new jobs in AI requiring strong legal backgrounds: compliance, policy advisors, legal counsel, legal technologies, legal engineer.

Join communities. Engage with communities as networking can provide support and open up opportunities.

Keep updated. Read AI related news, research papers, and join webinars. Twitter is still where the AI community hangs out, so follow some people, and get a push notification for selected accounts. For example, there may be a big announcement from Google or Anthropic.

Seek mentors. Find mentors who can guide you, officially or through informal connections.

Where do you want to work? List the companies where you are most likely to find jobs. Set up a google alert for these companies or for a capability and start learning how they describe roles and understand how you can relate your skills.

Bottom line: You CAN bridge the gender gap and stay marketable whether it’s to keep your current role or find opportunities for advancement.

First step is to acknowledge of value of AI and recognize it’s the future. (Don’t waste time fighting it.)

Dispel what fears you may have about learning something new (You can do it!).

If your company doesn’t offer training, take control, follow Lisa’s advice and find some on your own.

And pick up a copy of Lisa’s excellent book for some first hand practical and strategic advice.