DURHAM — NC TECH took over the Durham Convention Center for their annual State of Tech EXPONENTIAL on Thursday with a clear focus: AI.
The event opened on a keynote by Matt Lyeston, IBM’s CIO of Technology Platforms, with a frank look at how to improve the so-far disappointing return on investment of AI implementations. Breakout sessions followed, covering topics including AI agents, the levels and phases of AI and LLM adoption, and ethical AI.
The final breakout session of the day featured a discussion on the AI Skills Gap, which has received more attention as AI moves from board room abstracts to employee implementations and end user interactions.
The session began by highlighting the widening gap in AI-related experiences and skills. As these tools become more widely available, the scenarios requiring expertise will also increase.
“We always talk about the AI piece,” said panelist Vishal Shyamsunder with Enact Mortgage Solutions. “We need to focus on humans talking to humans.”
AI Curious
Throughout the conversation, the panelists highlighted the skills that will point to success working with AI. While those with a technology background may come in with some confidence, the discussion focused more on other C-words: curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity. These are the skills that will yield the best results for users of AI tools.
“It used to be that you would spend 90% of your time doing, 10% learning,” said Ben Currin, CEO of Vantaca. “Now the right balance is probably more extreme, more like 50/50. More time experimenting and learning and seeing what’s out there.”
However, that doesn’t mean that we can expect our employees and users to achieve critical knowledge on their own. As Greg Boone, CEO of Walk West warned, the common adage of telling people to “be curious” comes with its own risks.
“You can’t hand a kid matches and lighter fluid and say ‘be curious’,” said Boone.
Some amount of guardrails and training are important for success, especially for AI use in the context of risk, privacy, and security.
“Winners and … not-winners”
The panel unanimously agreed that improving adoption in organizations would be critical to determining “winners and … not-winners” in the rollout of AI. And they also acknowledged that there would be challenges, including the existing knowledge and “baggage” users bring to their AI interactions. Some employees, particularly those who are older and those with more technical expertise, may find it difficult to approach AI interactions with a sufficiently open mind.
Instead, we need to democratize AI and engage with employees at various levels – from organizational to individual. Finding ways to make AI personal, fun, and safe will result in much more successful adoption. Likewise, real-world examples and use cases will help lead to impactful implementations.
But as Danny Ahuja, a VP with MetLife, noted on closing, the rollout of AI represents a significant cultural and business shift for everyone, and will require patience.
“Be humble, be empathetic to the folks you’re working with and to yourself,” said Ahuja. “We do not know everything.”
