As many of you know, this week was Small Business Week. I had the opportunity to attend an excellent webinar presented by the BC Chamber of Commerce. I am not ashamed to admit that I am an early adopter of new technologies, but with a healthy dose of distrust and skepticism. This webinar had a perfect balance of both.

Above is a screenshot of one of the slides from the webinar that had me startled, where one presenter, Dr. Andrew Gemino, shows the results of a Goldman Sachs study of the professions most likely to be disrupted by AI. To my shock, Social Services placed sixth with the probability of 33% to impact jobs. I hate to propagate the results of a study from a non-academic source, but even if it is partially true, it’s startling. If you are interested in AI and this webinar, you can access it here.

The disruption to services we saw during the pandemic is something ASPECT studied through our Competency of Career Development Practitioners for Virtual Services project published last year. The quick rise of ChatGPT since its release on November 30, 2022, and the AI tools developed since could have serious repercussions for career development services. Likely, you already know this in your practice.

Thinking about what the future might hold makes my brain hurt. That’s why when I saw that the “Brain Guy,” Terry Small, offered a session called Thinking for a Change - Preparing Your Mind & Brain for Disruption & Uncertainty, I jumped to invite him to speak at the ASPECT Conference. We welcomed Terry in 2020 to our virtual conference, but he comes alive in a large room as he walks through the audience. For those unable to attend the conference, we will share the presentation slides and information after the event on our website.

It feels like the AI theme is emerging everywhere in my life, and yesterday, I stumbled upon a social media post from our friends at EngagedHR. They posted a video from the Disrupt HR Victoria conference yesterday, where AI created and presented a presentation with some human help. Click here for the video link. As much as I’m an early adopter of such new technologies, I feel like I’ve gone down a rabbit hole. Rest assured, as I learn new things that could disrupt employment services, I will share them with you all. It is an exciting time but also a time to exercise skepticism.

Full disclosure, I used Grammarly.com to check my spelling and grammar and used ChatGPT to check if this report makes sense.

Janet Morris-Reade, CEO