Joyce Glavish, senior advisor
In 40 years of supervising communication interns, I’ve worked with young people ready to rocket to the top and others who needed more basics. Today I use AI frequently and it occurs to me that this is now my permanent intern.
I find myself explaining what I want and sending back assignments for reworking in much the same way I would an intern’s work. Don’t get me wrong. Some of the work is brilliant, but it often lacks context and fails to think critically about the assignment. It may take five or six iterations of probing questions to get my AI intern to produce something that’s solid enough to use as raw material.
Of course, it can do these multiple iterations in seconds, not days. It requires much less time to supervise this intern. Which leads me to a haunting question. What does the future hold for internships and practical experience?
For most of us, an internship was a rite of passage. Communication was something you had to practice to perfect. Most of us were committed to offering internships because 1) it paid a debt incurred when we interned, and 2) it was generally a fair trade in getting help in exchange for experience.
AI makes that second point almost moot and, in today’s business world, how altruistic can workplaces afford to be?
In the past, the ability to write was your entre into this field. Today critical thinking takes the lead. Being able to ask the right questions has never been more important and, for students and senior advisors alike, it’s what differentiates us from our AI interns.
Joyce Glavish is a senior advisor at JayRay and considers mentoring a rewarding part of the job. Her background ranges from nonprofits to education to large industrial clients.