(please tell me you get the title)

I know I said this about multiple days but today was my favorite of the trip. We visited Microsoft and ThinkHouse. Oh my gosh, I was so impressed by Microsoft. The people were REAL. They were funny, honest, and so insightful! I can tell just by walking around the buildings, the culture of Microsoft is much different than any other companies we have seen. I believe atmosphere, attitude, leadership are the top three drivers in company culture. Microsoft had it all (can you tell what my favorite site visit was yet?).

Atmosphere/how a building is set up: open to encourage collaboration, colorful but sophisticated decorations to make the place look welcoming but professional; vs cold, sterile cubicles and bare walls. Microsoft had rooms but mostly was open space. Differing from Google, Microsoft had all the great amenities, but it was clear that was a second thought as the wellness center or the gym wasn’t at the center of the building. The one woman, Linda, said “I am out of work at 4:30pm and no one questions it because I have a life!!” I loved that she said that because at Google it seemed like they didn’t want you to leave the office.

Attitude would look like how the professionals interacted with us and with each other. At Google, it wasn’t work focused and the chemistry between the speaker were lacking and scripted (you could kind of tell they didn’t know each other well). At Microsoft, they were honest about the workload, giving us real advice and being relatable, and joked around with each other. In fact, Microsoft was the first company that interacted with us and walked in our group rather than in front of it as we looked around the office.

Lastly, leadership. Both speakers at Microsoft spoke highly of their CEO and knew so much about him as a person rather than a successful businessman. This gave me the impression that leadership is more than just delegating and those in higher level management strive for connections with their employees.

After visiting both companies, we talked a lot about AI and how that effects the work place. At Microsoft, they are fully leaning into the AI software with the creation of Copilot (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7xTBa93TX8 …STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WATCH THE TEASER. It is so good). Copilot is basically your virtual assistant, summarizing calls, meeting notes, putting together presentations, making large quantities of data more digestible, etc… As for ThinkHouse, they shared a really great quote with us: “You wont loose your job to AI, you will loose it to someone who knows how to use AI.” This inspired me to start looking into the fundamentals of AI courses Microsoft offers.

Overall, I think AI is going to be such a big help in the workplace if used correctly. However, we must be conscious of using it to interact with clients and coworkers as those interactions should be genuine. I am all for AI but it is important to stay curious and continue to learn the ‘why’ behind things. Use AI as a tool, but don’t replace your own knowledge and ideas!!

So sad this trip is coming to an end. But, after blogging everyday I want to start blogging in my normal life haha I love it. See you tomorrow for a guest speaker and group presentations!

ME IN THE TRANQUILITY POD AT MICROSOFT

^^nappin

warm welcome at ThinkHouse!!!!