Dear IT Professionals…

Are you a tech professional? Do you alternate from being excited about the AI era to being terrified?

Out of everyone you should be the least scared for your jobs and the most informed to help the world use AI responsibly.  This is truly a moment for technology professionals to shine.

Successful tech professionals have navigated these waters before. Whether you started coding in COBOL or C++, or only knew how to manage waterfall projects in Microsoft Project, you are still here. If you started your data journey with SQL and MS Access and are now a Tableau and BI expert, you are still here.

You have learned that being open to new technologies and innovations is part of the profession. You learned new coding languages, became Scrum Masters and learned Agile tools.  You added certifications creating an alphabet soup after your name in email signatures. Many of you look back at those “early days” which really were not so long ago as antiquated approaches and tools.  

Keeping your skills sharp and learning new ones is how to build a breadth and depth of skillsets that will maintain your professional relevancy and sustainability.

AI is just the latest in a long line of technical innovations. There will be bumps in the road as we all learn to use AI in effective and responsible ways. But tech professionals have walked this walk before. With every technical innovation, there has been an element of fear for impact to jobs. But all of you tech professionals have the tools, the learning agility to add this tool to your toolkit.

So, take a deep breath.

Put yourself in learning mode.

Take this moment to influence the direction of AI.

Then help the rest of us navigate these new waters with you.