Question: I’ve been resisting using AI in my work life, but it feels like I’m missing the boat. How can I use AI to gain a competitive advantage at work instead of fearing it?

We asked Sarah Stockdale, founder and CEO, Growclass, to tackle this one:

If you’re even thinking about this and contemplating how to use AI in your work, it means you’re already ahead of the game. Women are 20 per cent less likely than men to use ChatGPT at work in the same occupation.

If you are new to AI, there is a tool called LMArena. It allows you to put in a prompt and it will have two different large language models give you results. You choose which result you like the best, then it reveals what tools you were using, so maybe ChatGPT versus Claude. It’s mostly used by AI researchers, but if you’re getting to know the tools, it’s a fun way to try them and get a sense of what outputs you like and what aligns best with how you think and write. Perplexity also allows you to access a bunch of the different models.

Then, I would start building things. Use tools like Dify or Lovable to start patching things together. As long as you’re not putting proprietary data in or opening up your company to risk, you can play around. Don’t immediately jump in to try to build things for work. Build yourself a little scheduler or a personal dashboard for the day. Let it be low stakes. My friend Avery built something for her teenage daughter that tells her if she needs to wear a coat that day or not. You don’t need to know how to code and a lot of these tools are really user-friendly and beginner-friendly.

At Growclass, we are working with The Forum and Camp Tech to build something called AI Skills Lab Canada. Camp Tech has the Early AI Adoption Lab, which is for folks very early in their tech journey. We also have the AI Strategy and Operations Lab, which is for founders and leadership practitioners who are a bit further in and are figuring out how to integrate AI into their workplaces in ways that feel value-aligned and ethical. We’re specifically working with women business owners because that’s where there is a gap in adoption.

The longer you wait and the more you build it up in your head, the more challenging it’s going to feel. Learning anything is kind of like doing the splits: You just have to do it every day. It’s going be painful the first couple of times and then three weeks later you’re going to be able to do the splits. It’s the same with using these tools. The stretching is going to a bit painful but that means that you’re learning, and we should do that as adults more. Lean into that curiosity.

No degree? No problem. Employers look beyond resumes as education becomes less important in hiring

Wealthsimple Technologies Inc., one of Toronto’s top-ranked employers, is taking education out of consideration when hiring a new batch of interns.

Last month, the online financial services provider announced a year-long paid internship for recent high school graduates called Launchpad. Rather than requesting resumes and cover letters, the company is instead selecting six finalists based on video responses to three questions.

“We want people that are curious, that have grit, that want to learn, that have a growth mindset and ask ‘why,’ ” says Diana McLachlan, the company’s chief people officer.

Paying for a nanny adds up but has its benefits

Jennifer Couldrey, an Etobicoke, Ont., mom of two, hired a nanny for childcare and some household tasks so she could return to work earlier and still spend quality time with her baby and toddler son.

She and her husband have discussed the cost savings they’d get from putting their kids in daycare – if they were able to find spots at a subsidized care centre – but for them, time is money.

“Instead of looking at our nanny as an expense, we look at it as if we are buying back our time. We are buying happiness,” Ms. Couldrey says.

How cutting down on meetings and ‘intentional serendipity’ can improve your team’s cohesion

“Everyone is saying remote work is creating this loneliness epidemic. I say it’s time poverty that is creating the loneliness epidemic,” says Jennifer Moss, co-founder of the Work Better Institute and author of Why Are We Here? “A 2023 survey by Slack found that more than two hours a day in meetings starts to decrease productivity.”

She adds: “There are ways to slowly build morale. Maybe it’s 20 minutes once a week of having lunch together. Great research out of Cornell University found that employees having lunch together changed retention, improved well-being and decreased safety risks.”