Last week, I walked into a panel discussion in Dallas, really excited but not entirely sure what to expect. I left with good notes, a table full of new connections I wanted to meet again, and inspiration that is pulling me toward work that fuels me. You should know that I am an extremely tech-forward, early adopter type who completed months of AI strategy training. I use it daily for brainstorming, website creation, research, and workflow productivity. So when you read this know, I am not the naysayer in the group when tech moves the playing field.
But I have seen these pendulums swing before with tech and learning, and I honestly feel unsettled. I don’t think all of the business and marketing content I read daily is getting it right, and I believe it will need to go through a correction. I was more than relieved to attend this panel and hear from these leaders with refreshing and realistic viewpoints for our schools and all of us as people.
United to Learn and Margaret J. Hirsch Women’s Forum brought together some of the most thoughtful people working at the intersection of AI, education, and workforce readiness. Kerri Briggs from Educate Texas set the tone. Angie E. Gaylord,Chief Academic Officer of Dallas ISD, told us exactly what’s happening inside one of the country’s largest school districts. DeVon Lang, Regional President at Truist Financial, gave us the employer side of the equation, and D Magazine President Gillea Allison brought it all together in a way that felt like an authentic human conversation.
Everyone agreed: Three perspectives. The same concern.
AI is moving fast. The human development piece is falling behind.
Every school district, parent, and employer is grappling with the same question right now: what do students actually need to thrive in a world shaped by AI? The honest answer isn’t more AI literacy. It’s deeper human development, and that distinction matters not only in education but in business.
The students who will be ready for the future aren’t the ones who grew up with the best tools. They’re the ones who learned to think before the tool did it for them. Who developed emotional intelligence because they had real, three-dimensional relationships with other people, not AI companions. Who can sit with a hard problem, work through uncertainty, think critically, and understand an answer they can own. Who can walk into a room, read another human being, and build trust in a way no model can replicate.
Dr. Kerri Briggs said kids need to learn how to be human before they learn how to use any tool.
Angie Gaylord said the goal has always been to give every student a voice, a tribe, and the confidence to change the world. Devon Lang said emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and communication will be the differentiators in every industry going forward.
If AI Does the Thinking, Who Develops the Judgment?
Dr. Briggs from Educate Texas described AI as a capable intern, fast, productive, able to generate a lot quickly. But an intern still needs direction and correction. They need someone with judgment to review the work and decide what actually matters.
Her point: if students never develop that judgment because the intern has always done the heavy lifting, we’re missing something fundamental. Not just for their education. For their whole future.
She also made a distinction that not all AI is the same thing. Adaptive learning tools that adjust to a student’s reading level, give real-time math feedback, have been in classrooms for years, and the evidence behind them is solid. That’s different from generative AI, the ChatGPT-style tools where a student can ask it to think for them, rather than use it to deepen their own thinking, and then there is another category of AI-companion tools. When she expressed caution about student-facing AI, that’s the category she was talking about.
She wasn’t anti-technology. She was pro-child.
What Three Years of Intentional AI Adoption Actually Looks Like.
Angie Gaylord is the kind of leader who makes you feel like the future is actually going to be okay. She walked us through three years of intentional, staged AI implementation inside Dallas ISD, starting with willing adopters, training all librarians, then principals, then teachers, and building AI champions at every school.
High school students have access to Google Gemini across content areas, with a “stoplight” framework (red, yellow, green) for when it’s appropriate to use and when it isn’t. Elementary school is heavily regulated. Companion AI apps? Blocked entirely on the district network. Dallas ISD is a 1:1 school, and all laptops are equipped with thoughtful and intentional guardrails by its IT department.
She shared a story about when smartphones came on the market and all of the apps that came with it. She said over time people narrowed down and consolidated to their main ones and the thousands of others are just noise. She said the same will happen with AI. People should not be focused on learning every new tool, as they too will consolidate into the major utility players that truly benefit and enhance work and save people time.
Companion AI’s As a Threat to Human Connection
One area the room felt strongly about was companion AI. I was not familiar with these but there were some very strong opinions about them not belonging in the hands of students.
These are apps where users build ongoing relationships with AI-generated characters: fictional personas, celebrities, historical figures, custom personalities that learn your patterns and respond in ways that feel personal. Character.AI is one of the most widely used. Dr. Briggs noted that more than half of its users are between 18 and 24, and the platform doesn’t even collect data on anyone younger, which tells you something. The concern here isn’t about homework shortcuts or academic integrity. It’s something more fundamental: what happens to a child’s developing sense of human connection when a significant part of their social and emotional life is happening with something that isn’t human? Angie Gaylord didn’t hedge on this one.
Companion AI is blocked entirely on the Dallas ISD network, and she made clear she has no plans to change that. The goal has always been for kids to have real friends, a real tribe, a real sense of belonging, and no tool, however sophisticated, gets to substitute for that. I am the queen of saying no,” she said, and the room laughed, but she meant it.
She said the academic vision has always been the same: tools should only be used if they increase learning, improve the student experience, and build confidence. Not because they’re flashy. Not because everyone else is using them. Because they actually help kids.
She also reframed something I’ve been thinking not only for our students but those being displaced in the workforce from AI disruption.
She said we need to stop asking kids “what do you want to be when you grow up?” and start asking “what problem do you want to solve?” Because when a kid answers that question, they start thinking about what tools and experiences they’ll need and technology becomes one option among many, not the whole answer.
The Skills That Survive Every Technological Shift
Truist did not dismiss that AI pressure in the corporate world is significant. It comes up in every executive and board meeting wanting to know what we are doing with AI and what we have learned about its business and productivity impacts.
But what was refreshing and different was how Truist talked with just as much conviction about everything AI can’t replace. They shared that in banking, the job is being an advisor. You can use AI to prepare a pitch deck in 30 minutes instead of three hours. He called it copilot, not autopilot. But if you can’t walk someone through the output, think critically about what it’s telling you, and shake a hand and close a deal, you’re going to struggle. Full stop.
He also named the three things he believes will become more valuable, not less, in the workforce of the future:
- emotional intelligence
- critical thinking
- communication
These aren’t soft skills anymore. They’re the differentiators.
A Question of AI Equity
An EdTech business asked what happens to the districts that don’t have Dallas ISD’s resources, technology infrastructure, and leadership. What about smaller districts, rural communities, charter schools that are getting asked the same questions by parents and teachers, but don’t have the same bench?
Dr. Briggs shared that’s exactly what Educate Texas has been working on, convening districts that are under-resourced, bringing in expertise on ethics, workforce, operational strategy, and helping them learn without having to negotiate from scratch. She talked about pointing smaller districts to existing contracts from larger ones so they’re not starting from zero.
Why I’m writing this
My background is in edtech and education marketing. I’ve spent my career working at the intersection of companies that want to reach schools and the schools that are trying to do right by their students. I left that space for a while and honestly, sitting in that room last week, I remembered why I loved it.
The conversation happening right now about AI, about what students actually need to be workforce-ready, about the bridge between high school and corporate is one I want to be part of.
If you’re working in this space, whether you’re in education, workforce development, edtech, or corporate learning, I’d love to connect. And if you weren’t in the room last week, I hope this gave you a small piece of the conversation.