California Lutheran University hosted an event called AI in the Workplace: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities on Thursday, Oct. 10 in the Lundring Events Center.ย
Vlad Vaiman, the associate dean and professor for the School of Management, was a keynote speaker for the event and spoke on the importance of applying AI to our everyday lives and utilizing it as a tool.ย
โSo this year, weโre talking about application or applications in plural of artificial intelligence tools, in navigating challenges and embracing opportunities of using artificial intelligence in the workplace,โ Vaiman said.ย
Vaiman said he wanted to have a variety of speakers at the event representing their industry and providing valuable information relating to AI.ย
โWe wanted to invite people from different industries right and even in our panel. Our keynote speaker is from the defense industry or actually, software company that is a defense contractor. Pretty much everything they do is for the department of defense,โ Vaiman said.ย
Vaiman said there were attendees from a range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, financial services, tech manufacturing, and public agencies. Additionally, Vaiman shared that the highest-ranked civilian in the Port Hueneme, Point Mugu Navy Base, was in attendance.ย ย
โThereโs still going to be conversation about talent management and workforce management in general so the main thing remains the same. Itโs still about workforce management, itโs still about people, it’s still about management in general right, how to manage this change,โ Vaiman said.
Vaiman said he believes that AI systems like Chat GPT have already begun to make an impact within the world of higher education.ย ย
โSo the best known generative AI tool, Chat GPT, has really been released only two years ago. This is the second year in a row when weโre going to talk about the involvement of this gen-AI technology and its applicability to different industries including higher education,โ Vaiman said.ย
Vaiman said the increased use of AI has led to more interest, as well as confusion.
โSo, this is something that people are interested in because there are still more questions than answers,โ Vaiman said. โSince this technology is so young, and itโs on one hand but on the other hand itโs evolving so fast that people have a tremendous level of interest and again, people have questions, we also have questions.โ
Rosie Baker, communications coordinator for the School of Management, helped orchestrate the event. Baker said AI can be a helpful tool for professors and it is being utilized to help students learn.ย
โI think professors need to embrace AI and include it as a tool to help support learning. Like everyone else, I’m not sure what the future is for higher education and AI, but it’s not going anywhere and will keep developing rapidly,โ Baker said.ย
Baker said she was able to take away new perspectives from the speakers at the event.ย
โI liked them all and their different perspectives/experiences. I think the conversation they shared on resumes was really interestingโ how AI can be used to help write the resume to match the job description but also be used on the HR side to screen,โ Baker said.ย
Bagrat Minasian, Deputy Technical Director of Business at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, was in attendance for the AI event.
โIโm here to see what others in the area are doing, community engagement, get some lessons learned, what people are doing when it comes to talent management and to be able to adopt some of that for our organization as well,โ Minasian said.ย
Minasian said it is important for panelists, like himself, to adopt some of the knowledge learned here, for the benefit of their industries.ย
โSo, seeing we have some great speakers today representing their organizations, what they do and as we see some of those best practices that they have that differ maybe from what we’re utilizing, weโll be able to have that partnership and engagement with those organizations potentially,โ Minasian said.
