Friends, this is another cross-post of an article that was originally published on the Google Cloud blog on November 21, 2024 by Will Grannis, VP and CTO of Google Cloud. I wrote one response to a question from the LinkedIn community, and several of my OCTO colleagues contributed other answers as well. Enjoy, and please submit questions for future columns here.
What specific skills and knowledge gaps need to be addressed to work effectively with AI?
Jeff Sternberg, Technical Director, Office of the CTO
In addition to the skills gaps addressed by my colleagues here, rolling out a successful learning program for AI is also critical. It’s similar to any enterprise learning and development program. However, it differs in a few key ways:
- Velocity of change: AI is changing extremely fast, so learning materials will become quickly out of date. What’s the fix? Plan to evolve the learning program quickly – rather than doing a yearly refresh of materials, do this semi-annually or even quarterly.
- Inclusivity: While AI is intrinsically technical, the best outcomes will happen if the learning program is extended to every team and role in the organization, including the business functions. In OCTO, we have worked with CTOs and CEOs that are driving this change through every business unit and seeing great results in getting the entire organization speaking the same AI language.
- Multi-modality: Technical teams are used to engaging with new technology using APIs, programming languages, and similar. Gen AI communicates through text, video, audio, and more. For software engineers, that means using skills like communication through natural language (e.g. prompts), which is both new and exciting!
Jeff Sternberg 