Will AI replace my job?
That is a frequently asked question when it comes to conversations around AI impacting the workforce.
A panel of experts explored this idea and provided practical advice to a group of curious professionals in the Careers with AI meetup, hosted at the Microsoft Reactor in Sydney.
Led by meet up organizer, Gaurav Wadekar, from Jobseeker Circle, the panel included two Microsoft MVPs Arafat Tehsin, an MVP for AI, and Michael John Peña, an MVP for Microsoft Azure.
Panel speakers at Careers with AI – Arafat Tehsin, Michael John Peña, Raj Sharif and Gaurav Wadekar.
Arafat Tehsin says “the most common challenge which I have encountered after interacting with a lot of community members, is that they needed to have solid understanding of mathematics, statistics, data sciences and machine learning. This is not right. If anyone has these skills then it’s always good but even if they do not have any of these, they can still create some fantastic solutions with AI.”
Arafat explains with two examples, one targeted with developer experience, and the other with no developer experience.
“For developers, traditional developers (C#, Java, Node, Ruby etc.) are not always equipped with machine learning or data science knowledge. However, they can still write code to consume APIs. Azure OpenAI Service has solved this problem for us, it’s just an AI on API for many developers. This also means that if any developer has just a role to create apps using these sort of APIs is indeed an AI Developer”, says Arafat.
Arafat continues, “for no-code / low-code makers, not everyone is a developer and you do not necessarily need coding skills to work with AI. For example, Microsoft AI Builder not only allows you to use those models in your workflows, rather it also allows you to create your own model. For example, you may want to process a receipt for your expense management or you may want to automate marketing emails every week, all of this can be done without writing code and enhance business productivity.”
Arafat Tehsin presenting at the Careers with AI event at the Microsoft Reactor, Sydney
As we observed in the recent Microsoft Ignite 2023 announcements, the world is experiencing limitless opportunities with artificial intelligence. This is a pivotal moment in history, and we should educate ourselves on the ways in which it can help us accelerate our performance, provide better insights and scale our overall impact.
Microsoft Azure MVP, Michael John Peña discussed the ways in which the individuals can stay up to date with AI technologies. “Choose a social media platform that suits your preferences and interests, and interact with the content and the community,” says Michael. “For example, I use LinkedIn to follow the discussions and insights of my professional network and AI experts”.
Michael also suggests subscribing to quality newsletters or websites that provides insights on AI. “For example, I use techcommunity.microsoft.com, TLDR AI, and Medium to stay informed about the latest AI developments and trends”, continued Michael.
Michael’s final tip to stay current with AI developments as a tech professional is to, “select a subtopic that sparks your curiosity and focus on it. AI is a vast and diverse field, and it is easy to get overwhelmed. For example, I am interested in how AI services can be integrated with enterprise systems and how new patterns like RAG and vector databases can enhance AI capabilities”.
If you're interested in kickstarting or pivoting your career in AI, Michael suggests the best technical and non-technical skills that you can focus on developing for your next role:
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Technical skills |
Non-technical skills |
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Learn Python, the most widely used programming language for AI frameworks and code examples.
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Communicate AI concepts in a way that demonstrates their value and impact for businesses and individuals, rather than just their hype. Most organisations need to see and visualise the commercial benefits of adopting AI technologies.
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As Satya Nadella said in his opening keynote at Microsoft Ignite 2023, “if you give people better tools, they can change the world”.
It was therefore appropriate that our MVPs at the Careers with AI meetup shared a number of resources to help everyone, regardless of skill level, to experience the tools available to practice their AI skills. You can check out this list of resources and self-paced lessons here.
To check out upcoming AI related events at the Microsoft Reactor, regardless of where you are in the world, visit the Microsoft Reactor website.
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