Steve Lear

How do we prepare young people for work in the age of transformative AI?

It’s a question on the minds of every parent, teacher, worker, and employer, and the subject of a fascinating essay by Avital Balwit published in The Digitalist Papers, Volume 2. This Stanford University research initiative addresses the economic opportunities and challenges we face in the age of AI.

At 25, Balwit has a front-row seat to this transformation in her role as Chief of Staff to Dario Amodel, the CEO of Anthropic, a frontier AI company that developed the AI chatbot, Claude. She writes from the perspective of someone adapting to constant change, sharing practical career advice drawn from on-the-job experience.

Here is a summary of her recommendations:

Core Strategies

• Understand the new nature of work. We will shift from doing to directing, which requires employees to become managers rather than individual contributors.
• Cultivate uniquely human advantages. Balwit names four that rise to the top:
  • Taste and values
  • Relationships
  • Trust and judgment
  • Initiative and vision

These qualities, central to our human identity, won’t easily be replicated.

Psychological and Social Preparation

• Build a robust identity. When you’re working with super intelligence, your self-worth must be rooted in more than being smart. Develop your human advantages, described earlier.
• Create intentional human spaces. Be selective about when to include—and exclude—AI. For example, as a former freelance writer, Balwit has returned to writing without AI assistance to keep her skills sharp. She suggests asking, “When does efficiency destroy the experience?” Which struggles are worth preserving for the joy and meaning they bring?

Practical Skills and Behaviors

• Be technically literate, not obsessed. It’s essential to learn AI skills and understand how to leverage them, but don’t forget the power of independent thought and interpersonal connections.
• Network and brand-building
  People still prize human-generated content, and the trust, perspective, and relationships it’s based on. Balwit advises developing your authentic viewpoint, then using AI to amplify it.
• Physical and Interpersonal Skills
  AI will master cognitive skills before physical ones. But Balwit believes that our preference for humans in certain roles will protect some occupations—such as ballet dancers, comedians, classical musicians, counselors, religious leaders, childcare, teaching, and athletes—not because it’s impossible for machines to do a better job, “but because humans doing them matters intrinsically to their value.”

Educational Considerations

Conventional education relies on standardized testing to measure what we know – but AI already excels in knowing and generating content. Balwit advocates that we:

• Set new educational priorities
  • Promote personal initiative
  • Develop collaboration and delegation skills
  • Cultivate values and taste
• Implement good ideas from existing education models
  • Waldorf education – Advocates whole-child development through arts-rich, teacher-guided learning. Meaning is found in the process, not just in the output.
  • Montessori education – Promotes a managerial mindset with independent projects and self-directed exploration. Students evaluate the quality of their work.
    We need an educational system that rewards problem-solving, innovation, and creative expression.

• Partner with AI
  Every student must learn to direct and evaluate AI systems.
• Consider multiple education cycles
  We currently complete most of our formal education before beginning a career. However, there may be more benefits to completing shorter periods of education throughout our careers.

Employment Considerations

• Recognize that jobs fill multiple needs
  As AI eliminates jobs, more than economic security is at risk. People will still need the additional benefits that work provides – purpose, socialization, and community connection.
• Set standards for human-AI collaboration. Develop frameworks for when human oversight will be included or excluded.

Conclusion

In the new employment landscape Balwit describes, the right mindset will matter more than any specific knowledge. Working alongside AI requires knowing how to direct it, an openness to change and uncertainty, an ability to problem-solve and manage, and an understanding of how to leverage our uniquely human advantages.

That’s sound advice. At SteveLear.org, we continue to promote the ability to pivot as the best way to navigate the certainty of uncertainty. In addition to providing our youth with the right educational resources, we believe it’s important to give them tools—such as Kolbe Wisdom, the Values Cards Exercise, Communication Builder, and Social Styles—to help them discover their unique instinctive strengths and values. This will create the kind of self-awareness that will guide them to roles where they can thrive in a changing world.

To learn more, you can read Balwit’s full essay here.