Why Know how do to something when you can just "prompt" it....
I've been a spreadsheet user for years. Yes, they are not always the best but it's a powerful tool where data comes to life. Now the pipeline I keep hearing about "prompting". It boils down to "Hey AI make a spreadsheet of all this random data and add this and that", click the button and that's it. But do you actually KNOW what data you are asking to be pulled apart and smooshed together? What its headers are? The final outcome? Can you READ the data?
The loss of knowledge of how to pivot, read, and understand what you're looking at will be devastating. In my now almost 10 years in corporate, loss of knowledge is more damning than I think people realize. How do you understand what you are looking at? How do you know its genuine? How do you make an SOP or know when one should be needed? What are the risks and pitfalls per what the data is telling us?
AI takes that knowledge all away, and you're just left hoping the AI is correct. But in my head, how do we know it is? How can we trust it? What happens when whatever AI company we license goes bankrupt? What will happen to that information? What happens in a massive data breach? Is the data even safe on these platforms?
It feels like people are chasing but not asking enough questions. This mad, almost crazed, marathon to a finish line that means we don't have the ability to do stuff without a box babysitting us. My little spreadsheet helps me make lists, figure out my budget, have a starting point for personal projects, etc. Its a tool I use all the time.
Call me old fashioned, but I like learning how to do stuff overtime.