Using AI As Your Career Thought Partner

Written by Lauren Beam (‘07), Director, Mentoring and Alumni Personal & Career Development at Wake Forest University

In case you haven’t noticed, AI is everywhere. Just do a quick Google search and the first result to pop up is an “AI Overview” with high-level information and recommended websites related to your search topic. In fact, someone recently admitted to me that they rarely scroll past the AI Overview on Google and take the information given there as the correct answer to their search.

Not only is AI being incorporated into online search tools, social media, and other aspects of technology, but you’ve likely seen the headlines: AI is taking over entry-level jobs! Upskill and learn AI or you’ll lose your job! AI is changing the way we live and work! 

While there’s some truth in these messages, particularly around the importance of learning new skills and being able to integrate them into our lives and work, we don’t need to live in fear of AI replacing our jobs or being able to take over the most essential parts of who we are as human beings. While it may lead to some automation, AI could never replace our ability to build relationships, make meaning out of our experiences, think critically and ethically about what is best for ourselves and the people we care about, exhibit empathy, and use situational and emotional judgment around decision-making. 

I was recently reading a blog post written by educator and learning experience designer Matt Hutson that provided a helpful outlook on artificial intelligence. In his post, he described AI being used as a tool in these terms: thought partner, reflection facilitator, collaborator, brainstorm buddy, idea bouncer, draft builder, constructive critic, learning ally, feedback loop.

In addition to appreciating this perspective on AI as a tool and thought partner, I think that AI can be a particularly useful resource in the area of career development. How might you use AI as your career thought partner? We’ve put together some guided AI prompts that you can try out in each step of our LEARN Alumni Career Development Model to practice brainstorming, gathering feedback, and planning for the future. Here’s an example from the LEARN Model’s Step 4 – Reflect on Learning with AI prompts around guided reflection and network-building: 

Task (What you’re trying to accomplish in partnership with AI): Reflection, relationship-building

AI Strengths (How AI can serve as your thought partner): Asking questions, generating content, summarization

Human Strengths (What you bring to the task that AI can’t do): Critical thinking, building one-on-one relationships through conversations, making meaning out of reflections, connecting reflection to future planning

Prompts: 

• Can you guide me through a reflection exercise to help me discern what I learned from my experience working on [project, online course, training, certification]? I would like to do this in an ongoing conversation way – so please just ask me one question at a time and let me process and reflect in real time.
• Summarize [person’s name] LinkedIn profile in one sentence, and suggest a question I can ask them based on it. Insert URL to LinkedIn profile.
• I’m hoping to make a career pivot into [job role, org, industry] and need to expand my network with professionals in that career field. Write a LinkedIn message that I could send to a new contact requesting an informational interview. 

In thinking about AI from this lens – as a tool and thought partner – we still maintain our humanity and the unique skills that make us fully functioning people with thoughts, feelings, and the ability to make decisions. 

The next time you see a fear-based headline about the future of AI, consider the role that YOU want AI to play in your life. Whether it’s the role of brainstorm buddy, idea bouncer, or reflection facilitator, AI can be a useful tool instead of the enemy out to steal our jobs or replace our skill sets.