UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Industry experts recently gathered at the "Explore the Future of Work with Generative AI" panel at Penn State's Business Building to share how AI is changing business and advise Smeal College of Business students on how to prepare for its use in their career.
The panel discussion focused on the real-world applications and implications of AI, informing students who want to work in business.
More than 100 students listened from the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Atrium in the Business Building as the five panelists participated in the conversation moderated by Corey Phelps, the John and Karen Arnold Dean of the Penn State Smeal College of Business.
The panelists included:
- Linda Pulli, executive director of supply chain management at Merck
- Bill Wolfe, senior manager of global assurance innovation in blockchain at Ernst and Young
- Shivani Tailor, director of the Global Commercial Technology & Innovation Office at PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Alice Liu, senior consultant at Deloitte
- PJ Formica, senior manager of the Department of Professional Practice in U.S. Software Audit Tools at KPMG
These professionals work in a range of fields and shared how they utilized generative AI in their day-to-day lives. Students were able to learn more about the advantages of AI and how to navigate ethical issues surrounding the technology.
How AI is being used in business
Formica works with AI projects at KPMG such as Agentspace, Prompt Library approvals and custom AI agents, among others. He advised students on how to get ahead of AI and use it to their advantage in their career.
“Your only advantage is to embrace it,” Formica said. “Anytime there is a new role of technology in our day-to-day lives, the people who end up succeeding or setting themselves apart … are people that are adapting and really embracing the technology.”
In every role, generative AI can be used a bit differently, Liu said.
Liu explained how she uses data analytics and AI in her role every day. She is spearheading a computer-visioning AI project, which will change the way healthcare systems within Deloitte monitor their inventory.
“I’m currently working on implementing AI in any possible setting. So, I'm actually interacting with AI every single day, but in a different way,” Liu said. “But, then the other half of my days, I have to implement AI into business sense.”
Pulli works at Merck in risk management. She monitors supplier risk monitoring platforms and is integrating internal AI into the business.
“I actually have a custom GPT that I created for our team called ‘Lion,’” she said.
Formica said using AI can introduce efficiencies into every-day duties.
“It's going to change the way we do our jobs on a daily basis," Formica said. "How can you use it to shave hours from your day and give yourself time back?”
How to leverage AI
As the industry professionals talked about how they used AI for a range of tasks like organizational needs or automating processes, they discussed the time-saving element of AI.
Wolfe said he looks out for emerging technologies for EY and is currently working on initiatives with AI and blockchain integration. He said that AI is currently at the level of and being used like “a very skilled intern.”
Liu said she uses AI when it comes to automation, allowing her to retain data-analyzing skills while still making her workload lighter.
“You can show you have a skill set of understanding data and summarizing it in a very nice way and identifying opportunities for automation,” she said.
Tailor continued about leveraging AI to work in conjunction with skills. In her role at PwC, she strategizes, operates, governs and delivers AI programs with AI tools in order to boost productivity.
“Take your own notes and use it to prepare. You can figure out the skill set of how to use AI to synthesize everything to create some more impact with your stakeholders,” Tailor said.
What to consider with AI
As the panelists stressed that AI could save time on certain tasks, they also raised concerns about potential ethical issues.
“Tell the students not to use Gen AI to create shortcuts,” Tailor said. “This is the one time in your life where you have a dedicated environment. You have dedicated resources and dedicated time. Take advantage of that.”
Pulli discussed how AI cannot be used for everything. She emphasized using professional skepticism.
“We have to exercise extreme security over the outputs,” Pulli said. “There are certain areas where you can't use AI at the firm, and we make sure that all of our employees go through a very detailed training on it before they even get access.”
“The ownership is ultimately on the person using the tool,” according to Formica.
As the panelists discussed the different factors of integrating technology and AI into the business world, Phelps shared details on how Smeal will be integrating AI in the future.
He characterized three buckets to AI integration in higher education — AI literacy, providing technology and governance.
"We know not everyone is in the same place with AI. Some are eager early adopters; others are just starting to explore, and that’s okay," said Phelps. "Our approach will be inclusive and supportive — making sure everyone, wherever they’re starting from, has the resources, training and community they need to build confidence and capability."
As businesses and higher education integrate AI into their everyday lives and long-term professional skills, Tailor urged students to look toward the future by continuing to talk about AI.
“I think the conversation around using AI ethically is going to become greater and greater over time as the tools and [large language models] improve,” Tailor said. “But, as users, we have to do our due diligence to make sure that we're using it in the ways that we should be. And, that's a little bit of trust.”