Can Technology Save Us? Dr. Trei Talks About AI, Drones and Security

0:00
Welcome to Under the Brand. I’m your
host, Valerie Jennings, where we uncover
the latest in AI, tech, marketing, and
some of the biggest trends in the world.
Right now, we are focused on an era of
AI and disruption. And a lot of you are
experimenting with AI. And some of you
might even feel like AI has completely
hijacked your job or your world. I want
to highlight some of my biggest concerns
about AI overall. I am an advocate for
AI but responsible AI. I think that um
AI is the future. The future is here and
we have rapid adoption but we also have
rapid disruption. Right now, our
workforce is completely
dismantled by the speed of AI. We do not
have a trained workforce to support all
of the opportunities in AI, but also the
elimination of a lot of jobs that many
of us have come to depend on.
1:18
As a CEO of a digital marketing agency serving
global clients, we pay attention to a
lot of the changes in AI. I have always
been an early adopter of digital
technology and marketing and have
embraced it wholeheartedly. And so while
I see a lot of the tremendous benefits
not just with automation and efficiency,
I am also deeply concerned about our
middle class workforce, not just in
marketing, but across all industries. I
think that we have a lot of challenges
ahead of us even with how we’re
educating college students today. We are
moving so quickly through this
technology that even companies can’t
keep up. Even those that are working
with AI are just, you know, moving so
fast without a lot of guard rails. But
what about how colleges and the
education
world is training our future workforce?
2:28
Many years ago, I uh received a
certification in AI. I already knew then
that we were going to be facing a very
tumultuous
landscape with our workforce. A lot of
people today are concerned that they are
going to lose their job and a lot of
them probably will not just uh in
marketing but across the board. the
biggest threat being the middle class
workforce because of automation. I think
that with new tech there’s always great
opportunities. My concern is that we’re
going to see a big division of economics
between the various classes. We don’t
get people the education and training.
Now it may not look like a traditional
road map of college educated graduates.
It may need to be certifications in
areas in which we can provide
supplemental training.
3:33
I have taken a position at my agency, Jennings Social
Media, Martekch, that we train up our
team if we are going to ask them to use
latest AI tools and platforms across
web, SEO, creative services, analytics,
reporting, buyer personas, ads, like all
of that causes chaos, not just within
agencies, but within businesses that are
trying to market their products and
services. Right now, the systems do not
scale with the AI. The AI um while it
can add additional assistance and
amplification
to your data strategy and trending
reporting, it can also dismantle your
existing workflows.
4:29
So my concerns
really right now are not that we’ve got
a a great future in tech, but where does
that leave our workforce, specifically
the middle class workforce, and what are
companies doing to lean into this plan
ahead for it and train their staff?
Because again, we have college grads
coming out into a workforce that is
completely different than what they’ve
been educated on. There are definitely
soft skills um and experiences digital
marketing or career professionals that
have been working for the last uh 10,
15, 20, 30 years where our experience
and and our value and being able to uh
discern between good and bad AI uh
outputs allows us to work more
efficiently. But where does that leave
uh recent college graduates? And again,
how are we displacing our workers? As an
example, now with Lovable, you can
create a landing page or a website
without any code. I do like the tool as
a a supplemental tool for clients that
do like to use WordPress sites. It
doesn’t it’s not compatible. if you want
to um export and you have to then try to
reconfigure the files for WordPress uh
compatibility. But again, that’s a whole
another story. The bottom line is that
AI is replacing developers and coders.
This was one of the the most sought
after highing jobs that was out there
and now we’re replacing it with AI. So
in some ways it’s good news for
efficiency but it’s going so fast that
we haven’t put a road map in place to
address it.
6:34
My biggest concern is that
we forfeit our our participation with AI
that we let go of our value as creators
and I don’t mean just marketing
creators, I mean creators and and
everything that we do and and the design
thinking that goes into that and allow
AI to decide what everything for us. So
my ask of my uh viewers isn’t that you
rely or let fear take over your mindset,
but that you find a way to play in this
space with AI and start getting
certifications
um outside of your your um employer. If
you’re a contractor, it’s even more
critical that you do these things. I I
ask our leaders in the country to start
putting in some guard rails about how AI
is used and how it influences our
society. There’s a lot of bias still out
there with the way AI is is programmed.
We know that recently it was stated that
Reddit was a major contributor to AI’s
learnings. In my view as a former
journalist and somebody that’s run a a
business for 22 years that Reddit is not
the most reliable platform and there’s a
lot of misinformation
on on Reddit. So I think it’s really
important that we always evolve and tech
is our future but also humanity and an
educated trained workforce. I want
everybody to be able to participate in
the AI era especially from you know a
marketing professional. I don’t want to
see people displaced. But what I have
also advocated for internally at our
agency is that you have to be an active
participant in your education. Your
employer or the companies that you work
for are only going to be able to get you
so far. So use it responsibly. Use it
ethically. Don’t upload sensitive data
that’s going to compromise other
people’s lives. but to also start
figuring out what are some of those
skill sets that don’t just allow you to
keep your job but allow you to be a
voice in the AI era. Again, this is
Valerie Jennings. You’ve been watching
Under the Brand. Please feel free to
share your comments and insights into
your experiences with AI.