[00:00:00] Welcome to our interview with Lara Assi and today we're going to be exploring the different skills that you need in a tech centric workplace. So what skills, behaviours and Lara will dive into how we can use AI in the workplace and other emerging technologies. So welcome Lara, do you want to introduce yourself?

Yes, thank you, Nadiyah. Thank you for this opportunity. Always good to be back with Hundo. I drop everything while, you know, if anyone calls me from Hundo, I'm like, I'm in, whatever. I just, uh, really like what you guys do, big on the, on your ethos. Um, my name is Lara, Lara Assi, and I am a Lebanese, uh, based in London, Lebanese.

I'm a Web3 educator and mentor, and I'm an also... An A. I. [00:01:00] Consultant, and I'm very big on passing the knowledge and, you know, dissembling all of the tech jargon that goes on in this space and making it, you know, more user friendly to enthusiasts and people who want to know more. Cool. Well, it's lovely having you here again because you were in our career con last year.

I'm happy to have you here. Um, so we'll dive into the questions. So how does technology set us AI and other emerging technologies affect the skills required for the future of work? And how can we prepare and navigate a tech centric workplace? Um, so basically, I think first and foremost, we should not underestimate how these disruptive technologies are fundamentally changing the way we work, live and interact with one another.

So this fourth industrial revolution that we're in, it's driven by transfer transformative technologies, and it's reinventing business models to say the least. Now, I don't want to be a [00:02:00] drama queen, but you know, a lot of Blue color and white color jobs are going to be at risk in the next 10 years. So excuse me.

So I think that we need to deal with this in a proactive way. And when I say proactive way, two things come to my mind, which is digital literacy and adaptability. Now we hear, you know, digital literacy. Um, everyone's talking about this, but what does it mean? It's really just the ability to use and understand and navigate digital tools.

Now, how can we do this? We can do this through hands on experience, meaning use these tools like don't be afraid of just trying things because familiar familiarity often comes through, you know, experience and practice. So this is the number one and digital literacy and then take these online courses.

It's a very open source. Um, you know, this vibe. Uh, you know, this [00:03:00] whole technological revolution. So you'll find a lot of online courses and content and material to dabble into and then absolutely stay informed because this is an ongoing process. If you don't catch up, you're going to miss that. Uh, you know, eat train and that's like digital literacy and adaptability.

Why do I say adaptability? Because I feel that we're in an era of continuous learning. Uh, we have to. We have to stay up to date. We have to be informed. We have to have this growth mindset in order to keep up and always think, how can I solve this problem? How can I have more friends or people in the space that can explain to me this or that?

So, yeah, I think digital literacy, adaptability, they work well together. And a poor point that you may obviously keeping up to date, especially with the tech environment is always changing. There's new technology. How do you keep up with everything? And what [00:04:00] advice can you give young people and people watching this on how they can stay updated?

Absolutely. So I'm going to tell you about my small experience with AI. So I've been working with AI, like not up close and personal, but I had because I work in emerging tech and you know, the AI boom happened last year. And I was like, okay, so I understand the fundamentals. But how much should I understand to be able to, you know, work or consult, uh, companies on whether they should integrate a I to their business models or not.

So I immediately just started taking courses. You have a lot of courses on, you know, Coursera and the likes of Coursera, these free free platforms. You have a lot of AI experts on different social media platforms, whether it's linked in or Twitter. So sign up to these newsletters that you hate signing up for.

Sign up to a weekly newsletter that can sum up what's happening in the world. And then if you [00:05:00] want to dive in, just get certified. Get certified. Take these courses. Um, I know that, for example, Stanford and Oxford are doing excellent, uh, courses if you're able to, to pay for that. But if not, there's a lot of open source.

Um, a lot of information on the Internet. So use the Internet to to pay for that. Get informed. This is what I always say. Yeah, no, definitely. That's why we wanted to launch career comm monthly and dive into different topics. There's so much happening and we feel like this is a way and it's free resources.

Obviously, you can come on 100 XYZ or our platform or YouTube to help people learn and stuff. And it's important like keeping up to date and learning information and then just using it for your. To help you with your personal growth and even the workplace and finding people networking, like you said, finding your community.

So what are the key skills and knowledge, both technical and [00:06:00] non technical that you believe young people should focus on to succeed in the tech driven workplace? Okay, so I'm just going to address an elephant in the room, as they say, which is our outdated global educational system. I mean, we can't just

I mean, young people do not have the capabilities to have, you know, or adopt these technical, uh, or non technical skills and knowledge. So we don't see any flexibility in our educational system, the institutions, the pathways that allow students to effectively explore multiple disciplines. So this is Something that I hope is going to be addressed very soon because the tech is not waiting for anyone.

It's just moving forward. And yeah, so integrating this this digital literacy and in our educational systems is pivotal to the next, you know, 10 years off of the lives of these young [00:07:00] people and also just have Some collaborations between educational institutions and tech companies, you know, having these tech experts come to classes and do the talks and say that this is where you need to be focusing on.

If you're thinking about this career, think of how to, you know, have digital literacy in parallel because this is where this is where we're going digitization. So, yeah, there's a new language in town, educational systems, educational institutions, and that's coding. So I think that teaching coding first and foremost.

So I and the basic fundamentals off a I and machine learning in schools. This should have started yesterday and just as we were taught, you know the English language or any language actually to be able to converse and understand and communicate with other people and communicate with people at work. We need to understand code to understand computers.

So I think that the first and foremost is You know, these these [00:08:00] educational institutions to push harder. I know that there are a lot of things going on in the world. A lot of, um, educational systems thinking of, you know, effective ways to on board, uh, a I literacy or digital literacy into the system, But now for for the non technical skills, we said what you know, governments and education should do for the non technical skills.

What young people can do is two things for me, like, first and foremost, Problem solving communication skills. Why problem solving? Because the tech that's coming, or the dawn of, of these disruptive technologies, all of the jobs, especially tech driven jobs, will have a good deal of addressing complex issues.

Every day you're gonna have this new AI model, like new whatever in tech, and you need to understand it. You need to see if this is gonna pose a problem if you don't adopt it now or not. And if I adopt this technology, how will I use it? How will [00:09:00] my how will this fit in the framework? So problem solving creativity as well in the back of our mind, because I don't think that technology will take over or I will take over.

I think it's gonna unlock a lot of, you know, these parts in our brains that we haven't had the chance to explore, which is creativity. I mean, these autonomous, you know, or automating Repetitive tasks is going to take a lot off our shoulders. So we're going to be left with this critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills.

Absolutely. Because if you're working in a tech environment, you're talking the tech language or you have this tech jargon around you. So in order for you to be communicating with other people, especially like different stakeholders and organizations, you need to be able to translate to talk the stack jargon.

To non technical people and communication is key, you know, with technology [00:10:00] or without technology. It's a skill that I think must people, you know, young people must have. They must have. Yeah, no, I definitely agree. Communication is very important across everything. Problem solving Hondo,

This is my first tech, um, working in a tech company, and we work so fast and it's like being able to adapt to that and working fast paced, and not everyone can adapt to that which is absolutely fine, but when you do come to work in these like tech environments you realize how fast things move and you just have to get on with it.

There's something that you definitely need to learn and have in the back of your mind that it's like. Keeping up to date with everything. Make sure you know what you're doing. Communicating with the team. Make sure everyone's on the same page, like one day you come in. It's one thing. The next day it changes and the project changes.

There's yeah, having that problem solving and everything and finding solutions for different things. See, I agree. Those schools are very, very important. Um, how does what [00:11:00] aspect? Sorry, I just wanted to say like from a communications aspect as well. Just don't be afraid to ask the stupid question because There's no such thing as a stupid question, and I know that it's a cliche, but I've like a lot of my friends who wanted to work in in tech, but they don't come from a technical background.

They really gave up on opportunities because they didn't ask that question. You know, just ask the question. Say that I don't understand that. Can you please explain to me? What does this technology do? Or how can I utilize it? Or how can I interact with this software or ask these questions and seek help because It's, it's not really wrong and no one knows all the answers and we learn something every day and in order for you to advance, you need to learn, you need to ask.

Yeah, definitely. Even like with the AI tools that we use, like TrackGBT and the Dante AI, there's a few that we started to integrate in our work to help us be more productive and help. And at [00:12:00] first, a lot of us were like, we're not used to this. It's very new. But then when you start using it, understanding it, understand how, how to use it, what to use it for, then you realize, oh, it's just like, Using a Google doc or another like slack or something.

It's the same thing. And it's like, it's really important to learn, communicate and like learn these things. So yeah, it's really important. So how does WorkTech contribute to making sure that emerging technologies are used for positive transitions rather than displacing workers? Oh, okay. That's, uh, Well, the drama queen is going to come out because I want the drama queen to come out.

I'm not going to say that AI will not displace workers, AI will displace workers. And it's not because this technology is bad per se, but I mean, AI is at the core of core of this, you know, fourth industrial revolution. So just like previous industrial revolutions, some jobs [00:13:00] became obsolete while new jobs emerged.

So there's this saying that I like, and I feel it's very relevant both for me, like on a personal level and on a career level, is that the only constant thing is change. The only constant thing in our life is change. And we need to keep up because life will not stop for anyone. So now that AI is here, what shall that, you know, work tech do?

Embrace it, embrace it and empower by shifting the focus of the employees So the strategic aspect of their work rather than the time consuming and repetitive work, and that's something that work tech, you know, scene or community should be proactively doing. And how would they do it? Trainings, skill development, you know, this, this, this empowerment should come from within these organizations that are looking to adopt immersive, um, disruptive technologies such as AI.

Um, and that's how they will, you know, allow their employees or give them this [00:14:00] space. Where they can upskill and reskill in response to these, you know, changing job requirements or changing, you know, settings and also promote this positive transport transformation because everyone's scared. Everyone's thinking, will I lose my job?

Is this the end of an era? And they really need to promote it like foster collaboration. Uh, you know, Just talk about the automation. Let people understand what is that a driven decision making, for example, and, you know, work on their skills, develop their skills. So I think this just embracing this and leveraging emerging technologies to their advantage while minimizing the risk off, you know, work.

The displacement is the way forward for the work tech community. Automation is a key component of emerging technologies. What are the potential benefits and challenges of increased automation in the workplace? For individuals to be able to work [00:15:00] alongside these AI systems, like what skills do you think are important to develop?

Well, automation. Fascinating, right? I just like, I mean, I read all about like of how automation is going to make our lives easier. And people are just so afraid of it. I mean, increased automation improved efficiency. That's it. And this is, you know, this is the equation for me because humans make errors and automation.

Hopefully don't like the error. You know, the margin of that error is greatly minimized. So when automation can perform these repetitive and time consuming tasks, why not? And it really would significantly, significantly reduce costs. For organizations, of course. So and it's also good in, you know, dangerous tasks because why?

Why would we want to lose, you know, an arm or a leg in certain tasks or jobs? So automation really does serve us [00:16:00] as humans. Uh, for the challenges. I mean, again, work displacement just because a lot of these jobs out there. Revolve around repetitive tasks like even if we can solve these issues off, you know, just making things faster What will happen to to these people who actually do these?

so If they were not displaced, they were really face the skills Mismatch because you know as automation is becoming more prevalent There is a growing gap between the work processes or the workers process and the skills required Yeah. In these automated industries. So, yeah. And another thing that I always think of is privacy and security concerns, and a lot of people don't talk about this.

I mean, how is automation related to that? But automation does handle sensitive data, and there is still concerns about data privacy, security breaches. Imagine someone just hacking this big [00:17:00] automation, whatever, and just destroying everything. So we still have these risks. We still have privacy issues. We still have regulations.

They're still not put in place. I mean, the EU is moving fast. The UK is doing things about it, but we still don't have regulations on hand to be able to navigate the system, you know, and also the cost is really high. People talk about automation as if they can just pick it up Uh, tomorrow, which is not true.

It's the costs are high. A lot of resistance going to be in the workplace. So yeah, good things and bad things about automation at the moment. But I think if we just go back to the to the skills, I would always say literacy literacy. I mean, in terms of automation, this is mainly to the to the organization because Even if you upskill yourself and you work on yourself, if the [00:18:00] organization does not want to keep, you know, 1000 employees, they're just gonna let them go.

So, uh, for me, it's about just being proactive to what's happening. If you're someone who works in the tech industry, but your tasks are really limited to repetitive work, look on how you can advance yourself. Look on into these, again, these learning, um, I'd say aids, learning aids that are there. Try to, I, I'd say like try to have that digital weapon on your side.

You know, you need to have weapons to, to live. And now we're not in an era of where people fight each other physically, but . But we, you need to fight for. For having this good job and a good and like career advancements and all of that. So have that digital [00:19:00] weapon next to you, besides you, so it can just, you know, get your chances, get you better chances in landing that job.

I don't know if I'm, I, I remember, I remember in the interview you did for us for Crick on last year. I remember you said like coding is like a digital weapon. It is. And I always remember that and I feel like I do wanna do coding, so it's on my list, . So one day, hopefully this year or next year do that.

But like what sort of, um, so when you talk about digital weapons, 'cause you were, you were tapping on this, so there's this, um, code for girls. So this is, um, yes. Organization. Do you know them? I love them because, yeah, I see them on Instagram. Amazing. I'm not like a shout out to them just because I, I wanted to learn Python and I was like, I.

At that time, I couldn't just, you know, enroll and pay for that. I had a lot on my plate. And I was like, you know what? I'm going [00:20:00] to reach out and ask if they would offer me a seat. And they did. And I learned Python. And it was amazing. Well, because I know that I'm not going to be coding today, but I need to understand code to understand the infrastructure of these models that are being built, especially that Python is one of the languages used for.

AI and like AI models and neural networks and whatnot. So, yeah, yeah, I would definitely contact them because I do follow them. Um, and like you said, I need to talk to them, but if they reached, if you reached out to them and they were responsive, then yeah, I need to definitely contact them and see, cause it's definitely something.

Cause I see like all the posts that they do and how many women they've helped and young girls and it just looks really cool. So, yeah. Um, what kind of work ethnic and attitude do you believe is critical for the success in the future of work? Oh, okay. So I'm gonna talk about ethics and then ethics in AI, if you're working [00:21:00] in AI, because you have these pitfalls and we don't want to, you know, go down that route.

So ethics, basically, as you were saying, just be proactive. You have to have that, you know, Attitude first and foremost. And as we said that you need to take these initiatives to learn and adapt. So be really open minded. Be willing to do that mistake and ask that question and take your time because this is really time consuming.

What's what's happening this morning? You know, we sleep, we wake up and there's like Chad GPT. Remember when Chad GPT was we just that people were not prepared. They were not prepared to this shift, you know, to this. It's a paradigm shift, natural language processing. I mean, that's crazy. So I think it's just being proactive and knowing that things are going to change very [00:22:00] fast.

And just to have that proactive attitude and don't resist, don't resist change or just turn a blind eye on the advancements that will soon materialize to be job requirements. So just, you know, start adopting this proactive attitude, embrace these technologies, have a growth mindset, be resilient. It's okay not to know things.

It's okay to feel overwhelmed, but it's not okay just to sit there and do nothing. So and very interesting number. I was like doing, uh, I was reading an article last, uh, week and you have around 4, 000. 4, 432, 000 businesses in the UK who have already adopted AI solutions or AI technologies. Oh, wow. That's like one in six businesses in the UK.

Yeah. So it's, it's really moving fast. So proactivity is, is the [00:23:00] key to, you know, keep up with this. Yeah. I mean, I feel like people that aren't using AI systems. are behind and they're, they're stopping themselves from growing and achieving more. So I feel like since using AI, um, at Hondo and for my work and stuff, I feel like I'm so much more productive.

I can get so much more done in less time. And it's just like, and it helps me. Grow and think of ideas and stuff like that, like, especially in marketing, you always constantly think of ideas, whereas I often have GPT, something, it just helps enhance your brain and it's just like unlocks your mind. Yeah, yeah, it does a lot of people, you know, creative people know how to utilize AI tools, because like for me, I come from.

Like I have a lot of creativity, but sometimes I'm stuck somewhere, you know, sometimes I'm just overwhelmed and like, you know, this cold start [00:24:00] problem, like, how do I articulate this? Or how do I start thinking about that or whatever? So when I resort to chat, GPT, GPT, I'm not like a copy paste person. Never don't do that with AI.

It's just read what read the output. Uh, be sure to know how to prompt. Okay. The AI model that you're using just don't tell him. What is this? Or what is that? No, you need to have a very coherent prompt that the AI would respond to and would give you an optimized output. So that's something as well. Learn how to prompt guys.

Prompting AI is key to getting the best out of the AI model that you're using. Um, yes, I use chat. You can tell it's a tool. It enhances us. Everything. So why not use it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I agree with you. It helps enhance and helps you grow personal growth as well. And it's like, like you said, like sometimes [00:25:00] marketing.

I'm like, I'm stuck on a post. I'm stuck on like, what to do next. And it's like giving them a product and just having ideas and just think, Oh, that's actually a good idea. Let me try use that and like enhance it and think of something better. And it's just using those tools. But it's like using them. I agree.

Like I explained to my friends and I tell them that the tools I use and that I'm like, Oh, you should use this for your work and stuff. And then, then they use them like, Oh my God, like, this is so cool. I haven't like my company don't use this or why haven't I used this before? And it is very cool having them.

And like you said, it helps you and it makes you, it makes your brain see things differently and helps you grow. So yeah, it's really cool. So now talking about. Ethical considerations, obviously is an important topic when it comes to ai. Um, so what ethical challenges do you see happening in the workplace as AI systems become more common and what steps can organizations and even educators address?

So basically with, with ai, there are a lot of [00:26:00] pitfalls that, um, people are still, they don't understand the implications of, of these pitfalls. So, and it's all, it all has to do with, with ethics, first of all, algorithmic bias. So let's talk about bias and let's talk about the theory of garbage in, garbage out.

So the basis of all things AI is data. What you feed the AI, it's going to process, it's going to do its thing in the black, in the, in its black box, and it's going to give you an output. Now, throughout, you know, humanity and the history of us on this earth, we have a lot of bias, and this bias is translated into Our digitization, like everything that you see online and every single piece of data can have bias, uh, embedded into it because it's a human who who actually initiated or created this data.

So the thing is that when you want to have or you want to adopt an AI model, you [00:27:00] have to make sure that the data that you're giving is not biased as all at all, because AI is not biased, but you can, if you train it on bias data, it's going to give you a biased output. So it's very important guys. Garbage in, garbage out.

This is what, uh, our professor in Oxford told us when I was taking an AI program. And it really stuck to me because it's, it's all about data. So algorithmic bias, not only algorithmic bias and Because a I bleeds into everything. So let's talk about, for example, using an AI model or an AI application for recruiting the whole recruitment process.

And you know, the CVS out there amount of jobs that are taken by men as opposed to women is there. So when you give when you feed all this data to the AI, it's going to give you male candidates for certain jobs, for example. And this is a [00:28:00] lot of, you know, recruitment. CVS Um, AI, you know, AI driven recruitment softwares have faced this and they had to back propagate and go like bad AI.

No, this is this is not what you should be saying. So it's always having, you know, experts around engineers who can back propagate and who can refine and fine tune the data that's been, you know, fed to this AI model. It's really crucial. To, you know, that's to be ethical and to be fair, you know, and to actually hire the right person and not hire someone who has been given this, uh, I mean, uh, uh, nominated just because, uh, he was, he, he, um, again, and not, uh, and not Hire [00:29:00] someone who has been, uh, a good candidate because of the AI algorithm and not because of the competency, actually.

So that's one. I can, so AI ethics, it's because AI is breathing to every industry, so we have a lot of You know, I think of considerations to to take into consideration. Uh, regulations. Once the regulations are in, we're not going to have a lot of issues because that's gonna, um, force a lot of organizations into abiding by these, um, sets of rules or framework that has been put.

So I know that the EU has been working really, really hard on this. On, uh, achieving, you know, this framework or having a trustworthy A. I. Framework, and they talked about they had a lot of requirements. Some of them were, um, like the societal and environmental well being. [00:30:00] This is one very big ethical consideration.

Transparency because you're just accumulating this data. You're using this data. And so what about transparency? What about privacy? What about human agency? What about, you know, safety, technical robustness, accountability? Who's to blame when something goes wrong? Is it the AI? Is it the human behind the AI?

Is it the engineer? So a lot of these Um, I think your considerations are still being debated on a daily basis to see how how we can shape a good framework for organizations to be using and for employees as well. Because even if you're using AI in an organization, you really need to understand. That okay, so this I should not be doing or this is like privacy.

It's a privacy breach. I need to like go back [00:31:00] to someone and ask about this or that. So again, be mindful, be proactive. Understand that sometimes AI cannot give you an explanation of its decision. And that's when you dive into deep learning. And neural networks, neural network, and the layers in the neural network is a black box.

No one understands what's happening inside it until now. You cannot understand how the algorithm or the weights of these nodes have been, uh, divided or, you know, allocated to get this output. So if you cannot explain the output of this AI, how can you adopt it? How can you adopt this output? How can you say, this is what I'm going with?

Or this prediction. Yeah. You don't understand what's what happened in the back end. So a lot of ethical considerations to to ponder and think about for both organizations and people who are, you know, AI enthusiasts who want [00:32:00] to dabble into the space and, you know, have a AI related job somehow, somehow.

Yeah. It was really interesting hearing the points that you said, because like, we did our AI, um, curriculum event in June. And it's like, I asked everyone similar questions is the ethics and everyone gave it different opinions. So it's nice hearing different stuff. And there's things that you mentioned that people haven't mentioned before, which you need to think about, like put the data you input to the AI, telling the prompts, all of that is even like considering because that you can't like you said, the recruit example, just having Males come through for tech roles and then having to train it and be like, no, that's not what we want.

We wanna go back and then redo it. And it's like, and then it, it makes people understand that even though it's an AI system, we still have control as humans to like tell it what to do and how to prompt it. And I think that's the important thing. 'cause a lot of people think just because it's tech text taking over text, Taking control.

But really, we still [00:33:00] have the human element of putting our input and telling it what to do and what we want. Specifically, still having that control and feel like that's absolutely because if you have some AI models that pull data out of anywhere. So if you look at LinkedIn, for example, and you see the tech jobs that are posted on LinkedIn, and if the I can figure out how many men are applying versus how many women it's really bad because You know, sometimes just men apply if they feel that they are a 40 percent fit, you know, but us women, we would think that I have to have that 90 percent fit because if I don't know how to do it, I'm not going to apply.

So well, that's, well, that's how we say, see it. The AI doesn't see it. The algorithms is saying that, oh, look, we have this ratio of male to woman. Um, yeah, women, you know, applying for these jobs. Is it because men are better? They don't [00:34:00] care about the XXXY chromosome AI. It's just algorithm. Yeah. So it's up for us to find data and just feed AI, uh, or just, you know, train it on equality and diversity.

We can do that. Yeah, definitely. And it's important, like you said, is whatever we give the application, that's what they're going to feed from. So it's our responsibility to make sure that the information it has is reflecting what we want. So, yeah, no, it's very important. So looking into, like, parents and educators, what can parents and educators do to help their children and students develop digital skills that we need for this future work that we're entering?

Well, um, we've already talked about, you know, our educational system being a bit outdated. Actually, very outdated. The drama of Quneg. And, but, I mean, if I want to start first with the [00:35:00] educators, Let's talk about the teachers. You cannot prepare the students for what's coming if the teachers are not knowledgeable about the subject matter.

So, you have two things. It's either you're going to send this teacher away and say, Oh, well you can't, you know, teach this, so you're, you're obsolete now, or you can empower them. And this is where the change needs to start. This is the, you know, the proactive approach that governments and educational institutions should be approaching this.

Empower the teacher. So I think around four years ago, the UK government announced, um, an ad tech strategy. Great. Amazing. So there was like a 10 million pounds. It is a 10 million pound backed strategy. It's it's, you know, the money is going to support innovation, raise the bar in schools, colleges and universities in England.

But teachers and lecturers and educational experts. need to unite [00:36:00] with innovative businesses. And this is what I always say. I mean, great. The government is doing something. But if if teachers can do a proactive step in uniting with these innovative businesses and harnessing the power of technology to tackle these challenges, that's that's how we can ensure that those working in education are equipped with the necessary skills and tools.

To meet this. So a teacher just as the student needs to be proactive about it needs to resort to open source information rather than just wait for the system to change or, you know, for the institution to say, Hey, we need to, like, jump on this. And because I see, I mean, I've always been fascinated by teachers.

A lot of my teachers have imprinted on me. There's a little, you know, like a phrase here or a phrase there or the way they approach teaching and whatnot. And I think they're fascinating human beings because we all [00:37:00] are, you know, we owe our lives and careers to these people who helped us succeed and learn.

So when we think about this technological change, especially with disruptive technologies, they're just not equipped for this. So I need we need to give them a lot, a lot of empowerment and space for them to grow and understand how they should tackle this. So and yeah, the 10 million, it's not enough, but it's it was a start.

And as we were saying, yeah, educators, please update your own digital skills and knowledge just to be able to effectively teach. Uh, these emerging technologies attend workshops and conferences, online courses tailored to teachers, uh, from tech related industries. Um, ask these professionals, these tech professionals to come to speak to your students about career opportunities, real world application of technologies.

And, you know, for [00:38:00] parents provide that access to technology. I mean, I am a parent myself. I'm a mom to a three year old and I'm just in this constant dilemma of Giving her that iPad or not giving her that iPad. But then I was like, No, I'm gonna give her that iPad and I'm gonna have these amazing tools on it.

Uh, games, educational games and just for her to be one with technology because the generation that's coming, it's one with technology. It's there's this fusion that's gonna happen and people can't still see it. And as much as I as we find it bizarre, uh, I mean, I'm, I'm older than you, Nadia, I am, I, I witnessed pre internet.

I was alive during the pre internet era and then when the internet went to, you know, modems and everything and where you used to dial and it was so weird for, for us to adapt to this, to, to this new [00:39:00] technology. While you have, um, kids born into this technology. Now, maybe born through this. It's just it's it's fascinating.

So I think that as parents, first of all, we need to accept that this is the new reality. And we need to acknowledge that this is the new reality. Now, sorry. Yes, we need to monitor the screen time, the screen time, but we need to provide educational, you know, tools for them and just Foster a loving level of learning and this curiosity about technology and then just teach them digital literacy.

I mean, a lot of my friends are enrolling their eight year olds, like six to eight year olds in coding. Um, courses, they're so fun and, you know, wicked and they're just learning how to code at eight. And, you know, we have that capacity as humans and children and [00:40:00] sadly, our educational systems. It's limited in some places while technology doesn't so, you know, be one with technology and encourage your, your children to jump on these courses and enroll them in these courses.

So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely agree. I remember one of my colleagues last year was telling me that he sends his kids to a coding school and it's called Coding Ninja. And from I think the age of like three. Maybe four upwards, they go off to school and they learn coding and they make it really cool and they make all these cool coding stuff and then they make, they use Lego and all these cool things.

And I was like, wow, like, when I was younger, I'm 25 now, when I was younger, we didn't have any of that. And obviously, Similar to where it is now, girls were very focused on like art, English, and boys were like math, science, and all of that. And I feel like now that we're starting to see people now pushing and making sure that there's equality between both girls [00:41:00] and boys in schools as well, which is really cool.

And like you said, teachers, to help them grow, they need to have the space and resources to help them to learn about these emerging technologies. So like how Honda is doing virtual work experiences, and part of that. We're going to schools and we talked with teachers and the teachers have no idea about these AI systems, and then we have to then train them and then they're like, Oh, my God, why haven't we been using this?

Like, we could be planning our lessons with this and doing this and this. And it's like, and it's like, it's just crazy how they don't use it. So I'm hoping, yeah, hopefully, fingers crossed in a few years time. Absolutely, it's gonna change. Nadia, it's gonna change. It has to change. Yeah. So, but the only thing that I would say, and just because that I feel.

As a mother, I've I've touched upon this is the balance between real life and digital life because as as children, we used to just play outside. We had like nothing. We had no [00:42:00] iPads. We had no. Yeah, we were not in touch with with technology. The only thing we had is like cartoons on on on the TV, and that was very much limited.

So I think just finding that balance between, you know, giving them this exposure to technology because technology is going to be Yeah. Or digital literacy is going to be the way forward in their lives. But as as much as that's important, it's equally important to stay in touch with with nature and just to play outside and to have friends and to Yeah, just develop develop these social skills as well and not just be in that room.

And, you know, it's really good to foster, you know, foster education, innovation and whatnot. But it's equally important to find that balance. So yeah. It's a hard job for parents. We can never get it, uh, right all the time, but you know, we try. Yeah, no, it's like you said, balance is very important. And like you said, yes, having screen time, but giving them the [00:43:00] tools, like having certain apps where they can learn and engage.

Whereas just like going on YouTube and just watching stuff that isn't relevant. It says, yeah, it's about screen time, but having a dedicated screen time, which will help them. And then also having time with nature and doing things. Cause like, like you said, one of the things that I've learned when we're talking to our young people is that they don't have those social skills.

Because they're so, they're like, they're very scared to like, even like when we have video calls with them, they have their cameras off, they don't want to talk, and like those skills is really important in the workplace, and like talking, communicating, me and you having a conversation. Some young people find it really hard in their social anxiety, and it's like having that balance and making sure that you can do both.

Cause you need those skills and they're important. So yeah, there's a lot, but yeah, balance is really important and having these skills and just keeping up to date with everything. So I could talk to you all day, but we need to wrap up now. Yeah, I know. Um, so obviously, [00:44:00] like we said, everything we spoke about, the future of work is changing, the working environment is changing constantly and a much faster pace now with the technology we have.

What are a few skills that you think will be most in demand in the next three to five years? Well, absolutely. Hands down a I and machine learning expertise. Absolutely. Because a eyes gonna bleed into every industry, and this already has begun. I'm like I just told you, like 432, 000 businesses in the UK have already started dabbling.

And I mean, look at the wonders that they are is doing

in health care, supply chain, cyber security, finance, sustainability, you name it. and they are already in, in demand. The, the, the market is worth more than 16.9 billion pounds in the uk. It's expected to grow to like a staggering 803 billion. That's in 20 20, 20 35. Yeah. So it's, it's happening. And yeah. [00:45:00] The beauty of ai, it's, it's the open source of it.

So you can have find a hell out of information like everywhere you go. About AI, AI applications, how to prompt an AI, how to use this AI model. So I always say that get in, just get involved and don't miss that AI train, guys.

That's an important. Did you hear that guys? You can hear it from here. Do not miss the AI train. Hop on with us and join

us. Well, it's been lovely speaking to you, Lara. Um, I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the day. Where would you like people to connect with you? Is it LinkedIn? Yes. LinkedIn, please. I'm very slow on my, um, messages and replying because sometimes I get overwhelmed, but please just drop me a message if you want help in, in anything.

If you want like links to articles to start, you know, learning about [00:46:00] AI, or if you want me to recommend you some courses out there that are free, or if you just want to chat or ask that stupid question that you're not asking, please do connect. Yeah, I can tell you Lara would definitely reply because I've had conversations with her.

And we still need to catch up in person soon. Um, but yeah, um, and Lara's doing so much amazing work in the tech space. And she's always out talking to people, so definitely follow her. And if you need any help, do reach out to her because she's here. And I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the day of CareerCon.

And hopefully we'll see you soon. Don't forget to follow us on hundo.xyz and keep up. And this video will be on demand as well. Thank you, Lara. Thanks. Bye. Bye.