FOUNDATIONS
AI leaders began with Foundations courses. They audited our tech stack, digital presence, and our identities. Each of these lessons provided clarity on how we are perceived and how to bridge the gap between what we show and how we want to be seen. The tech stack highlighted which technologies are currently used in your day-to-day life and where your expertise lies within those platforms. Below, you can see the "tech-stack" I created with the coach on Plato.
Foundations also provided insight into measuring personalized impact. I created a Google Sheet that measures four KPIs and includes a brief description of how I am going to utilize it. This example was based on a sample situation that could've occurred at my current job.
AI LEADERSHIP
In the AI Leadership courses, we were given lessons designed to familiarize us with implementing AI across a variety of workflows and scenarios. These scenarios included Agentic AI, human-in-the-loop, and ideation, to name a few.
This prompted me to think through and analyze how agentic AI can be implemented into my architecture studio workflow. But in delegating some work to AI, we were also prompted to consider ethics and how to ensure we use AI ethically in ways that felt right to each individual.
My analysis of agentic AI workflow — used to understand how to apply iterative constraints and material thinking to my design process.
I found Claude through my AI Leaders course, as many of my peers talked about it. Upon reading through their contributions, I learned that Claude is particularly good at assessing images. I struggle with iteration in my architectural studio process. I didn’t have a system to help me gain clarity as I worked through these iterations. I would create 15 iterations, show them to my peers, and later have to figure out how to move forward. This process wasted a lot of my time.
Upon scoring my iterations, Claude helped narrow down the strongest iteration and provided evidence based on the provided constraints. Rather than asking my peers for feedback and creating unnecessary iterations, Claude helped me move forward with confidence.
WORDPRESS
The third set of courses centered on building our WordPress site — our final portfolio. They introduced us to Open Source, giving us a foundation and the tools to keep learning. That discussion also showed us how professionals make a living through Open Source, which led us to research AI roles and job openings at firms. That research shaped our portfolio's outline and layout, while the courses themselves helped soft launch the site's content and styling.
The image on the left shows how Plato guided me in creating a content plan and determining where each artifact will live.
SUCCESS SKILLS
The final course of AI Leaders provided preparation for real-life job negotiations and different workplace scenarios. This provided insight into how to handle workplace conflicts, tell stories clearly and concisely, and expand your network.
Each of these lessons provided prompts or scenarios that guided you to think about them in a professional sense, whether that is negotiation or conflict resolution.
To the left is an image of Plato's response to the script I created, along with a reflection listed below.
This is a script that the AI leaders - Success Skills 4 - Storytelling & Presenting guided me to create in order to pitch myself to a potential future recruiter for a firm. This lesson was insightful about how best to position and demonstrate my skills authentically to show the value I can provide. I'm a project associate who identifies workflow bottlenecks and implements AI tools to automate routine tasks, freeing architects to focus on design and solutions. Iterations always took up too much of my time, and by the time I had my design down, I was out of time to build a decent model that represented my long hours of iteration. Upon taking an AI leadership course, I realized there were better ways to iterate and ensure my design stayed on track with the prompt I was given. I used Claude to score a few of my iterations against a criterion I set, giving me a solid iteration to move forward with. Using Claude helped me realize that I could've managed my time better if I had set a criterion to put my iterations up against. This would've allowed me to spend more time on my model and presentation board, as these are ultimately graded. Design and iterations are typically what take the longest, but I believe AI can be a tool that gives the team a "second" set of eyes on a design, helping them move forward and see what is landing and what isn't. The workforce should be focused on creating human-centered design rather than endless iterations, confusion about how to move forward, and missed deadlines.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
AI Leaders is a series of courses tailored to each individual's field of work. These courses provide real insight into AI, the possibilities, and how to document your work to showcase it. This website, and many of my peers, are proof that AI is a versatile tool that can be applied to many industries and can be used for tasks beyond generating emails and proofreading.