I'm genuinely thrilled yet increasingly thoughtful about AI's integration into career counseling. The staggering efficiency gains showcased by new tools like ChatGPT, Claude, DALL-E, Bing AI... are undeniably appealing. I mean, it's cool. I'm already creating custom GPTs that can rapidly translate client experiences into transferable skills matching them with resume, interviews, and networking use-cases. It's awesome to see what is generated instantaneously from just a few prompts, but I fear it's being treated as a magic wand. Type the prompt, get the response. Bippity Boppity. That is why I'm stream-of-conscious-ing this now.
In my excitement surrounding innovation, I'm committing to proceed responsibly - not embracing progress at the cost of losing touch with the irreplaceable human connection at the heart of impactful counseling. What I mean is, for all AI's advanced and improving capabilities, there are profound emotional insights imparted through guidance practiced with wisdom, care and understanding of each client's whole journey. I think of my mentor patiently listening to struggles before gently reflecting my strengths or my counselor helping me develop grit when I didn't get chosen after the last round of interviews. I believe there is still an indispensable role for this high-touch guidance fueled by distinctly human qualities like courage, vulnerability and purpose. In the Career Counseling space, I am happy to see that other counselors are expressing the same concerns. The challenge I am seeing though? How do we ensure the other stakeholders (clients, supervisors, high ed institutions, hiring managers, agencies) know that strictly relying on the AI will leave a lot of gaps in personal and professional growth and ultimately application efficacy?
As such, my responsibility as counselor feels clear: genuinely yet thoughtfully welcoming AI's benefits while doubling down on the pillars that make career counseling so powerful when delivered conscientiously. That means transparently teaching clients ethical usage discerning when AI capabilities augment vs. where our emotional wisdom must remain central.
The future, to me, looks like optimistically finding the right synthesis, embracing both human and technological progress - not choosing between the two. That's the balance I'll continue working to strike.