Bridging the Emerging AI Gap
MSIT Industry Advisory Board chairman Kevin Glynn talks about how students can differentiate themselves as artificial intelligence becomes a larger part of business operations.
Kevin Glynn has a clear message for students when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI): Do your homework.
Glynn is not merely referring to what students in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program are required to complete for class.
“It's also important that students learn on their own,” said Glynn, chairman of the MSIT Industry Advisory Board and an adjunct lecturer in the program. “They don’t necessarily have to dig in and write models or code, but they should be conversant in the topic.”
That’s because AI is rapidly changing how businesses operate and already altering the challenges information technology professionals face. Glynn has seen that change firsthand as managing principal of The Laminar Group, a boutique information technology and consulting firm.
Glynn said there already is a digital divide forming when it comes to AI in the workplace and that MSIT students can help bridge the gap.
“For larger companies, the role of AI will become a standard part of an IT staff,” he said. “But a lot of mid-sized companies are at risk of falling behind because they don’t have either the talent or the time to introduce AI into their environments.”
That’s where MSIT graduates will come in, Glynn said. Larger companies will need well-spoken, highly trained AI professionals, while smaller companies will need talented IT staff to strategically implement and manage AI as budgets and time allow.
Both of those roles present job opportunities for MSIT graduates – if they take advantage of what their program provides.
Artificial Intelligence & Automation is an elective course in MSIT, but Glynn encouraged all students to take it. For the program's capstone class, which Glynn teaches, an added emphasis has been placed on how AI applies to various business scenarios.
“We aren’t diving too deep into the technology itself,” he said. “We’re discussing how AI can be applied to solve real problems and how to build teams and justify the expense.”
Those are questions businesses around the world are asking themselves, particularly with the emergence of programs like ChatGPT.
In Glynn's consultancy role, he's talked with CEOs about how ChatGPT could be leveraged. What he tells them is the same thing he tells his students; the technology may be cool, but proceed with caution.
Nevertheless, ChatGPT's impact is already being felt. Not only did it reach 100 million users faster than any other consumer application in history, but it's already spawned changes in the workforce, Glynn said.
“There is already a job title to take advantage of ChatGPT – Prompt Engineer,” he said. “Think of it as an evolution of the SEO role that many marketing departments have. That happened in just a few months. That's crazy.”
While ChatGPT is the "it" technology right now, Glynn cautioned against focusing too much on one piece of technology. He sees ChatGPT as a good test case for the larger picture of how humans are going to adapt to a new type of assistance.
“The ideas about how to use ChatGPT are still forming,” he said. “So a word of caution and optimism: Technology is generally neutral, but it's up to us to expand the good it can bring and rapidly address the downsides.”
