AI in Sustainability
Upskilling, human skills and job hunting in the AI world.
Upskilling in the AI World
AI is a much simpler tool than many people make it out to be. You don't need to be hugely technical or a computer scientist to use it effectively. The first step is learning how to prompt AI; don’t use tools such as Claude and ChatGPT like search engines. Spend some time using AI on a piece of work and refine your prompts until you get an output worth using. There are also many excellent guides out there for free from people who use these models every day. Find a video series you like or, even better, go straight to the people who make them. If you want to learn how to use Claude, for example, take Anthropic's (the company that makes Claude) free prompt engineering guide on their website.
Once you've got the basics down, apply it to something sustainability specific, find a project online or ask AI for ideas. It doesn't have to be something huge; be realistic with your time, and do something that you could talk about in an interview that shows your interest and experience (however brief it may be).
Skills that won't be replaced by AI
AI is great but it can't replace everything, especially the soft skills that often make people valuable in sustainability. Skills such as systems thinking, communication, stakeholder navigation are all exceptionally important in the sector. Whilst AI can help you improve these skills, you can't make an AI model do the pitch in your next meeting or effectively communicate with your next client. These are inherent human skills that will only become more important as AI improves and takes over more and more tasks that don't require these soft skills.
Job Hunting in the age of AI
Be fluent in AI, don't fight it.
Use AI in the job search, use it to tailor applications and pick out important details from job descriptions. Obviously still read through everything yourself.
Set up a project and ask the AI to be an expert in the area you're applying to then run your CV/application through that project with actual criticism.