Let’s Build Something Better. Together.
With the rise of AI, it’s understandable that many people feel uncertain. Will this technology change my role? Will it eliminate jobs? What will work even look like five years from now?
But maybe the more powerful question is: What new possibilities are we unlocking?
What if AI isn’t something to fear, but something that helps us build new kinds of relationships at work? Relationships that cross generational lines, challenge old assumptions, and invite fresh ideas.
I recently caught up with a friend who consults with companies undergoing digital transformation. She told me about a company in the Bay Area that had brought in 15-year-old interns to help rethink some of their core workflows.
These weren’t just summer interns answering phones or shadowing employees. These students were using AI to automate repetitive tasks, speed up internal paperwork, and suggest entirely new approaches to work that had remained unchanged for years.
And it wasn’t just the tech that made it powerful. It was the collaboration.
The professionals contributed business context, institutional knowledge, and an understanding of what had already been tried. The students brought curiosity, a comfort with experimentation, and a willingness to ask questions that others might overlook. AI sat in the middle, streamlining the tedious, surfacing insights, and giving everyone more space to think creatively.
The result wasn’t replacement. It was reinvention. Faster workflows. Less wasted time. A shared sense of possibility.
That combination worked because it brought together different strengths:
Professionals offer hard-earned experience and strategic thinking.
Youth bring adaptability, imagination, and a habit of questioning the status quo.
AI connects the dots by removing friction, freeing up time, and enabling new ways of working.
Together, they accomplished something that none of them could have done alone.
And that’s what’s been sitting with me. The way we frame AI and generational change often centers on fear. Fear of loss. Fear of obsolescence. Fear of being left behind. But fear closes doors. Collaboration opens them.
What if, instead of asking how AI will take our jobs, we ask: How can we use AI to take back our time?
To focus on the work we actually care about?
To bring new voices into conversations that have gone stale?
What if we stopped seeing young people as unqualified and started seeing them as untapped partners, ready to build the future with us?
That conversation sparked an idea I can’t stop thinking about.
What if there were a program that brought these pieces together on purpose?
A space where students could work alongside professionals, applying AI to real problems. Not just learning, but contributing.
A program where companies could sponsor this kind of collaboration. Not for charity or PR. Because it works.
A way to stop talking about the future of work and start co-creating it.
Because AI does not reduce the value of experience. It amplifies it, especially when paired with imagination. And young people are not too inexperienced to help. They are just waiting for someone to take their ideas seriously.
The future of work will not be built by one generation alone. It will be shaped by those willing to listen, collaborate, and reimagine. Together.
