Equipping Tomorrow's Workforce with Lydia Logan on Education and AI at IBM

Lydia Logan is the Vice President of Global Education and Workforce Development, Corporate Social Responsibility at IBM, where she leads IBM's community and university skilling initiatives that create more inclusive and effective schools and workforces. Her programs help fulfill IBM’s pledges to skill 30 million people worldwide by 2030, and to train two million learners in AI through 2026, particularly those from historically underresourced, underserved, and underrepresented communities.

She also develops and manages strategic global partnerships with IBM's clients, non-profit organizations, government, and content and curriculum developers that relate to education and career readiness.

For this role, she applies her decades of leadership and programmatic expertise in the realms of philanthropy, education, public policy, and economic development. These experiences inform the strategic development and execution of acclaimed global career readiness programs, particularly IBM SkillsBuild.  

Prior to IBM, Lydia successfully spearheaded education initiatives while serving in senior leadership roles at Verizon, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and Kimsey Foundation.

In addition, she was VP and executive director of the Institute for a Competitive Workforce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where she led national policy and program initiatives to improve education and workforce development.

Earlier in her career, she led Chiefs for Change, a national membership organization of Chief State School Officers.

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Transcript

Alexander Sarlin: 0:04

Welcome to Season Eight of Edtech Insiders where we speak to educators, founders, investors, thought leaders and the industry experts who are shaping the global education technology industry. Every week we bring you the week in edtech. important updates from the Edtech field, including news about core technologies and issues we know will influence the sector like artificial intelligence, extended reality, education, politics, and more. We also conduct in depth interviews with a wide variety of Edtech thought leaders and bring you insights and conversations from ed tech conferences all around the world. Remember to subscribe, follow and tell your ed tech friends about the podcast and to check out the Edtech Insiders substack newsletter. Thanks for being part of the Edtech Insiders community enjoy the show. Lydia Logan is the Vice President of Global Education and Workforce Development and corporate social responsibility at IBM where she leads IBM's community and university skilling initiatives to create more inclusive and effective schools and workforces her programs help fulfill IBM's pledges to skill 30 million people worldwide by 2030. And to train 2 million learners in AI through 2026 particularly those from historically under resourced, underserved and underrepresented communities. She also develops and manages strategic global partnerships with IBM has clients, nonprofit organizations, government and content and curriculum developers that relate to education and career readiness. For this role. She applies decades of leadership and programmatic experience from philanthropy, education, public policy, and economic development. These experiences inform the strategic development and execution of acclaimed global career readiness programs, particularly IBM skills build prior to IBM, Lydia successfully spearheaded education initiatives, while serving in senior leadership roles at Verizon, the Eli and Edith Brode Foundation and the Kinsey Foundation. In addition, she was VP and executive director of the Institute for a competitive workforce at the US Chamber of Commerce. And earlier in her career, she led chiefs for change and national membership organization of Chief State School Officers. Lydia Logan, welcome to Tech insiders.

Lydia Logan: 2:26

Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

Alexander Sarlin: 2:29

I'm really excited to talk to you about all things career and education. Let's start with a little bit of your background, you've worked with the Broad Foundation, Verizon, the US Chamber of Commerce, and now you're at IBM developing global partnerships for education and career readiness. Tell us a little bit about your journey in edtech, and upskilling. And what attracted you to this field?

Lydia Logan: 2:50

Sure, I started out, working with nonprofit organizations creating opportunities for people. And I was an English literature major. So I've always loved education. My family is steeped in people with long careers of helping others and providing opportunity, whether that's through, you know, law, medicine, education, my grandmother was a great inspiration to me and always said, you know, knowledge is the one thing you can't take away from people. Early on, I developed a love of computers and ended up working for a nonprofit called the urban Technology Center, where they were putting computer centers in this was the late 90s. And I ended up working for a man named Jim Kimsey, who was the founding CEO of AOL. And we worked to put computer centers across Washington, DC, and form partnerships to provide technology access. So that really brought together for me education, access to technology, and opportunity. And I've really stuck with that theme through my whole career ever since. From there, I went to the chamber, did it on a national scale, and went to Brode, worked on policies, and worked with chiefs or change did at the state level. So I've been doing this for my whole career sort of marrying quality education, the promise that technology brings for students, looking at teachers looking at state standards, looking at you know, what are the how do we take technology and marry it with education to provide equity and quality education for all. So this role that I have now doing it on a global scale really brings together what I've been doing for the last 2025 years.

Alexander Sarlin: 4:48

That's really amazing. And you've you know, been at the forefront of initiatives, as you say, at all levels to upskill a lot of different populations but particularly populations underrepresented in STEM and careers. Tell us a little bit about some of these programs. And you know, personally, I'd love to hear a success story or two, it always helps to just understand what the individual stories look like for somebody who got the kind of workforce opportunity through one of your programs.

Lydia Logan: 5:16

Sure, well, skills build is our signature program at IBM. And it's a global program, we offer it in up to 20 languages. We have partners from around the world. So we have organizations in the US like the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. And through them we reach people like Oscar Ramirez, his family immigrated to the US from Mexico. And they came here for for better opportunity. He was looking for ways to increase the credentials that he had, he found skills build through HHF and started earning some of our IBM digital credentials on cybersecurity and AI, and was able to ultimately get a role in one of those positions, because he was able to then take those digital credentials and distinguish himself for lawyers. So those are the kinds of people that we are really interested in reaching, we're, it's free and available to anyone. So if you go to skills build.org, you can create an account and start learning for free. We have partner organizations, because they can provide additional support to learners. So organizations that work with neurodivergent people like Specialisterne a foundation. In India, we work with organizations like CSR box, and edgy net, we've got partners in countries around the world. But, you know, we really are providing an opportunity for people to explore and then earn credentials that will help them with employers and set them on a path if that's what they're interested in to gain access to the tech sector. We also have learning that's really just workplace relevant. So design thinking and collaboration and presentation skills. That's regardless of what whether you're interested in the tech sector or not. Those are skills we think everyone needs to excel, we've married the two on skills building, and made them all available for

Alexander Sarlin: 7:23

free to museum. And that's really the promise of education, technology, right to be able to provide low cost, high quality education, to people all over the world, especially those who need it most. It's really exciting. And you know, IBM is not a place that sets small goals. And it sets very ambitious goals. And it recently set a goal to upskill 30 million people globally by the end of this decade by 2030. So that's a big goal that tell us a little bit about that goal and how the skills Bill program is contributing to those targets. What are you doing to reach those 30 million? That's a lot of people?

Lydia Logan: 7:58

Absolutely, well, we're looking at the changes that we see in the workforce, right, not everyone has the opportunity to earn a degree. We obviously IBM is at the forefront of research. So we hire people who have degrees and advanced degrees. But many people don't have a degree or may start one and not finish. And that doesn't mean they don't have their talents to offer to the workforce. And that's where credentials really come in. And to be able to reach people at scale programs like skills build a really relevant we work with the World Economic Forum and skills build has been recognized. It just was released today in the white paper that they released as a skills first lighthouse having impact. We need to as a sector, not just the tech sector. But when we think about edtech what are all the ways that we can reach people who need to be able to stay up with work trends, right AI in the workplace, and becoming more efficient, and using the human skills that are specific to people, things about, you know, collaboration and teamwork and creativity and problem solving, and using technology to do things that are routine, or to crunch large amounts of data quickly. And to do that analysis, marry those things together and make sure people understand how to work alongside AI. I may be getting ahead of myself. But if you think about people who are not necessarily getting degrees or may have a degree and want to switch sectors or have had to get off of their degree path for one reason or another right, there are many reasons why people don't have a degree or don't have to one. Our viewpoint is it shouldn't stop you from a having meaningful family sustaining wage jobs and no credential. path should stop you from going back and earning a degree later if that's what you choose to do. So for instance, our apprenticeship programs at IBM, we've got 13, apprenticeship job roles recognized by the Department of Labor. They've been reviewed by the American Council of Education. Our cybersecurity apprenticeship comes with, I think it's around 30 recommended credits. And we work with those apprentices to earn what they need what we would expect from IBM to design that program. But also, we wanted to work with the Department of Labor, we want people who go through that program to be able to work anywhere, and that's a recognized program. And if they choose to go back and earn a degree, they haven't opted out of a degree pathway just because they chose an apprenticeship. Right? It isn't an either or it can be a both and, and that's the same thing we should be thinking about with credentials. We work with 1000s of universities around the world, many of them we're working with now we have 20 HBCU partners we work on with cybersecurity centers, they are integrating skills, built credentials into degree pathways, it's doing several things, it's making sure students have credential so they graduate, not just with a degree but with a portfolio of relevant credentials to the industry. But if a student doesn't graduate, for whatever reason, they're not leaving college with nothing, right, they're still leaving with a portfolio of industry relevant credentials, they can still get a job, they can still share what they know, other than just a transcript of a collection of courses they've taken. And I think these are the trends that we're seeing are blending of higher ed. And credential portfolios learn, you know, when we talk about le ers and the learner employment records, it's really a portfolio. It's not just a transcript,

Alexander Sarlin: 12:05

that trend of the degrees and you know, what they sometimes call alternative credentials, or micro credentials, industry relevant coming together and being offered to both degree students, you know, students in traditional higher ed, or as you say, starting with the micro credentials, and being able to stack them or move some of that into a degree pathway is one of the most exciting pieces of education for me in the entire world. I am so excited about there being more pathways to you know, successful careers. And as you say, because the dropout rate is so high, especially at community colleges, it is incredibly important that people are earning credentials on the way and that it isn't this binary all or nothing experience. So I am really applaud all of these initiatives. You know, I wanted to dig a little deeper in some of the collaboration, you've mentioned a number of different partnerships already partnerships in India HBCUs, you know, lots of different partnerships. One of the things that I think as a sector come to realize over time is that when you put online education and make it available, some segment of the population can do that without any support or help, they just are motivated enough, there's a job on the other side of it, or there's lots of reasons why they may be able to succeed, but it's a small segment that can do it only on their own. You need a lot of supports of various times to really get a lot of people like the 30 million you're looking forward to over the hump. They sometimes call these you know, wraparound services, can you elaborate a little on some of the strategic partnerships IBM has developed and what types of services they provide on top of the, you know, the content and the training that really make it more likely that the learners will succeed?

Lydia Logan: 13:52

Sure. So what you mentioned is exactly the reason why we are not exclusively a B to C model. Because the people we want to reach need more. There are many people we want to reach who are able to do it all on their own, they have a computer already, or some sort of a tablet, they're able to log in, create an account, do asynchronous, self guided learning, drive through to the end of a course earn the credential and keep going and for those people, fantastic. We want them to come and you know, work with skills, build and do all that they can for people who need more. The partner organizations we select, have those additional services and that's why we work through partners they know the community's best there on the ground. They often have hybrid on you know, online and in person learning they may have coaches they may be offering other job skills, other life skills, other kinds of services. In some cases they may offer are on site childcare, all the things that people need in order to be successful learning, we're also looking at how do we incorporate AI into skills build. So it may just be reminding people, hey, you've made success and you're progressing through a course, but you haven't logged on in a while, come back and keep learning, you're doing great, right? As long as people have opted in, so that we can contact them, we'd love to give them those reminders in those nudges that encourage them to keep going. Sometimes that can be done, you know, through AI, but sometimes it really needs to be a human touch. And partners are able to do that, you know, we work with the Strada collaborative, and many of the organizations that are part of that to help some of our partners learn about coaching. So there are capacity building initiatives that we have for our partners to help them think about coaching learners. And then we select partners who really understand already what it is the populations they serve need, and how to reach them best. Were able to marry skills, build with their offerings, and really get the best of both worlds. Yeah,

Alexander Sarlin: 16:15

such important work. And I'm sure it's very different based on the communities and based on the circumstances that you mentioned, you know, child care, or it might be certain coaches that are on the ground, live synchronous, there's a lot of different options for these additional services. But it's really exciting that IBM is not only providing the core content and the sort of relationships, but also that capacity building for those organizations because they also need help. I recently saw Paul LeBlanc, sort of give some one of his sort of changing roles right now from Southern New Hampshire University. And he mentioned that real person coaching and mentoring as like the special sauce that has made that you know, mega university work. And it is so important to have, you know, real people in some situations, but also nudges and AI can push people over the hump at some points, too. So it's really the combination, I think we're all working on the right combination of skills. But it sounds like IBM has done a really good job of thinking about how to put them together with their partners. We

Lydia Logan: 17:13

have a global network of IBM volunteers. And they also participate in supporting learners. So they are able to sign up to have one on one sessions with or one to many sessions. With learners on skills build, they do things like resume review, or coaching session, they record career stories, you know, how did they get to where they are at IBM, and tell their stories, and so they provide inspiration, they provide support. So in addition to what we do through partners, we have our IBM errs volunteering to provide support also. So we really have tried to bring our technology, our talent, and our partners all to bear on making learners successful. Yeah,

Alexander Sarlin: 18:04

it's a really exciting world to think about. And you mentioned IBM skills built as sort of a core initiative. And we're sort of in this interesting age of skills of, you know, upskilling reskilling skills based hiring, and all of these sorts of trends have become really ubiquitous, at least in what people talk about in education circles. And I think it's relevant because skills are not something that you normally associated with traditional universities, right? People don't say, I went to college to get skills that doesn't go together. But it's something that is obviously so important in the workplace and so important for corporations, can you just tell us in our listeners about this age of skills that we're in, and you've been in this for quite a while? How should we think about this world of skills? And what are some of the choices available for learners for skill development?

Lydia Logan: 18:53

Sure, if you think about it, we are all lifelong learners. And we have had to be lifelong learners in order to stay relevant in our roles, or if we've decided to switch we've had to learn new things. And I can say for sure, right, technology has transformed the way we work and live. Well. There were no smartphones, there were no tablets. When I graduated from college, I had I had a Mac. So you have to keep learning and you have to learn new ways of doing things the degree you earn. I've heard reports that, you know, it's good for maybe three years and the foundational skills that you learn, you will always need to upskill yourself. And if you think about describing what you know, in terms of skills, and not just in terms of degrees. That shift is really what we're seeing. And people are acknowledging now that the skills that you have, acquire and practice are what employers are looking For we and our other employer, peers are starting to post jobs with skills listed not just degrees listed, right. So IBM, for example, has eliminated the four year degree requirement from 50% of our US job postings. And it's done a lot it has opened up the applicant pool, that pool has become broader and more diverse. It has meant we have hired people who ordinarily wouldn't have been considered because they wouldn't have been in the pool in the first place. And it has changed the way that we've approached hiring. So our HR department has worked really hard with hiring managers, to get us all trained to think about what is it that you're really looking for in a job? What does the job really entail? And we have a lot of processes that help us to write job descriptions, those are reviewed, you have to actively check a box that says this job needs work does require a degree rather than an opt out, it's an opt in, and it's really something that's come from the top down. So I know a lot of people have said to me, you know, how do we get started on this skills first journey as a company. For us, it's been a CEOs said talent is everywhere, opportunity is not and we will seek talent wherever we can get it. And it's a company wide responsibility. We have our skills build program for years, we have supported, you know, the development and expansion of P TECH. And those are pathways programs to opportunity. One was effort through corporate social, much smaller and and skills built allows us to reach millions of people at scale. Through our HR department, we've got, you know, internships and apprenticeships and things for IBM errs and people coming into IBM. Through our policy team and Government Affairs. We have a skills first policy coalition, looking at the policies that we need in the US and in other countries that support skills, first, development and hiring. And then we have consulting, looking at, you know, how do you share digital credentials in ways that are secure and verifiable so that this new skills first environment can work for individuals, we've taken it on as a end to end effort. But there are ways that companies can start anywhere, or individuals can start anywhere they can, you know, they can take courses from us for free. And I'd say don't pay for something you can get for free, we offer it for free, many of our peers have free options. So that would be my first piece of advice, don't pay for something you can get in high quality for free. The other is, if you're a company, think about what you can do to get started, whether that's an apprenticeship program, whether it is eliminating a four year degree requirement, we have handbooks that we developed with employer groups that are available that we're happy to share. I know that the US Chamber has worked that we participate in, you know, we're happy to work with people on there are ways to get started. You don't have to take the comprehensive IBM approach to do it.

Alexander Sarlin: 23:26

Yeah, but IBM has been an enormous leader in this sort of Age of skills and and skills first development. It's a really, really interesting to hear you talk about all the different initiatives and how they come together. And one that you've mentioned a couple of times, but I think it's really important to IBM story is these micro credentials. IBM has been a pioneer in using micro credentials in a wide variety of fields. You mentioned cybersecurity is one of the big ones. But it is a wide array of skills that are taught on skills build that have credentials associated with them. IBM has 33 Coursera courses, it made a micro bachelor's degree in cloud development with edX, I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about this micro credential world. You mentioned how it can work in collaboration with degrees or as a substitute partially or as a pathway. But give us a little bit of your take on sort of the power of microcredentials because it's something that some people just absolutely swear by. But there has been also research that sometimes it's hard for hiring managers to know what to make of them. How do you see microcredentials changing education? Sure,

Lydia Logan: 24:34

I think as the cost of a college degree rises, it's going to be I think the market pressure will shift. It's happening now. Right? So people are earning digital credentials, micro credentials, they're going through stacks. We're getting to a place where the sector is starting to Define what quality credentials look like, what have you learned? How do you apply it? You know, in our case, we also have project based learning associated with most of our credentials. So it's not just the knowledge, it's the skills and the abilities. And you have something that where you can demonstrate what you have learned. IBM has the full pathway. So everything from getting started courses, the early end, that you can get on skills, build for free, and then all the way up through our product education, most of that the learning is free. And then the certifications, there's a fee that comes with that. So we have long pathways that lead to either other credentials, we have alignment with, well, I mentioned the courses we have on Coursera. And individuals can do that we have partnerships that are through CSR subsidized for some of those who are partners. So we really have tried to take our opportunities and make sure that for people who can't afford those and who are in opportunity communities, we can make those available. And for others, they're still getting access to IBM's, high quality content on Coursera. The shifts that we're seeing in the market are, again, not the degrees will be irrelevant. They're blending. That's certainly happening. Hiring managers are looking at what are the credentials that are relevant? What are the brands that represent quality? IBM certainly is one, there are some others out there. How can you show what you've learned? And I think that's another one right? We have issues with taxonomy, right, everybody calling sort of the same thing, something different. I think ultimately, that will get worked out. That's where we all have some work to do. And we talk about that at the global level at these World Economic Forum and UNESCO meetings. But I think it country levels, those things are starting to get smoothed out. But the movement is happening. And it's getting forced, partially because there are jobs that are available. There are shifts happening in the marketplace. With AI coming people need new skills, quickly to be able to understand how to use AI and incorporate it into the job they have or the job they want. And this cost of higher ed right. There are forces that are convening, I would say that are going to force the acceptance of credentials in a way that hasn't happened before.

Alexander Sarlin: 27:36

Yes, I happen to completely agree with that. Just personally, we've talked on this podcast about declining enrollments in higher ed, we've talked about politicization of higher end, which is causing a lot of people to not seek traditional degrees. There's a huge skills gaps in many different fields. So there's a lot of, as you say, convening forces that I think are changing the atmosphere, it's really, really interesting. You know, I think a lot of people associate this type of skills, training, or skills building with pure technical skills. You know, we've mentioned cloud development and cybersecurity and, you know, AI, but you mentioned in passing that, you know, design thinking and critical thinking, conflict resolution time management, you didn't mention all of those, but these sorts of professional workplace skills, sometimes they're called durable skills. I'd love to know a little bit more about how IBM approaches that, you know, training for the durable skills, because it's something that I think sometimes gets lost in the conversation. When we talk about a big technology company teaching technology, there's a lot of other things happening as well.

Lydia Logan: 28:39

Sure. If you think about design thinking that is, in the simplest terms, how do you start with the end in mind and plan backwards from the end to the beginning, and then the beginning to the end. And it's the process by which you would do that? Every project manager, but every person who does work can benefit from that kind of thinking. Now, there are people who facilitate these processes at a much higher level. But Design Thinking in and of itself is a some people say it's a stem mindset. But it is something that everyone can benefit from learning. And it's something that IBM does all the time. We offer Design Thinking in multiple levels through training at IBM and starting on skills build. Presentation skills are another one everyone needs to know we have content that we developed with Adobe and we learned Connecticut there are districts in Connecticut that are using it for their high school students aligned to their state standards, because they can marry public speaking and presentation skills with things their students need to know we you know, they learned about it picked it up in ran with it. And students are earning in high school, they're earning these credentials that are helping them get summer internships. So there are skills that everyone needs and can use, that we felt were really important to be available. So yes, while IBM's it's, you know, I think about it, like our Letterman top 10 list, we've got security, and cyber and AI and cloud, all of the things you would associate with IBM. But then these durable skills are also really important. And as the technology continues to advance, and a lot of it may become automated, it is even more important that you have those durable skills, because those may be the differentiating factor. I often say you get hired because you have the technical skills, but what keeps you in a job are the durable skills.

Alexander Sarlin: 30:56

Yeah, we talked to somebody recently who is an ex McKinsey consultant. And he said that, you know, McKinsey consultants spend most of their time, you know, researching and making presentation decks. And that's exactly the type of work that's going to be automated. So in the end of the day, what they might be doing is presenting those decks and that is the presentation skills or working with clients to actually implement them and listening and thinking and doing design thinking sessions. So yeah, it's just a funny example of exactly that kind of differentiation of automatable and human skills. I wanted to get into one thing you mentioned earlier, in terms of some of your partnerships and some of your credentials, which is that mentorship is a huge asset for learners, especially those who are still, you know, finding their career pathway or are trying to figure out what to learn. Next, I'd love to hear you talk about sort of the role that mentors have played in some of these IBM skills initiatives, whether it be for durable skills, or technical skills.

Lydia Logan: 31:56

Sure. And mentorship looks different at different age groups. And for obvious reasons. Some of it is online safety for certain age groups. And we want to make sure Different countries have different rules about who can be online, one on one together, that kind of thing. So what we have done is to make available IBM errs, to talk to our learners and to say, you know, we can help you we can help you think about what is it like to be an engineer, what is it like to work in cybersecurity, what is it like to do certain things, I think, you know, we often forget that everyone knows a doctor, whether you had someone in your family who was a doctor or not you went to the doctor, you understand what they do. You understand what a plumber does, you understand what certain roles are to a certain extent, you've seen it, and you could have that aspiration. If you don't know an engineer, it may be very hard for you to think that's something that I want to be if you don't know anyone in cybersecurity, you may not really understand what it is or why it's important to you. So we have an understanding gap for some learners. And then we also have a representation gap, which is most people don't think of the cybersecurity expert, being a young black woman. And I say that specifically because when I was at Hampton University on a panel, the student who stood up and was the president of the cybersecurity student group, said, she went for an interview, a job interview, she had great grades, she's president of the group, and she got there, and the interviewer said, Oh, we weren't expecting you. She also clearly they were not expecting a young black woman to be the person who showed up for the interview. It was a little bit disheartening to her. But also she said she had not until she met our national cyber director, who was a black woman formerly at Microsoft didn't know other black women in cybersecurity. And so there's a C at Viet gap right of how do you know you want to do that if you don't know anyone who looks like you or anyone at all? Who does it? And that's where our volunteers can come in. So we have women who work in AI who can talk about what it's like to work on autonomous vehicles and the AI that's used there or, you know, different you know, without giving up any kind of secure information, but they can talk about the work that they do and how relevant it is to people and our lives and how exciting it is. and why people might want to go into those careers, and why they should stick with it, and what courses they took, and what they think, you know, what kinds of things they think are really important to learn. So it adds some context and some color and personalization to the learning. That is beyond anything we could put in writing or even, you know, in other ways into the content

Alexander Sarlin: 35:26

that see it be it gap is so huge for so many different people. And it's really interesting to hear you talk about that type of mentorship. I think, you know, I've talked to so many people who decided what they wanted to do for a career because they met, you know, one person who had that career. And that person made such an impression that it sort of just changed the trajectory of their life. It is like a very common story. And I think that it makes sense to, or, you know, people based things on their parents or fields, they're exposed to like medicine or education. But it's really very, very interesting to hear you talk about the value of mentorship for representation, as well as for support in a variety of different ways. And that's a, it's really huge. So I want to talk about AI because IBM has been a pioneer in AI for a very long time. IBM, deep blue and the Watson systems have been the brand names of AI for decades. And, you know, we're in this amazing AI moment, AI could be creating an entirely new skills gap, as you've sort of mentioned, or it might be an amazing equalizer. I'm hoping this, that part is true that will allow a lot of people to enter technical fields without having to have a huge amount of technical training, because it's sort of everybody is evened out when it comes to this new AI world. In addition to the 30 million people that IBM is committed to training globally, there, IBM is publicly committed to training 2 million people specifically in artificial intelligence over just the next three years. And of course, with a focus on underrepresented communities in tech, tell us about how you and IBM think about AI skills and how you're willing to do AI training at that scale. Sure,

Lydia Logan: 37:10

well, again, it's partnerships right with our university partners, with our nonprofit partners with our government partners, we have a partnership. For instance, with the Department of Veterans Affairs in the US, we train transitioning veterans, we've been working with them on cybersecurity. But now AI is also available to them. We have added courses to skills build like build your own chat bot and Python for machine learning and AI fundamentals, including generative AI master the art of prompting AI ethics, we have IBM errs publishing and talking about the importance of secure and ethical and transparent and trustworthy AI, people need to understand not only how to use it, but where they need to be cautious. So making sure that you are not feeding your personal information, your home address your bank account information, your social security number into these models, unless you know that it's secure and where it's being stored and how it might be used because it can pop up somewhere else. So on the one hand, I think we're going to see great efficiencies in the workplace, we already are seeing that the ability to summarize large documents quickly the ability to analyze data quickly. So we're able to transform the way people work and create efficiencies, that then frees them up to do the things that are creative, and innovative, and collaborative, that cannot be automated. So you know, students are very excited about doing this kind of work and taking technology and applying it. We're working with universities to use our AI to use Watson X and create these new capstone classes, and create new models and things like that. So we'll have more to talk about in the coming months. But it is transformative. It's transformative in in learning and working and how we live. You know, I was talking to someone the other day and I said, I was hosting the after party for my high school reunion, one of these models and I said high school reunion party, three hours music playlist, and I had a list, you know, seconds way I would have spent hours trying to come up with the perfect list. So it's a lifestyle change and it's also a word change. So it is just like smartphones. We have seen the change in our lives with technology. This is the most recent technological advance that has come I'm into the hands of people, right? We've been using AI for business or research for decades that the shift is that now it's on your phone. Right? It's just like before we had personal computers, they were $2,000. And the price dropped in the hands of people, they were not in school, they were in computer centers, then we went to one to one, you were the Internet became was for the military, then it became available to everyone. It went from costing$16 a month to being free. And that really was available to everyone. It changed the way we worked in the way that we live. This is now what we're seeing with AI. It was largely for business and for research. Now, everyone is using it. And that transformation is happening. And it's happening right now.

Alexander Sarlin: 40:48

I agreed. I think it's a very thorough explanation of all the changes I've never heard it referred to as a lifestyle change. And I think that's a really poignant way to look at it. I've heard the internet, you know, comparison, the smartphone comparison is terrific. But the idea that it's going to change just our everyday life, how we think about solving problems, how we think about, you know, getting tasks done, like your playlist, I've already started to, you know, to embrace some of those tools, and you're just starting to see it in the classroom a lot more. So we're coming on the end of our interview, and I want to ask you the two questions that we close every ed tech insiders episode with? I have a feeling I know what the first answer may be. But I may be surprised. What is the most exciting trend that you see in the education technology landscape right now that our listeners should keep an eye on. And ideally, this is something that's sort of rising, that's coming that something is going to change in the future?

Lydia Logan: 41:45

I think it's free, high quality education that anyone can access from anywhere, right? I've been talking about skills build, I'll say it one more time, it's offered in up to 20 languages. It's right, it's around the world. Anyone can use it. And the intent is to make high quality content and credentials available for people to get started. We did a survey last year with morning consult and found people did not they felt technology education was too expensive. When asked if they were interested in careers in tech, they said yes, but they didn't know where to start, or they thought it wasn't for them. And so our answer to that is it's for you, you can start with us. And it's free.

Alexander Sarlin: 42:31

And I think the 20 languages is a really important aspect of that. I know that Coursera just announced 4000 courses in Hindi. And that is something that they had never done before. But I'm sure that is enhanced through AI, I think AI is going to make all of this amazing, free education that is already out there free or low cost education, even more universal by doing translations, and ideally, also things like differentiation and remediation, support, and you know, tutoring. So it's a really exciting moment for that trend. I'm excited to hear you say that that was not what I expected you to say. And I love that answer. What is one resource that you would recommend to our listeners who want to dive deeper into the topics that we discussed today, it could be one or more resources? Sure. Well,

Lydia Logan: 43:16

we've got some great publications from IBM, and we'll make sure to include those links for you. I also will say my good friend, John Bailey, and I follow him. So I'm just gonna give him a shout out. I feel like John is like a quiet guru, maybe maybe not that quiet, but he always has great tips. And recently, he posted on LinkedIn the summary of a paper on, you know, great prompt trading, and it had a cheat sheet. And I would say to anyone who hasn't looked at the cheat sheet on MLMs, take a look at it, we'll make sure it's a PDF. We'll post that for you also. Obviously, I'm gonna give one more plug, use the IBM skills build course. But take a look at that cheat sheet. It is a great thing to just download, have it on your desktop and refer to it when you want to make sure you're getting the good answers to a prompt to get exactly what it is because it's a garbage in garbage out kind of thing. A bad prompt is going to give you a bad answer a great prompt is gonna get you a great answer. So when you're using large language models with AI, it's all about the quality of the prompt. Another resource we'll make sure to include is from our work with the Business Roundtable on apprenticeships, we've got a great playbook that people can take a look at when you think about trends and making sure that we're watching what's coming. The tools competition that Schmidt futures and the learning agency have been running for the past few years. I've been a judge and a collaborator. They're really doing a fantastic job of finding the innovators around the world who are looking at how we use technology to improve quality education at scale for people everywhere. And that competition is running now. And we'll have some really exciting new innovations to share when that comes to an end. So as a trend, that's one to watch. We

Alexander Sarlin: 45:15

will put a link to all of these resources in the shownotes for that episode, for those of you who may want to Google who have been convinced that they need this sheet on their desktop, if they wanted to google it, this is actually a paper that John Bailey posted called principled instructions are all you need for questioning llama, one and two or GPT 3.5 or four, and it was published right at the end of last year, just a few weeks ago. So yes, really excellent resource. I'm going to print this one out right after our call. Thank you so much, Lydia, Logan, IBM is doing incredible work. And you lead the global partnerships, community University skilling initiatives all over the world. 30 million people, IBM skills, build all sorts of amazing things. Thank you so much for being here with us on edtech insiders.

Lydia Logan: 46:03

Thank you so much for having me. It's been fantastic. I look forward to talking more soon.

Alexander Sarlin: 46:08

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