Latest news with #JustinaNixon-Saintil
Forbes
01-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Master The #1 Skill Of 2025 In Just 30 Minutes/Day
If you had just 30 minutes a day to focus on progressing and developing your career, which skill would you choose to work on? According to Coursera's Microcredentials 2025 report, business communication skills rank in the U.S. as the number one 'everyday skill employers value in hires, reflecting the importance of clear, effective collaboration in a globally connected economy,' it says. This means that whether you're in education, tech, marketing, data, or leadership and management, your success hinges on how the strength and effectiveness of your business communication skills. Want to know why? Communication impacts every aspect of your job, even if it's a remote role with minimal interaction with stakeholders or co-workers. For you to even land a job in the first place, you need to know how to pitch yourself effectively and communicate in a tone that wins the confidence of the hiring manager. Business communication skills permeate into simple aspects of your career, such as the way you compose emails. Are you writing passive-aggressively, like 'per my last email', the notorious line that gets our blood boiling every time we open our inboxes? How do you engage? Share thoughts or host meetings? Online, hybrid or fully in person? What's your tone and presence on LinkedIn? Are you even noticeable on LinkedIn at all? All of these shape others perception of you, from your boss, to potential employers, to business partners, which directly impacts your likelihood of success in progressing in your career and landing lucrative business opportunities. For example, failure to communicate your ideas concisely can lead to misunderstandings, delayed projects, or worse, failed projects that run over budget and frustrate all stakeholders involved. It can even cost you a major contract or sales deal. So it's easy to see why this skill is paramount. Beyond this, we're living in a time where Gen AI is taking over every role and industry. Justina Nixon-Saintil, Vice President at IBM, said in an interview, 'AI will be used across every role and industry vertical.' This means that increased numbers of people, especially remote workers, will be using AI as part of their business communication, to generate proposals, responses to emails, and even marketing copy, making it even more critical for the human voice to be present and for us to refine our real-world communication skills so we're not dependent on AI but partnering with it instead. So how do you refine this skill if you only have 30 minutes spare in your day? Here are some ideas: If you apply these tips consistently every week, you'll begin to notice subtle improvements in your presence at work, both online and offline. Strengthening your communication skills will boost your confidence and enable you to iron out work conflicts and avoid unnecessary tensions. You'll never regret the time invested into developing your business communication skill set.
Associated Press
05-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
The New Global Forces Changing Demands for Ed-Tech Products
Originally published on EdWeek Market Brief By 2. Upskilling Teachers For AI By 2030, IBM predicts that around 80 percent of tasks in major employment sectors, including education, will be influenced by AI, said Justina Nixon-Saintil, chief innovation officer for the tech company. As with any new technology, companies will encounter about a third of teachers who grasp AI very quickly and see the benefit of it, she said. Another third will be cautiously curious. And the final third will require more guidance to show them the value and bring them along. 'Just like you need to be upskilled in the workforce... teachers have to upskill themselves,' Nixon-Saintil said. 'For them to understand how to use it responsibly — and also how we can make a difference for students — they need to skill themselves and understand fundamentals of AI and AI ethics.' When asked in recent EdWeek Market Brief surveys what specific features they want in AI products, support for teachers to become adept in using the tech was a top priority for U.S. K-12 officials. Advancements in technology are not slowing, Nixon-Saintil said during a presentation at Bett. Advanced forms of cyber technology are also evolving, and rapid gains in quantum computing are 'right around the corner,' she said. 'Before you know it, we have to learn and understand what quantum is,' Nixon-Saintil said. 'That's why lifelong learning is so imperative.'
