Bellebuono’s story isn’t unique. A recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported the widest unemployment gap between new graduates and experienced degree holders since the 1990s.
The struggle to find work
The unemployment gap is partly due to the increase in competition and changing employer expectations, said David Deming, professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Skill requirements for entry-level roles are higher today than a decade ago, he said. But the change has been gradual from year to year.
Key question: What business results do you expect from your microlearning strategy?
Why it’s valuable: Clear, measurable outcomes create a foundation for alignment and accountability.
Purpose
Key question: Why does this microlearning initiative exist?
Why it’s valuable: L&D needs to know if they are solving a specific problem, supporting a broader strategy, or providing foundational knowledge.
Potential
Key question: What opportunities exist if the purpose is actualized?
Why it’s valuable: This helps to put into focus the measurable outcomes or if it is a true need for L&D to address.
Evaluation
Key question: How will you measure success?
Why it’s valuable: Defining metrics that track learner progress and link to business impact ensures that the design of these pieces is part of the overall solution and implementation plan.
…and more
By focusing on short-term wins, auditing for gaps, and planning strategically, L&D leaders can create initiatives that deliver meaningful, sustained results.
An entire HR team was terminated after their manager discovered and confirmed that their system automatically rejected all candidates — including his own application.
The manager wrote in their comment, “Auto rejection systems from HR make me angry.” They explained that while searching for a new employee, their HR department could not find a single qualified candidate in three months. As expected, the suspicious manager decided to investigate.
“I created myself a new email and sent them a modified version of my CV with a fake name to see what was going on with the process,” they wrote. “And guess what, I got auto-rejected. HR didn’t even look at my CV.”
When the manager reported the issue to upper management, “half of the HR department was fired in the following weeks.” A typographical error with significant consequences caused the entire problem.
The manager works in the tech industry and was trying to hire developers. However, HR had set up the system to search for developers with expertise in the wrong development software and one that no longer exists.
From DSC: Back in 2017, I had survived several rounds of layoffs at the then Calvin College (now Calvin University) but I didn’t survive the layoff of 12 people in the spring of 2017. I hadn’t needed to interview for a new job in quite a while. So boy, did I get a wake-up call with discovering that Applicant Tracking Systems existed and could be tough to get past. (Also, the old-school job replacement firm that Calvin hired wasn’t much help in dealing with them either.)
I didn’t like these ATSs then, and I still have my concerns about them now. The above article points out that my concerns were/are at least somewhat founded. And if you take the entire day to research and apply for a position — only to get an instant reply back from the ATS — it’s very frustrating and discouraging.
Plus the ATSs may not pick up on nuances. An experienced human being might be able to see that a candidate’s skills are highly relevant and/or transferable to the position that they’re hiring for.
Networking is key of course. But not everyone has been taught about networking and not everyone gets past the ATS to get their resume viewed by a pair of human eyes. HR, IT, and any other relevant groups here need to be very careful with programming their ATSs.
This November 2024 guidebook offers higher education practitioners actionable strategies for building and sustaining partnerships that both meet regional needs and support students, families, and communities. This work was based on the design and delivery of dual enrollment pathways as part of the Lab’s Designers in Residence 2.0: Accelerating Pathways project.
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The practices and case studies shared here are informed by higher education leaders across six community colleges as part of the Lab’s Designers in Residence program.
We have organized the guidebook based on core elements of a strong partnerships strategy, alongside how to establish a strong foundation and sustain and maintain the partnerships you’ve built. Through our research, we’ve identified four key elements of strong partnerships:
+ Communication and collaboration
+ Shared vision
+ Adaptive and responsive
+ Action-oriented
You will find guiding questions, tools, and case studies within each of the four elements. .
While “polarization” was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2024, we have some early frontrunners for 2025 — especially when it comes to higher education. Change. Agility. Uncertainty. Flexibility. As we take a deep dive into the trends on tap for higher education in the coming year, it’s important to note that, with an incoming administration who has vowed to shake things up, the current postsecondary system could be turned on its head. With that in mind, we wade into our yearly look at the topics and trends that will be making headlines — and making waves — in the year ahead.
Top AI Tools of 2024 — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer (behind a paywall) Which AI tools stood out for me in 2024? My list.
Memorable AI Tools of 2024
Catergories included:
Useful
Popular
Captures the zeighest of AI product innovation
Fun to try
Personally satisfying
NotebookLM
Perplexity
Claude
…
New “best” AI tool? Really? — from theneurondaily.com by Noah and Grant
PLUS: A free workaround to the “best” new AI…
What is Google’s Deep Research tool, and is it really “the best” AI research tool out there? … Here’s how it works: Think of Deep Research as a research team that can simultaneously analyze 50+ websites, compile findings, and create comprehensive reports—complete with citations.
Unlike asking ChatGPT to research for you, Deep Research shows you its research plan before executing, letting you edit the approach to get exactly what you need.
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It’s currently free for the first month (though it’ll eventually be $20/month) when bundled with Gemini Advanced. Then again, Perplexity is always free…just saying.
We couldn’t just take J-Cal’s word for it, so we rounded up some other takes:
Our take: We then compared Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and Deep Research (which we’re calling DR, or “The Docta” for short) on robot capabilities from CES revealed:
An excerpt from today’s Morning Edition from Bloomberg
Global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years—a net 3% of the workforce—as AI takes on more tasks, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey. Back, middle office and operations are most at risk. A reminder that Citi said last year that AI is likely to replace more jobs in banking than in any other sector. JPMorgan had a more optimistic view (from an employee perspective, at any rate), saying its AI rollout has augmented, not replaced, jobs so far.
Professionals are navigating rapid change, and staying ahead of the curve is no easy feat. Recent LinkedIn research shows that 64% of workers feel overwhelmed by the pace of workplace shifts, from navigating AI to managing multi-generational teams. At the same time, U.S. workers’ confidence in their job securityis the lowest it’s been since the start of the pandemic.
But as the workplace continues to evolve, new opportunities arise. That’s exactly what our annual Jobs on the Rise list uncovers — the fastest-growing jobs over the past three years and the trends defining the future of work. From the rise of AI roles to the resurgence in travel and hospitality positions, the 2025 ranking highlights sectors with sustainable growth in today’s changing workforce. (You can read more about our methodology at the bottom of this article.)
The list is a roadmap that can point you in the right direction at any stage of your career. Under each job title, you can explore the most common skills, top hiring regions, remote and hybrid availability and more. And you can turn those insights into action by exploring open roles, honing your skills through LinkedIn Learning courses (free for all members until Feb. 15) or joining the conversation in the collaborative article for each featured role.
With this mind, Thomson Reuters and Lexpert hosted a panel featuring law firm leaders and industry experts discussing the challenges and trends around the use of generative AI in the legal profession.?Below are insights from an engaging and informative discussion.
Sections included:
Lawyers are excited to implement generative AI solutions
Angelo added, “We really doubled down on AI because it was just so new — not just to the legal industry, but to the world.” Under his leadership, Buchanan’s efforts to embrace AI have garnered significant attention, earning the firm recognition as one of the “Best of the Best for Generative AI” in the 2024 BTI “Leading Edge Law Firms” survey.
This acknowledgment reflects more than ambition; it highlights the firm’s ability to translate innovative ideas into actionable results. By focusing on collaboration and leveraging technology to address client demands, Buchanan has set a benchmark for what is possible in legal technology innovation.
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The collective team followed these essential steps for app development:
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, has introduced transformative potential to legal practice. For in-house counsel, managing legal risk while driving operational efficiency increasingly involves navigating AI’s opportunities and challenges. While AI offers remarkable tools for automation and data-driven decision-making, it is essential to approach these tools as complementary to human judgment, not replacements. Effective AI adoption requires balancing its efficiencies with a commitment to ethical, nuanced legal practice.
In other words, individual learning leaders need to obtain information from surveys and studies that are directly useful in their curriculum planning. This article attempts, in these early days, to provide some specific guidelines for AI curriculum planning in enterprise organizations.
The two reports identified in the first paragraph help to answer an important question. What can enterprise L&D teams do to improve AI fluency in their organizations?
The Importance of Building a ‘Change Muscle’ The ability to test and learn, pivot quickly, and embrace change is an increasingly foundational skill that all employees, no matter the level of experience or seniority, need in 2025 and beyond. Adaptable organizations significantly outperform more change-averse peers on nearly every metric, ranging from revenue growth to employee engagement. In other words, having agility and adaptability embedded in your culture pays dividends. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they represent distinct yet interconnected aspects of organizational success:
Agility refers to the ability to swiftly and efficiently respond to immediate challenges or opportunities. It’s about being nimble and proactive, making quick decisions, and adjusting to navigate short-term obstacles.
Adaptability is a broader concept that encompasses the capacity to evolve and thrive in the face of long-term shifts in the environment. It’s about being resilient and flexible by modifying strategies and structures to align with fundamental changes in the market or industry.
And a quick comment from DSC:
Agility and adaptability are key skills/orientations/expectations that we need to help our K-16 students build. Changes can happen quickly, as those of us who worked several decades can attest to.
Employees’ skills and abilities must match the skills and abilities required for their jobs; when they do, organizational performance and productivity improve.
Skills gaps occur when there are mismatches between employees’ skills and capabilities and the skills and capabilities needed for their work. As technology and work become more complex, identifying and correcting skills gaps become essential to optimizing employee performance.
This article discusses various methods involving skills inference and predictive analytics in addition to traditional methods to pinpoint and prevent skills gaps.
Another year, another opportunity to bring microlearning into your performance and talent development strategy! This is especially appealing as more and more organizations strive to deliver training in ways that meet the fast-paced needs of their employees.
However, implementing a microlearning strategy that aligns with organizational outcomes and sustains performance is no small feat. Learning and Development (L&D) leaders often grapple with questions like: Where do we start; How do we ensure our efforts are effective; and What factors should we evaluate?
The Microlearning Effectiveness (MLE) Framework offers a practical approach to addressing these challenges. Instead of rigid rules, the framework acts as a guide, encouraging leaders to evaluate their efforts against six key components:
NVIDIA’s Apple moment?! — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman and Grant Harvey PLUS: How to level up your AI workflows for 2025…
NVIDIA wants to put an AI supercomputer on your desk (and it only costs $3,000). … And last night at CES 2025, Jensen Huang announced phase two of this plan: Project DIGITS, a $3K personal AI supercomputer that runs 200B parameter models from your desk. Guess we now know why Apple recently developed an NVIDIA allergy…
… But NVIDIA doesn’t just want its “Apple PC moment”… it also wants its OpenAI moment. NVIDIA also announced Cosmos, a platform for building physical AI (think: robots and self-driving cars)—which Jensen Huang calls “the ChatGPT moment for robotics.”
NVIDIA is bringing AI from the cloud to personal devices and enterprises, covering all computing needs from developers to ordinary users.
At CES 2025, which opened this morning, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivered a milestone keynote speech, revealing the future of AI and computing. From the core token concept of generative AI to the launch of the new Blackwell architecture GPU, and the AI-driven digital future, this speech will profoundly impact the entire industry from a cross-disciplinary perspective.
From DSC: I’m posting this next item (involving Samsung) as it relates to how TVs continue to change within our living rooms. AI is finding its way into our TVs…the ramifications of this remain to be seen.
The Rundown: Samsung revealed its new “AI for All” tagline at CES 2025, introducing a comprehensive suite of new AI features and products across its entire ecosystem — including new AI-powered TVs, appliances, PCs, and more.
The details:
Vision AI brings features like real-time translation, the ability to adapt to user preferences, AI upscaling, and instant content summaries to Samsung TVs.
Several of Samsung’s new Smart TVs will also have Microsoft Copilot built in, while also teasing a potential AI partnership with Google.
Samsung also announced the new line of Galaxy Book5 AI PCs, with new capabilities like AI-powered search and photo editing.
AI is also being infused into Samsung’s laundry appliances, art frames, home security equipment, and other devices within its SmartThings ecosystem.
Why it matters: Samsung’s web of products are getting the AI treatment — and we’re about to be surrounded by AI-infused appliances in every aspect of our lives. The edge will be the ability to sync it all together under one central hub, which could position Samsung as the go-to for the inevitable transition from smart to AI-powered homes.
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“Samsung sees TVs not as one-directional devices for passive consumption but as interactive, intelligent partners that adapt to your needs,” said SW Yong, President and Head of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “With Samsung Vision AI, we’re reimagining what screens can do, connecting entertainment, personalization, and lifestyle solutions into one seamless experience to simplify your life.” — from Samsung
The following framework I offer for defining, understanding, and preparing for agentic AI blends foundational work in computer science with insights from cognitive psychology and speculative philosophy. Each of the seven levels represents a step-change in technology, capability, and autonomy. The framework expresses increasing opportunities to innovate, thrive, and transform in a data-fueled and AI-driven digital economy.
The Rise of AI Agents and Data-Driven Decisions — from devprojournal.com by Mike Monocello Fueled by generative AI and machine learning advancements, we’re witnessing a paradigm shift in how businesses operate and make decisions.
AI Agents Enhance Generative AI’s Impact Burley Kawasaki, Global VP of Product Marketing and Strategy at Creatio, predicts a significant leap forward in generative AI. “In 2025, AI agents will take generative AI to the next level by moving beyond content creation to active participation in daily business operations,” he says. “These agents, capable of partial or full autonomy, will handle tasks like scheduling, lead qualification, and customer follow-ups, seamlessly integrating into workflows. Rather than replacing generative AI, they will enhance its utility by transforming insights into immediate, actionable outcomes.”
Everyone’s talking about the potential of AI agents in 2025 (and don’t get me wrong, it’s really significant), but there’s a crucial detail that keeps getting overlooked: the gap between current capabilities and practical reliability.
Here’s the reality check that most predictions miss: AI agents currently operate at about 80% accuracy (according to Microsoft’s AI CEO). Sounds impressive, right? But here’s the thing – for businesses and users to actually trust these systems with meaningful tasks, we need 99% reliability. That’s not just a 19% gap – it’s the difference between an interesting tech demo and a business-critical tool.
This matters because it completely changes how we should think about AI agents in 2025. While major players like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are pouring billions into development, they’re all facing the same fundamental challenge – making them work reliably enough that you can actually trust them with your business processes.
Think about it this way: Would you trust an assistant who gets things wrong 20% of the time? Probably not. But would you trust one who makes a mistake only 1% of the time, especially if they could handle repetitive tasks across your entire workflow? That’s a completely different conversation.
In the tech world, we like to label periods as the year of (insert milestone here). This past year (2024) was a year of broader experimentation in AI and, of course, agentic use cases.
As 2025 opens, VentureBeat spoke to industry analysts and IT decision-makers to see what the year might bring. For many, 2025 will be the year of agents, when all the pilot programs, experiments and new AI use cases converge into something resembling a return on investment.
In addition, the experts VentureBeat spoke to see 2025 as the year AI orchestration will play a bigger role in the enterprise. Organizations plan to make management of AI applications and agents much more straightforward.
Here are some themes we expect to see more in 2025.
AI agents take charge
Jérémy Grandillon, CEO of TC9 – AI Allbound Agency, said “Today, AI can do a lot, but we don’t trust it to take actions on our behalf. This will change in 2025. Be ready to ask your AI assistant to book a Uber ride for you.” Start small with one agent handling one task. Build up to an army.
“If 2024 was agents everywhere, then 2025 will be about bringing those agents together in networks and systems,” said Nicholas Holland, vice president of AI at Hubspot. “Micro agents working together to accomplish larger bodies of work, and marketplaces where humans can ‘hire’ agents to work alongside them in hybrid teams. Before long, we’ll be saying, ‘there’s an agent for that.'”
… Voice becomes default
Stop typing and start talking. Adam Biddlecombe, head of brand at Mindstream, predicts a shift in how we interact with AI. “2025 will be the year that people start talking with AI,” he said. “The majority of people interact with ChatGPT and other tools in the text format, and a lot of emphasis is put on prompting skills.
Biddlecombe believes, “With Apple’s ChatGPT integration for Siri, millions of people will start talking to ChatGPT. This will make AI so much more accessible and people will start to use it for very simple queries.”
Get ready for the next wave of advancements in AI. AGI arrives early, AI agents take charge, and voice becomes the norm. Video creation gets easy, AI embeds everywhere, and one-person billion-dollar companies emerge.
To better understand the types of roles that AI is impacting, ZoomInfo’s research team looked to its proprietary database of professional contacts for answers. The platform, which detects more than 1.5 million personnel changes per day, revealed a dramatic increase in AI-related job titles since 2022. With a 200% increase in two years, the data paints a vivid picture of how AI technology is reshaping the workforce.
Why does this shift in AI titles matter for every industry?
Introducing the 2025 Wonder Media Calendar for tweens, teens, and their families/households.Designed by Sue Ellen Christian and her students in her Global Media Literacy class (in the fall 2024 semester at Western Michigan University), the calendar’s purpose is to help people create a new year filled with skills and smart decisions about their media use. This calendar is part of the ongoing Wonder Media Library.comproject that includes videos, lesson plans, games, songs and more. The website is funded by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with Western Michigan University and the Library of Michigan.
Per The Rundown: OpenAI just launched a surprising new way to access ChatGPT — through an old-school 1-800 number & also rolled out a new WhatsApp integration for global users during Day 10 of the company’s livestream event.
Agentic AI represents a significant evolution in artificial intelligence, offering enhanced autonomy and decision-making capabilities beyond traditional AI systems. Unlike conventional AI, which requires human instructions, agentic AI can independently perform complex tasks, adapt to changing environments, and pursue goals with minimal human intervention.
This makes it a powerful tool across various industries, especially in the customer service function. To understand it better, let’s compare AI Agents with non-AI agents.
… Characteristics of Agentic AI
Autonomy: Achieves complex objectives without requiring human collaboration.
Language Comprehension: Understands nuanced human speech and text effectively.
Rationality: Makes informed, contextual decisions using advanced reasoning engines.
Adaptation: Adjusts plans and goals in dynamic situations.
Workflow Optimization: Streamlines and organizes business workflows with minimal oversight.
How, then, can we research and observe how our systems are used while rigorously maintaining user privacy?
Claude insights and observations, or “Clio,” is our attempt to answer this question. Clio is an automated analysis tool that enables privacy-preserving analysis of real-world language model use. It gives us insights into the day-to-day uses of claude.ai in a way that’s analogous to tools like Google Trends. It’s also already helping us improve our safety measures. In this post—which accompanies a full research paper—we describe Clio and some of its initial results.
Evolving tools redefine AI video — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper Google’s Veo 2, Kling 1.6, Pika 2.0 & more
AI video continues to surpass expectations
The AI video generation space has evolved dramatically in recent weeks, with several major players introducing groundbreaking tools.
Here’s a comprehensive look at the current landscape:
Veo 2…
Pika 2.0…
Runway’s Gen-3…
Luma AI Dream Machine…
Hailuo’s MiniMax…
OpenAI’s Sora…
Hunyuan Video by Tencent…
There are several other video models and platforms, including …
How Can Remote or Hybrid Teaching Help?
A shift to virtual learning can help close the gaps.
First, remote work can draw more people into the field. “For some folks, particularly with the pandemic and teaching for a year or more online, they found that model appealing to them from a professional and personal standpoint,” Carbaugh says.
While many educators still prefer face-to-face interactions, he says, others may find the ability to work from home appealing.
Virtual learning can also broaden the candidate pool in hard-to-fill roles. In STEM, for instance, “you might have someone who is willing to teach a class for you in addition to their normal job,” Speegle says. “They can teach computer science, biology or calculus for an hour a day, and they’re done.”
With one in five school-age children engaged in homeschooling, Blount County Schools decided in 2018 to offer an option aimed at bridging the best of both homeschooling and public school, while offering a flexible schedule and college preparatory academics.
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While the hybrid schooling model is not necessarily new, two developments have emerged in recent years. First, interest in attending, founding, and working at these schools has increased since the Covid pandemic; and second, conventional public-school systems are starting to get into the game.
Launchpad Jobs highlights how nondegree workers can achieve career success through strategic job choices. It reveals that nearly 2 million workers without college degrees earn six-figure salaries, demonstrating that fulfilling and well-paying careers are accessible without a traditional four-year education.
The report identifies key 73 roles, termed “Launchpad Jobs,” that offer a combination of strong wages, job stability, and upward mobility. These include positions such as EMTs, electricians, and bank tellers, which often serve as steppingstones to long-term success. Using big data analysis of career histories this report maps the trajectories of workers starting in various roles, showcasing how initial job choices influence future earnings and advancement potential.
China has established the world’s largest online education system, according to a document sent by the Ministry of Education to the Global Times on Wednesday.
As of now, the country has developed over 30 various online course platforms, with more than 97,000 massive open online courses (MOOCs) made available, 483 million registered users, and 1.39 billion learning instances. Additionally, 440 million instances of students obtaining course credits have been recorded, making China’s number of MOOCs and learners the highest in the world, according to the document.
Furthermore, a national smart education platform – the Smart Education of China in Higher Education – has launched 31,000 high-quality online courses, with 78,000 teachers participating in teaching and over 16.82 million users visiting, with more than 93 million visits, covering 183 countries and regions worldwide.
Many of these courses have garnered high praise among global students.
Uncover the fastest-growing skills with the Job Skills Report 2025. This practical resource draws on data from Coursera’s 5 million enterprise learners to highlight the skills and learning experiences that employees, students, and job seekers will prioritize for career success* in 2025.
This year’s report reveals that generative AI (GenAI) is the most in-demand skill, with enterprise course enrollments soaring by 866% year-over-year.By upskilling learners globally, industry, higher education, and governments can unlock AI’s potential $15.7 trillion in global economic value ?by 2030.**
Access the report to:
Identify the fastest-growing skills in AI, business, data science, and technology.
Compare skill priorities of students, employees, and job seekers.
Understand how learners engage with AI learning experiences.
Break the monopoly on higher education pathways — from fastcompany.com by Antonio Gutierrez; via GSV New models prove that younger and underserved populations are finding success with skills-based programs and hybrid educational models.
The Duet-SNHU model proves that accessible, flexible, and cost-effective alternatives are possible and scalable. Meanwhile, the explosion of nondegree credentials offers additional pathways to skills-focused career readiness, reflecting a growing appetite for innovation in education. To remain competitive in the global economy, the U.S. must embrace these alternatives while reforming traditional institutions.
Policymakers must prioritize funding based on performance metrics like graduation rates and job placements, and accreditors must hold institutions accountable for real-world outcomes. Business leaders, educators, and community stakeholders must champion scalable models that deliver equity and opportunity. The stakes are too high to cling to an outdated system. By disrupting the status quo, we can create an education system that serves all Americans and strengthens the economy for generations to come.
