Like most things in life, the hardest part of AI is getting started. In March, we shared a blog post on two reasons every returner should be using AI. As a former returner and current Path Forward board member, I thought it would be helpful to share how I started incorporating AI into my daily life more tactically.
Job searching.
During a recent search, a friend introduced me to Jack from jackandjill.ai and I kid you not, it changed the whole process for me. I had a 20-minute intro call with Jack (my first ever full on convo with an AI agent) that felt very natural and helped me crystallize what was important to me in a new company and role. From there, Jack scoured the web, bringing potential matches to me every week – opportunities that I wasn’t seeing on LinkedIn. I gave it plenty of feedback and the results kept getting better. The biggest leverage I got from Jack though, was using it as an interview coach. Jack helped me reframe how I was communicating my stories, value, and impact. Of course, I was still using my discretion, but having that perspective at my fingertips was really helpful.
Learning in community.
I know that I learn best by collaborating with others (in other words, I am not so great with completely self-paced courses or YouTube videos), so I joined a membership-based nonprofit called Women Defining AI. What I love about it is the combination of bite-sized learning modules and a community I can turn to for questions, feedback, and brainstorming along the way. I can find people to work on projects with that often have nothing to do with “work.” Some of the most interesting projects are about how we can decrease our mental load via a menu planning app, planning summer tetris, or a custom job search agent (before I discovered jackandjill.ai). Most importantly, Women Defining AI has really opened my eyes to the viewpoint that building intuition and confidence around how to use AI is really the foundation for technology that is only going to keep evolving.
Asking my kids for advice.
My 9 year old son vibe coded a video game (using his voice, not even through typing – what!?). So when I had an idea to build a simple website, I knew exactly who to ask for guidance. It was great practice for him to walk someone through it, and gave me a behind the scenes look at what goes into a real life build. I continue to keep an eye on how he’s doing things because he has a fresh perspective on all of this – and yes, now you will find our whole family whispering into our laptops. If you want to give it a try but don’t have a deep understanding of the inner workings, check out resources like Lovable and Replit.
I’ll wrap by sharing that most of this is not coming easily for me. I am learning a completely new domain, and as someone who likes to understand what’s going on beneath the hood, I have a lot of questions which take time to dig into. I feel a range of emotions from frustration to delight. And I have to remind myself to check my own expectations – AI can do a lot, but it’s not all happening at the snap of my fingers.
I remember writing cards to my kids that said “if you can dream it, you can build it.” Now it’s time to follow my own advice. And you should too. If you’ve been thinking about building something with AI or feeling some feels about getting started, I hope this can be a little nudge. Think of something in your life that is creating pain or an unnecessary load, and see if AI can be a tool to help you solve it. The learning will be worth it and you’ll see pathways to building a new kind of intuition – something caregivers are already so good at.
This blog was written by Neema Bollampally, former returner and current board member at Path Forward.