Those anti-AI grads are your next customers
Now that it’s been 30 years (gulp), I no longer remember who spoke at my commencement ceremony.
Whoever it was probably had some solid credentials, and there may even have been some advice worth taking to heart as I began my career.
All I can tell you for certain is that neither I nor anyone else in my graduating class booed.
This is in stark contract to graduation season in 2026, where there have already been multiple instances of high-profile speakers facing a barrage of angry sentiment among their student audiences.
Get the hook!
It started with the now-viral video clip of real estate executive Gloria Caulfield, followed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta.
In all three cases the business leaders attempted to excite the next generation of the workforce by talking in grand tones about the promise of artificial intelligence (AI).
Seeing graduates erupt in a chorus of disapproval is quite a spectacle, especially the mix of shock and slightly condescending bemusement from the commencement speakers.
They were trying to be visionary. Instead they insulted the people who are (or who will quickly become) their customers.
Behind the boos
This is not a generational gap or divide. It is better seen as an initial – and negative – customer experience from the kind of people who run brands that want to earn young consumers’ loyalty.
I am by no means the first to point out that these executives had failed to read their respective rooms, and that the potential impact of AI on grads’ career prospects and living standards should have been acknowledged.
These grads are no outliers, though. Imagine if, instead of postsecondary students, the CEO of almost any brand was standing before their existing customer base.
The audience would include people who have already graduated, who have been paying taxes for years and who are constantly being deflected from connecting to other human beings in favor of an AI chatbot or intelligent virtual assistant.
If the CEO were to announce their organization’s strategy in advance, or even once the technology had already gone live, would the customers in the auditorium applaud?
Or would they begin rumbling like those getting their degrees from the University of Central Florida, the University of Arizona or Middle Tennessee State University?
The lesson for CX leaders is not to treat engaging with customers as though it were a one-way commencement address.
Instead of standing at a podium and pontificating, these speakers would have done better to ask tough questions and listen, thereby earning the trust of the people their organizations will serve over the next 20-30 years. Maybe they’d even cheer.
