There’s no doubt Underwood, Patel and Clinton are developing valuable AI knowledge which can help them across their careers.
But with their time at work so focused on AI, does it matter how much – or how little – time they’re spending learning about the professional field they’re supposed to be operating in?
Underwood says she’d like to still pick up the traditional PR skills her role isn’t currently focused on, but is confident of her future in the agency’s growing AI team.
“There’s certain things that I haven’t had the chance to do yet, like directly pitching to the media. I absolutely plan to do this,” she says.
Graduates becoming too AI-centric is an issue for Simon Pratt, chief operating officer at Portman Finance Group. He says being able to use AI effectively is important, but the company’s two-year graduate programme is fully centred on “learning the trade”.
“Our graduates rotate across four areas at six-month intervals, working directly alongside senior relationship managers to learn their trade,” Northampton-based Pratt explains.
“They’ll learn all of our financial products, how to draft credit papers for submission to lenders, and how to build meaningful relationships with our customers. They’ll progress to running transactions from start to finish.”
Claire Reed, PwC UK’s chief technology and innovation officer, believes graduate roles that are too AI heavy won’t necessarily provide graduates long-term career progression.
“There will be no graduate job now that doesn’t require a baseline of AI literacy,” says Glasgow-based Reed.
“But AI skills on their own are not going to help you in your career. You’ve got to couple that with that sector knowledge of what that client actually wants.”
Back in Coventry, Dillan Patel is confident his AI work will continue to be valuable, and he wants to keep building on it.
“I don’t think I’d want to explore different positions within the business. Through my involvement in AI-related projects, I already work closely with different areas of the business and I’m gaining valuable knowledge and experience along the way,” he says.
