Back-to-School Learning Season: What Can You Learn (or Rethink)?

This season conjures memories of starting a new school year – new outfits, fresh supplies in your backpack and a new schedule to remember.

Don’t just relegate those to nostalgic memories, though: Harness them!   

Even when your school days are behind you, learning isn’t. This is the perfect season to learn something new – or to rethink something you thought you understood.   

We all have a teacher, a class, a book or a coach that blew our minds. Whether it was a science experiment, a sports skill or a piece of poetry, we can all think of something we learned that shifted and expanded our view of the world.   

Here’s one thing to think differently about: AI.   

You might have rolled your eyes when you read that – and your reaction might be appropriate. Have any two letters ever been the topic of more newsletter articles?   

That’s exactly what we want to move beyond, though.   

AI discourse is so full of hype that it’s easy to get caught up in it – or go in the other direction and assume it’s all overblown nonsense. As with so many situations, though, the truth is in between.  

On the one hand, AI can help us speed through the manual work of complex processes, iterate faster through ideation, and sort, analyze and predict based on enormous and heterogeneous data sets.   

On the other hand, none of that means we can skip being brilliant with everything that, pre-AI, separated the good from the great. We must still understand the nuances of our industry, from data analytics to drug development to marketing strategy. In fact, we need to be better than ever at the basics, because outputs can look so polished that it’s easier than ever for non-experts to overlook errors.   

Moreover, none of these new abilities that AI-powered tools are proving to be capable of signifies that AI is, in and of itself, entirely new and scary. For years, AI has been woven into so much of your everyday life (it’s likely in the device you’re reading this on!) that to take a stance against using it at work is like saying you don’t need air. You may not see it, but it’s there.   

Fear of change is natural, but those who understand new tools and then find sensible ways of incorporating them will come out on top.   

If we look at business school case studies, we learn that Nintendo was founded as a playing-card company, Netflix offered DVDs by mail and GE sold incandescent light bulbs. Today, they’re known for video game consoles, streaming entertainment and jet engines, respectively. They’re still successfully giving us games, movies and power because, throughout the decades, they figured out how to make the most of technological advances to help their business continue to meet their audiences’ changing wants and needs.    

For the first few days of every new school year, the schedule may feel disorienting, the sneakers may need some breaking in and the book may creak a little when you open them. But pretty soon, everything will become second nature. The same idea applies to learning.  

If you want to do a little learning right now:  

• Learn more about the many ways EVERSANA INTOUCH is helping clients innovate and future-proof with AI.   

• Schedule an AI workshop to build a plan to address your unique brand and organizational challenges. 

Happy learning season!