We’re deeply underestimating young professionals

When I entered the workforce 30 years ago as a junior analyst with General Electric, I was shocked by how many accountants still preferred printing calculators and columnar pads over screens and Excel spreadsheets. Even at one of the world’s largest and most valuable companies, some of the brightest financial minds were doing complex calculations by hand. Putting aside how much this anecdote dates me, my first thought was, “But why…?” My second was a lightbulb moment: Digital tools like Microsoft’s productivity software were skills to master, as well as my superpower in a highly demanding workplace. The superpower for today’s graduates is AI. Today’s workforce is the least AI-fluent it will ever be. Every successive wave of graduates will be more AI native than the ones before. This means our most adept AI talent are interns and entry-level associates just starting their careers. I’m constantly humbled watching my own teenagers and our greenest employees at Twilio. Their speed. Their efficiency. Their adaptability. They’re unsatisfied with “Because that’s how we’ve always done it.” They challenge assumptions and question processes. They reimagine workflows the rest of us have long…