I've talked with warehouse workers, retired and current community advocates, supply chain professionals, educators, engineers, doctors, creatives, entrepreneurs, and students about AI. That's a lot of different people and like most things in life, their fears vary depending on the person.
For someone who barely uses a computer at work, upskilling in AI sounds kind of like science fiction. We're giving them access to a training platform and telling them to “figure it out”.
For someone who prefers phone calls because their whole career has been about building trust through talking to people, even the most time-saving AI-powered communication tools feel like a replacement and almost anti-trust.
For someone in a rural community, the jobs AI is supposedly creating may require them to uproot their entire lives.
These folks don’t need another training module or pep talk from well-meaning leaders using 1 pagers handed out by AI vendors.
Real democratization requires a human being who meets people where they are, no algorithm required.