Tech & humanity: a love story #1

Welcome to “Tech & humanity: a love story”, your go-to source for insights, strategies & stories to understand and master the ever-evolving relationship between technology and humans in the world of business and brands.

Join me as I delve into the power of collaboration in the AI age, how to enhance your personal brand, and lead with purpose. I will also explore the shifting values of the new customer, the future of work, and how sustainability can become a competitive advantage for businesses.

👀 INSIGHT: What happens after Google Zero and the death of cookies?

In my latest blog 📰, I take a deep dive into two of the biggest changes to digital marketing in recent decades, as Google ends support for third-party cookies in Chrome and begins to integrate AI summaries into search results. Cookies have long been the bedrock of programmatic advertising, enabling advertisers to (re-)target ads and track conversions, while organic search engine traffic could significantly fall due to AI summaries. What will the changes mean for advertisers and how can brands respond?

➡️ Get all the details and my take in the full article.

🏃 Job hunting on autopilot: LinkedIn launches new AI tools for candidates

Tired of endlessly rewriting your cover letters to apply for jobs?

Now LinkedIn has AI tools to do it for you. The recruitment site promises to use AI to draft a text that highlights the skills, qualifications and experience that best fit the role you are applying for. But what if you want other career advice such as tips for negotiating your salary? You guessed it — there’s an AI for that too. A new feature enables candidates to receive advice from career coaches like Lisa Gates and Anil Gupta via special chatbots which have been trained on tailored datasets to reflect their views and experience.

The tighter integration of AI tools into LinkedIn seems like an obvious move for Microsoft. The Seattle-based tech giant catapulted itself to the front of the AI race in 2019 with a $1 billion investment in OpenAI. Since then it has been integrating AI and large language models (LLMs) into everything it can think of, from its Bing search engine, to the Office Suite, a new line of Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, and even Microsoft Paint.

🙈Whether you like it or not: since Microsoft is already everywhere, so is AI.🙈

Many people only use LinkedIn occasionally when looking for a job, so Microsoft will be hoping that AI career coaches increase the average time users spend on the platform.

So it makes sense for Microsoft , but are AI written cover letters really as good as the real thing? In my experience, while ChatGPT is stylistically convincing, it is not always the best at uncovering and explaining your most relevant skills and experience in detail. It does a great job of credibly summarizing everything that may be of relevance, but it tends to be a bit too vague, particularly if you have extensive experience in a variety of fields where it may not be immediately evident which skills are transferable. The cover writing tool will likely be a valuable resource for ideation, therefore, but the output will need manual editing in most circumstances to create a truly standout application.

🙆♂️ With regard to the job coaching tools, it is harder to say how effective they will be. On the one hand, having access to high-quality career advice through a conversational tool should help to prevent candidates making classic “mistakes”. On the other hand, the integration of this advice into LinkedIn will commoditise the information, meaning that it will not be a competitive advantage in the long run. Furthermore, as all LLMs are prone to hallucinations by design, there is potential for some embarrassing viral mishaps too.🤡

To be honest, that might be the part of all of this that I look forward to most. But on a more serious note, I think it is fair to ask - what is the ultimate goal of this exercise? We have already reached a point where AI can write a job description for the employer and the candidate can apply to it with AI. Then the AI-written application is processed and evaluated by another AI on the employer’s behalf. Ultimately, this does not seem like a meaningful way to match talent with jobs.

😱 Recruiters already see AI as a critical skill for candidates

Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani predicts that “AI won’t replace humans, but humans with AI will replace humans without AI.” This statement has been backed up by a new study which shows that two thirds of business leaders would not hire a candidate without any AI skills. Even more strikingly, AI is becoming a significant competitive advantage, with three quarters of leaders saying that they would hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills over a more experienced candidate without them.

“66% leaders would not hire a candidate without AI skills”

AI burst onto the scene so fast that some people were a bit sheepish to admit that they were using it at work. It was fun to play around with, but many were not yet ready to use it for “serious” business tasks. This survey shows that these attitudes are changing, and changing fast.

🤔 Should you use the “open to work” banner on LinkedIn?

The “open to work” banner on LinkedIn. Even the most optimistic candidates feel a little hint of trepidation when they activate it and a sense of relief when they can take it down after securing a new role. But is it even necessary? Some commentators, such as former Google recruiter Nolan Church argue that the banner is a big “red flag” because the “best people” are almost never actively looking for jobs. Others contend that there is no shame in it and that it provides a useful signal for recruiters.

So should we all play it cool and not reveal we’re on the market? That depends on what sort of job you are targeting. While Google has the employer brand and money necessary to headhunt some of the most skilled talent in the industry, that may not be the case for your future employer. If you are just starting out in your career or if you want to work at a smaller SME rather than a global multinational, there should be no stigma attached to the fact that you are between jobs and the banner shows employers that they won't be wasting their time by contacting you. And if you are an insanely successful, high-flying executive constantly being harangued with lucrative job offers, my guess is that you wouldn’t have used the banner anyway.

But regardless of whether you activate the banner or not, it is far more important to fully flesh out your profile with a description of your previous positions with emphasis on keywords, accomplishments and skills in each role, and that you engage credibly in conversations in your industry. For more information on how to do all of that (and it’s easier than it sounds) check out my Job Hunting Course.

🚨 Sign up now to take advantage of my limited launch offer and get CHF 50 off with the discount code NL50.🚨

🤪 Tubi Ad Campaign urges Brits to ditch Shakespeare for streaming

😂 British people love to point out that Americans just don’t get their humor. From Monty Python to Peep Show, some things just don’t seem to travel well across the Atlantic. So it is to the credit of US-based streaming service Tubi that it has commissioned an ad that captures its spirit. Poking fun at Brits pretending to enjoy high-brow cultural pursuits like theater and fine art for the cultural prestige, it implores them to quit the act and watch Tubi instead. The ads capture a key feature of British comedy: the social awkwardness of trying and failing to conform to social mores.

Rochester-Bern: Getting creative to lure top talent

💬 Last month, I joined alumni of the Rochester-Bern Executive Programs to discuss how companies can attract talent in a tight labor market. The expectations and values of employees are changing rapidly, so employer brands need to evolve faster than ever before. I explored strategies that companies can use to attract and retain talent in this environment. I was also interested to hear the insights of Benjamin Schlup, Managing Partner at IT services firm itopia ag and Rochester-Bern alumnus, on how technology is shaping the market.

🇪🇸 Unity in victory as Spain triumph at Euros

In an election year of much talk and little evidence of unity, it was great to see the power of sport to truly bring people together on Sunday as a fresh, dynamic and diverse Spanish team triumphed at the Euros. Who could not be charmed by Lamine Yamal fulfilling everyone's childhood dreams at the tender age of 17? As a Spaniard, I am biased of course, but I think most neutrals would agree that the final proved to be a victory for football — a triumph of beauty and teamwork over celebrity and individualism and a good example of the power of authentic leadership by Luis de la Fuente. ⚽️