Being a depressed and art-loving, free-loading professional is the current state of my life.
I'm struggling in my professional life as well as in my personal life.
I spend a lot of my salary income on literature and unnecessary things.
I have been a failure since 2022 to actually struggle to grasp professional skills as well as professional qualifications up to now.
But in 2024, I somehow managed to sneak into the AATSL Business Conference, which actually gave me some motivation to fight through my obstacles. And also, I had a strategy to gather CPD for future membership maintenance.
Here is a small post about it I posted on social media in 2024.
https://businessstudentbs.blogspot.com/2024/10/after-7-years-event-of-association-of.html
The post was filled with regret and anger, and no knowledge for the reader whatsoever, due to my inherent limitations.
To summarise the key takeaways of this from the event 2025 is done as follows.
The event was mainly categorised into 4 sessions.
(01) Session 01 - Gauge the vacuum
(02) Session 02 - Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn
(03) Session 03 - Financial Mastery
(04) Session 04 - The third eye of Leadership
The participants of the sessions are given in the image below.
(01) Session 01 - Gauge the vacuum
The title 'Gauge the Vacuum' suggests that AI can be optimized for maximum productivity by delegating small tasks.
Main presentation points
- What the future-ready CFO looks like,
(01) Real-time access to decision making (Real Time Strategic Data) (CRM)
(02) Orchestrating Performance
(03) Value Driven
- AI will be creating a lot of casualties for people and fields in the future.
- The call to leadership in the age of AI
* How to adapt to this (Agility)
* Risk
* Value Driven
Session 01 - Panel discussion
- AI transforms many processes into seamlessness. There is a vacuum for many processes to be transformed. AI creates automated functions.
- Don't use AI if it doesn't link with AI foundations and company limitations.
Factors needed for AI
* Data
* People
* Process
* Technology
(02) Session 02 - Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn
What went wrong with these companies?
- Kodak
- Nokia
- Polaroid
- Blockbuster
E.g.: - Nokia failed to unlearn hardware-driven mobile phone technology to relearn software-driven mobile phone technology.
* Skills mapping
- Improve cognitive thinking
- Analyzing data skills should be improved.
Skills - * Ready to unlearn the basics learned.
* Re-learn new systems used.
For example, statistics is a crucial subject now.
Session 02 - Panel Discussion
- Stay relevant
- Adapt to multiple disciplines
- CSR -> Random things businesses do to look good.
- ESG -> Environmental, Social and Governance -> The new trend
- In the contemporary world, businesses must be held liable.
- What you measure is what you manage.
(03) Session 03 - Financial Mastery
The wealth trinity
(01) Family
(02) Fitness
(03) Freedom
World's view - Financial Freedom
* Start Production
* Acquire Assets
5 Levels of Investing
(01) No income from assets - Get out of debt
(02) Saving money or retirement plan - Saving is losing. Invest.
(03) 2 + Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds - If you are too busy, do solid investments. ( Otherwise No Learning)
(04) I do by myself (Like-minded friends) - Life Long Learning
(05) The capitalist Level - Other People's Money
The Five Imperatives
(01) Revisit personal philosophy
(02) Revisit goals
(03) Redefine discipline
(04) Your Network
(05) Financial independence - Financial discipline
Session 03 - Panel discussion
What skills are required by an entrepreneur?
- Personal struggles
- Commitment
- Attitude
You have to be prepared when the opportunity comes (Think like a bird)
(04) Session 04 - The third eye of leadership
- Managing different generations of different values: Multi-Generational workforce
Session 04: Panel discussion
* Google has a happiness officer :
In America, or the USA, there should be an implementation of innovative job roles. But I feel it's like an institutionalization. Disagreement with the US model was the panelists' opinion.
The above short notes are some of the key takeaways of the four sessions of the event.
To add further, as my opinions
Currently following books can be considered as best AI books.
(01) The singularity is near: when humans transcend biology by Ray Kurzweil
(02) The singularity is nearer: when we merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil
(03) Supremacy - AI, Chat GPT, and the Race that will change the world by Parmy Olsen
(04) Nexus - A brief history of Information Systems from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
(05) Your AI roadmap: Actions to expand your career, money, and Joy by Joan Palmiter Bajorek
(06) The Age of AI and your human future by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher
These are some of the books related to AI that are trending. The amount of AI-related literature has bombarded the internet, bookshelves in libraries, and bookshops, creating major information overflow in the relevant field.
Mixing the above learnings into my personal and professional life is as follows,
My job role at the bank is very primary in nature and it allows many manual operations to be executed, like operational activities like document retrievals and document destructions.
For hybrid functions, invoice reconciliation and calculating, and posting service charges can be mentioned.
In my opinion, besides the hybrid functions, my overall job functions cannot be replaced by Artificial Intelligence and automation. But legal updates may create changes.
According to many experts in the sessions, Sri Lanka is not in the 'Big Data' category. Therefore, it is required to have an AI roadmap prior to implementation. Otherwise, it would be a major unnecessary cost.
My father, who is a professional and now retired, feels that AI is a big farce that will take more time than it will actually be implemented.
He says that the current AI trend reminds him of the Y2K struggle at the dawn of the millennium.
More details about this can be learnt from 'Rising from the ashes: A twenty-year journey with Central Bank of Sri Lanka' by Nayeni Fernando, which I read last year.
Overall, the event covered many aspects of new trends in the industry of professionals and enlightened the participants with things to ponder on as professionals and business students.
