Ireland has continued to impress me over and over again. Today may stand out substantially amongst the rest of the days as we got to go to Microsoft and then also to the THINKHOUSE headquarters.  The way that I look at Microsoft will never be the same and that Is an extremely great thing. I didn’t know what to expect in going into Microsoft but once there, my eyes were opened to the way the company operates, who the workers are, and the work life balance Microsoft employees are able to have blown my mind.

First of all, it’s important to note that this new Open AI company is owned 49% by Microsoft. These employees are using and implementing AI into the workplace, and I do believe that they are about 5 to 10 years ahead of the rest of the companies in the globe besides companies like Meta and Google.  With the new rollout of Copilot for Microsoft Office platforms the way papers are written, presentations are made, and coding is done is in the process of a permanent change.

Companies like Google in Microsoft are having their employees use utilize AI to draft emails, right up financial reports, and code using AI which will take the place of hundreds of jobs. The work will also be able to be done in a fraction of the time.

Another really important thing to note as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs is that companies are going to start looking more towards people with significant soft skills. This is because the tedious work of the actual jobs is always so specialized in the fact that most of the time what you learn in college actually you won’t even use it in the workplace. This is going to allow for people from colleges like the University of Pittsburgh to be able to work at companies like Google, Microsoft and meta which previously were only targeted by Ivy League colleges like Harvard and Yale.

Education is really just to show personal drive self-motivation and dedication to certain projects while allowing you to begin to develop some of your soft skills in many aspects.  Another thing to note is that companies are going to begin looking for employees that have AI certifications and knowledge of how to use AI rather than to develop it. 20 years ago, to be an intermediate or senior financial analyst you really just needed to know how to use Microsoft Excel and have some soft skills.  In about 5 to 10 years of time for these same rules you will need to know how to use AI, have great soft skills, and have the ability to learn quickly on the spot.

This amazing cutting-edge technology allows for companies like Microsoft and Google to have such amazing culture because these people with these amazing soft skills are all coming to one place and are able to communicate at such a high level. This allows for them to get stuff done so efficiently that their work life balance seems to be amazing. The company’s culture is everything and I do have to say after visiting Microsoft and Google these two companies seem to stand out amongst all of the rest. What creates the company culture is the people that work there in the way that the people work there manage the people below them as well as their time and work life balance in my opinion.

Again, I’m making a prediction that within 10 years’ time the main hard skill companies are going to be looking for is the ability to utilize and understand AI platforms as they are going to have the ability to do the roles of each job.  So, the time to start learning is now.

Of the five companies that I had the opportunity of visiting I would still have to say that Google and Microsoft are my favorites. Many people fear that because of such good amenities like a pole, mini golf course, gym, five-star chefs etc. that the employees will do nothing but work. I personally think that this is false. All because they have the opportunity to have these amenities doesn’t mean that they have to live in the office. After speaking with a few of their workers they have a great work life balance and after putting in their set number of weekly hours they have the ability to go home like everyone else.  With having great self-control, I feel that I would excel in this space and the fact that I would not overwork myself because I’d know when enough is enough as I learned this at a young age doing masonry. This is one of the skills that will be needed in the upcoming future, as other companies follow their paths.

One final thing to note though is that even companies like THINKHOUSE are beginning to prepare to utilize AI, create AI teams and incorporate it into the business.

The featured image in this post is from right outside of one of the main Microsoft buildings here in Dublin.  The first image attached below is from the rooftop lounge in this same Microsoft building. The second attached photo is from inside of THINKHOUSE’s headquarters.