Episode 9: AI for Everyone—Redefining Work Beyond Tech

When people think of AI at work, they often picture coders, engineers, or executives. But the reality is much bigger: AI is already transforming professions that many wouldn’t consider “tech jobs”—from nurses and doctors to accountants, teachers, and retail professionals.

In this episode of Coexistence: Humans and AI in the Workplace, Dr. Z and Latif dive into how AI is showing up in essential, everyday professions—and what it means for the future of work.

We explore:

• How AI is helping doctors and nurses focus on care, not paperwork.
• How teachers can use AI tutors to free up time for mentorship and creativity.
• How accountants can shift from repetitive reconciliations to real client advising.
• How retail professionals can rely on AI for forecasting and scheduling, while reconnecting with customer experience.

The conversation highlights a powerful shift: AI isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about empowerment. By taking on routine tasks, AI creates more space for distinctly human strengths—empathy, intuition, creativity, and connection.

Listen in to Episode 9 as we explore how AI can support all of us, not just those in tech.

Transcript

Latif:  Hi everyone. Welcome to Coexistence Humans and AI in the Workplace. Good to be online with you, Dr. Z. This is our ninth episode now. It is interesting how this podcast is, reaching out to people. We have an international audience, but, you know, today's topic is about, AI and how does AI apply to the everyday person, not person in technology, not an executive, but a person in medicine, in journalism or, any other field. Because typically when AI comes to mind, people think, oh, this is very technical, these are engineers, sitting in their, rooms, coding,
but in, in reality, it really is transforming the, the jobs of people, far outside the tech bubble, whether it's doctors, nurses, accountants are using AI now, into taxes. For instance. Teachers are using it in, schools. So love to get your, thoughts on that and just tell the audience a little bit about what the, topic of the day is.

Dr. Z: Yeah, absolutely Latif. I, would like to piggyback on your comment earlier that yes, we truly have an international audience and it's humbling and very grateful to all of our listeners who are tuning in from different parts of the world. It's these kinds of, conversations that we continue to have that, enable both lafa and I to, keep this momentum going.

So please reach out if things are resonating with you. We'd love hearing from each one of you. Now, in terms of our topic for today, , we are going to dive in on how can AI empower everyday professionals. In roles that are not thought of as tech jobs because AI is not just about machines replacing the work, it's about how humans, irrespective of the profession, can use tools to deepen impact, so that we are able to reconnect to what matters most to us in the work we do, and that we are able to create space for human-centered care, curiosity and creativity. 

Latif: This is a really interesting topic and this is something that when you're at a party or you're having coffee with a friend, these questions always come up, Hey, I'm a nurse, how is life going to change for me? Or, I'm a teacher and I'm starting to see these. Tools. Google Classroom and all these tools coming into the education system and what's next? 

Let's kick things off with some of the, professions, for instance, medicine. There's a lot of, excitement and there's a lot of activity and a lot of investments going into health tech. Let's also touch on the education subject, that's really key, because, this is going to impact the next generation and even our generation.

Let's talk about not just the technical parts of it, but these roles, there is a very deep human element to these roles, in, in terms of the way teachers develop relationships with their students in terms of, the trust that patients develop in their doctors. Give me your 2 cents on what you are seeing and how AI is showing up, in some of these professions. 

Dr. Z: So those are very insightful pointers. And then a question that you are raising as well. Iv. Let's first start with medicine. AI is helping doctors and nurses with diagnostics, with predictive analysis, and even patient communication.

Think of AI in medicine as a tool that is able to flag early signs of a condition so that medical professional, a nurse or a doctor, is able to intervene much sooner and is now able to spend time caring for the patient instead of them being. Buried and admin work.

'Cause that's one of the things when you connect with doctors and nurses, one of the things that really, they're spending so much of their time on that actually takes the joy out of their work , is this admin work. And if we can start looking at AI in terms of how can it actually help with,, getting the message across to the patients and then also reducing the amount of time, even if it means by 10%, that means it's 10% more time that is given to patient care, that connection.

With them, and that, again, will change the the energetic exchange even between the patient and the medical professional as well. Now if we look at the examples of education, AI tutors can give personalized feedback to students, which will then help teachers spend more time and focus on things like mentoring rather than grading.

How much of time, again, by teachers is. Spent on admin work when it could be spent in building connection and getting to know their students at a deeper level and continuing that bond of, student and teacher kind of relationship. I also like to bring in another field, that often doesn't get thought of as much, retail.

Even in retail, AI can be used to forecast inventory during peak hours, so that employees are able to again, build like meaningful connections with customers, rather than just being stretched thin because. Even though the world of online retail is very big. If you go to the malls, like in person, they are still completely filled with people because again, all of us want that human connection.

Even though we have access, there is still an element, where we find joy when we walk and step into a store. So if AI is, used in that retail profession. The sales ambassadors are then able to build meaningful connections rather than focus on the, the non-customer centric kind of task.

We can really be creating a positive dent in the environments we are in. 

Latif: That's really interesting. Because, of course Amazon, which has completely transformed, the retail scene, but then we saw Amazon. Themselves building, physical bricks and mortar bookshops.

And the first time I saw one, I'm like, what? It was a almost like a double take what Amazon bookstore, but, yes, you're right. Human connection relationship, yes, we do want to go to stores in person, we want to touch and feel, look around, talk to people, is very important.

And then on the topic of medicine, you might have heard on the news, that they have just launched a AI powered stethoscope, so now you walk into the doctor's office, puts on the stethoscope, it's gonna hooked up, to a machine. Which is powered by AI that says, I detect a heart murmur, or, things that the doctor would not be able to hear.

Or I detect some patterns that may lead to high blood pressure. So AI really is transforming a lot of these professions. Be it education or retail or. Or medicine. The point here is that, AI is less about just pure efficiency, because computers have gone come a long way in, making us more efficient. And the efficiency will continue to rise, but it's, more about how do we use AI to help us create that space, to do what we really enjoy doing, what we're really passionate about doing, and adding value.

It's about let's get rid of the busy work so we can do the creative work and the stuff that requires intuition and the stuff that requires empathy. 

Dr. Z: I completely agree with that. Latif, that it's not just about AI. Doing the work. But this is where the tension also comes in.

AI is continuing, to be used in tools such as the stethoscope it is kind of creating this underlying fear and that's where the tension is coming, because a lot of, people are continuing to be afraid that their jobs, irrespective of whichever profession they're in, it will be lost.

I think this is where, Latif, I would now like your perspective on how do we change the narrative so that AI is seen as a partner instead of a threat? And it's, really important because the more we continue to feed into that energy of fear and threat, the more we are not able to open our minds to the possibilities of how now we can stand, like I call the AI as like, use it as a stepping stool, like stand on top of it and continue to build further from it rather than be afraid of that stepping stone. So, would love your perspective here in terms of how we as humans, as professionals, really change this narrative so that we are able to move from threat to transformation and, a thought partner.

Latif: That's a great question., If I look at certain professions, like we spoke about accounting, right? My engineering company is helping me develop my, agent. That helps software companies accelerate the revenue, through the channel.

He's also building an agent a B2B system for an accountant who approached him and he said, Hey, you know, there's all this busy work and , I need seven or eight accountants to handle, taxes, at that time of the year.. can you help me? And so he built him an AI pilot, that helps him eliminate a lot of that busy work.

And now he can handle three times as many clients, as he used to before with, half the staff. Quite honestly, not that he's laid anyone off, but now he can just handle, larger volumes, of customers. This tool is not making accountants obsolete, right? But it's really giving these accountants the time back to build those relationships with their clients.

Understand, Hey, what are your future plans? You've got a business, are you planning on expanding? Are you planning on. Setting up, operations overseas. Is there something that we can be doing proactively, to help you manage those, costs moving forward, and, save you some money , et cetera.

So it's, really, helping, professionals. You know, go out there and really push beyond just, Hey, I'm gonna help you automate this stuff. No, I wanna be your partner, in, finance, I wanna be your partner, your education partner,, and help you grow. Things, are changing, changing, very rapidly. People are now starting to understand that, hey, this isn't a threat. This is something that can really help me move higher, add more value to my customers. 

Dr. Z: I really like the example you gave of the accountant and how they're able to build a tool.

That hits the message home. It's not just that. AI is a lot more efficient and it gets done with work and half the amount of time, but the whole thing is around how AI helping or is enabling this thing about empowering us. So that we are able to use the time that was given back to us to actually build relationships.

Because if you think about it in the, in the grand scheme of things, we will need more time, if somebody's really serious about building good client relationships with their customers. It takes more people to do that than we even have within our job sector, because now you are giving that personalized touch because your busy work is now taken care of, and you get to build connections.

You now, get the opportunity to take a pause and ask people these questions like, how are you doing today? Rather than jumping into the task. I love this way of changing the narrative around, like it gives us time back to do things that we value and it empowers us to keep going deeper into the human traits of what we have forgotten over the years.

But it's time now to go back to them. 

Latif: Yeah, that's a great point. And I think leadership has a really important role to play in this as well, because. If there's fear in an organization, whether it's a for-profit or not-for-profit organization, or, in the government or in a school, in the education system of this fear, then that fear needs to be addressed by, the higher ups

That basically step in and say, Hey, you know,, this is a tool, your job is not going away. We want, we want you to be empowered. So would love to get your thoughts on, how leaders can help their people embrace, their organizations embrace, rather than get alarmed and overwhelmed.

Dr. Z: Quite honestly, I will bring in two words that sometimes are seen as buzzwords: trust and accessibility. Like they have so much power if, leaders can fully understand how they even manifest in the workplace. So what I mean by trust and accessibility is that leaders need to invest.

Time and monetary resources into training that builds confidence. As these AI tools are being launched and they need to take a step ahead in terms of showing workers that AI is there to support them and not replace them. And it needs to be an active dialogue that is shown by actions as well.

How can action show that, co-design the solutions with your frontline employees? Because that is what is going to create confidence and not fear, because when you put people into a co-designing seat. They are able to really understand, , the power of this tool and now how do I double down on that and keep moving the business forward as well, alongside myself?

The, the other thing is that, I often hear about companies, of course launching tools, but then if you ask the employees, they're like, oh, they just launched a tool and they just handed it to us. Like, don't just launch and hand it to your employees. Invite their voices, and ask them how can it be further shaped and used.

And then finally the one thing that I, am a strong advocate for is redefining our performance management system. We need to now start really having metrics, or we need to be, recognizing people that are able to bring their human traits forward, like empathy, intuition, and creativity.

Why can't performance management systems have these things within how they are rating their employees because. People gravitate towards what is celebrated. And if you celebrate and recognize people will go even two steps forward as humans. That's just by design. We will go two steps forward in trying to nurture those traits that we aren't spending that much time in because our time now is spent on just hearing about all the things AI can do better than us, rather than us going back to our center and saying, my intuition, my creativity, and my empathy.

There is no way in the world that AI can actually develop that. Because the thing is that, these powerful human traits are not soft skills. These are the skills that, even if, if you go into any generative AI tool right now, and I, I did this, this test the other day, I uploaded a picture, and I was like, give me your intuitive read on this person.

And the generative AI tool comes back and says, this is a human trait. I cannot do that for you. It goes back to showing, that energy, reading people, trusting our gut and moving forward with that are things that we need to continue building forward on.

And that, of course, is what needs to be done at the workforce level by having metrics, having scales that really recognize people who are doing it well and then letting them teach others so that we continue on these behaviors that we aren't really in tune with anymore. 

Latif: Yeah, you make a fantastic point.

And to that point, it's incumbent upon the leaders to make sure that, hey, this is not just another. Software program, computer program that's running in the background, but is really, serving, the people that is built to serve.

People, you know, need to see the value. People need to see, hey, this is an assistant, this is someone. Who's assisting me, not trying to take over my job or replace me. 

Any, closing reflections , on the topic? 

Dr. Z: Yeah, I would say that words have power, and so do our thoughts.

So the more energy that we give to fear, that is only when AI will become a threat. Because if we don't give that kind of thought and energy to those kinds of ideas, then there's no way that. Will then become the environment,

The other way that AI will actually become a true threat is when we don't, allow people to be part of conversations. We don't actually create avenues where we are co-designing and co-creating. If we do bring in everyone to the table, like we talked about in our last episode,

Bring in people with maternal intelligence to the table with policymakers when you are designing things. And that's exactly the same point that, even in professions like doctors, like sales ambassadors in retail, teachers in education, bring them all to the table. And this is for leaders, so that we are able to co-create solutions that are able to empower our people rather than leave them in this kind of limbo that is continuing to create the sense of threat.

Latif: That, that makes a lot of sense. That, fear, definitely has to be addressed. And, that's how we need to move forward, is not just by saying, this is not just another tool. What can this tool do? This is the question we would ask of software,

This is an accounting package, or what are the features, you know, what is it gonna help me automate? But really turn that into the conversation of. Who can, support, how is it adding value, to people that it's assisting? And what are the outcomes, I think we need to be focused more on the outcomes now rather than features with AI.

This was a great conversation. I really enjoyed it. And to all of you out there who have joined us, thank you for joining. And until next time, stay curious, stay reflective, and most of all, stay Human.