Michael Todasco – Upskilling for AI Integration: Rethinking Work and Learning

Michael (Mike) Todasco, Visiting Fellow at the James Silberrad Brown Center for Artificial Intelligence at San Diego State University. He shares insights from driving innovation at PayPal and discusses AI-enabled opportunities for non-technical users and potential entrepreneurs, drawing parallels with earlier transformation generated by GPS access. Mike explains the need for participation, exploration, innovation, and updated education to foster creativity, adapt, and thrive in AI-integrated workplaces. He elevates humans' ingenuity and discerning of quality which complement advanced technical capabilities.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:55] Mike’s interest in finance starts with selling baseball cards as a child.   [03:03] Mike joins General Electric after a college professor talks so much about Jack Welch.   [04:06] Mike doesn’t get his first choice. He is sent to work on aircraft engines.   [04:20] The rotation program helps Mike find out all the jobs he doesn’t want to do!   [04:57] The lasting impression a new employer can make being nimble and scrappy.   [06:22] Cool tech lures Mike who starts his own venture, then joins PayPal.   [07:29] Working on innovation products being launched at PayPal.   [08:33] Mike has a game-changing meeting with a group of patent lawyers.     [09:35] Brainstorming innovative products across PayPal teams, Mike develops a new skill.   [10:21] Innovation is stimulated by asking good questions and building on each other’s ideas.   [11:08] Generating new ideas by imagining what if resources weren’t an issue.   [11:57] An innovation use case taking a completely different perspective.   [13:40] Mike is captivated by the potential of AI particularly because he cannot code.   [14:39] Mike recognizes the magical possibilities of AI and becomes obsessed!   [16:28] Using the GPS example to try and project what AI might generate in future.   [18:49] Mike shares his mother’s ER experience to illustrate how we might integrate AI support.   [22:06] The early predictions that AI would automate away radiologists were totally wrong!   [24:01] The history of illusion and the perception gap humans have.   [24:57] We find significant personal improvement hard to imagine (as necessary or possible!).   [25:52] We may not know, but we need to explore, the possibilities of AI tools.   [27:56] The AI apps Mike uses daily.   [29:22] Exploring new application versions and having AI running your life!   [30:32] How AI can augment your daily personal, professional, and family habits.   [32:56] Practical advice for how leaders can stimulate essential AI exploration.   [34:22] The challenge of (too much) choice—never mind, just get involved!   [35:36] Mike plans his daughter’s birthday party using ChatGPT.   [37:37] Where and how AI is beneficially used in work processes.   [38:18] What AI is good at, better at, and not so much!   [39:58] What happens if AI does interns’ work?   [40:30] Mike’s hopes for the possible fundamental impact of AI.   [43:56] How should schools be integrating AI?   [45:43] What some teachers are doing with AI in class.   [47:19] Ideas to change college curriculums to incorporate AI.   [48:47] The rising value of ‘taste’—‘what is ‘good?’ matters since AI offers average results.   [51:50] The Steph Curry effect–we care about what humans do (and how to make viral videos).   [54:13] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Get in front of the AI change as much as you can in your workplaces with your teams. Set up a channel to share, post and cold call on team members to spur ideas and activity.     RESOURCES   Michael (Mike) Todasco on LinkedIn Mike’s AIdeas podcast     QUOTES   "Even just asking the right type of question is a way to just really force people to take a step back."   “By definition, AI is almost always going to be average right now. Ultimately, taste will matter more in the future, to know ‘what is good’?”   “We are becoming directors of this new future where being able to recognize quality, being able to understand what makes something good, what makes something bad, are going to matter much more than being able to put words on a blank white page.”   “People need to know how to use AI and embrace it and understand it. You could teach both the fundamentals without it and then teach them how to do even more with it.”