Want to thrive in an AI-driven workforce landscape? These traits will help you with that!

From the desk of Miles Everson:

Happy Friday!

I’m thrilled for yet another edition of  "Mindfulness by Miles."

In these articles, I talk about health, career longevity, and the future of work. My goal is to equip you with the insights needed to navigate both your personal and professional life with greater clarity and energy.

Today, we’ll talk about the traits that can help set you apart in a workforce landscape driven by AI.

Eager to know more? Continue reading below.

Want to thrive in an AI-driven workforce landscape? These traits will help you with that!

Those are some of the words that incoming  Apple  CEO John Ternus told engineering graduates of the  University of Pennsylvania  in 2024.

Ternus, in talking about this important lesson, recalled how he learned and took it to heart when he first started working for Apple in 2001.

After joining the product design team, his first project involved contributing to the creation of Apple’s Cinema Display desktop monitor product. Ternus, after spending months working on the build, reviewed a version of the product sent by a supplier.

Unfortunately, the back of the display had 35 grooves installed instead of 25. Ternus knew that most won’t spot this discrepancy, but instead of letting it go, he pointed this out, even if it meant adding work.

Ternus justified his decision by saying that going the extra mile is better than just putting in the minimum amount of effort that’s required.

Aside from emphasizing the importance of paying close attention to details, Ternus highlighted an equally important lesson: Being humble enough to “ ask questions and learn.”

While Ternus’ pieces of career advice was for graduates and budding professionals, the words he said still rings true for seasoned workers, managers, and those in the C-suite.

Why?

It’s because attention to detail, curiosity, and humility are important traits to have in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Speed Without Certainty

AI has drastically changed the way work gets done. Tasks that used to take hours, if not days or weeks, can now be done in a matter of minutes with just a few prompts.

Once those prompts have been generated into a piece of content, analysis, or lines of code, the next step is to make refinements or revisions.

Simply said, work that used to take hours can now be done quickly, freeing up time for more complex tasks.

However, just because today’s businesses and workers can now “buy” speed (through AI subscription plans), that doesn’t automatically mean they have purchased certainty—or the full belief that the output they have is factually correct and accurate.

AI models are still prone to “hallucinations” where false or misleading information is presented as fact.

According to  Stanford University ’s  Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence,  hallucination  rates range from 22% to 94% across the 26 AI models it tested.

Those findings indicate that no matter how well-crafted your prompts are and the information you feed to AI systems, there’s still a chance of encountering hallucination.

In other words, there’s just no guarantee that AI-generated outputs are completely free from errors.

That’s exactly where attention to detail, curiosity, and humility come in!

Paying close attention to details enables you to spot which aspects of AI-generated output are littered with errors or hallucinations. Having this attitude also requires having the humility to assume that there may be errors in the first place and the curiosity to actively look for them.

That said, how do you put these traits into action?

• Adopt a “Second Review” Protocol

  Never submit or publish content that has been created through the assistance of AI tools without making a human-led audit.

• Don’t Assume

  Instead of assuming that the output or content you have is free from errors or inaccuracies, ask yourself if you’ve gone over the details and made sure that the assumption is true.

  This way, you’ll condition yourself to check everyday details, instead of just making assumptions in the first place.

As the modern workplace deepens its reliance on AI, human intervention will become more crucial.

When speed is prioritized over veracity, workers and leaders put themselves at risk of downstream effects tied to overreliance on AI. This means a minor inaccuracy or hallucination can lead to blunders or even legal liabilities.

That’s why in today’s AI-reliant workplace, attention to detail, humility, and curiosity will enable individuals and leaders to mitigate the risks brought about by AI.

These qualities will also set them apart from the rest of their competitors.

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