'Some of the best ideas can come from anywhere in the organization'
In a recent survey, 41% of workers said AI is replacing, devaluing or overlapping with parts of their jobs.
When LendingClub CEO Scott Sanborn was in the process of giving his financial-services company a new corporate identity, he learned that it needed to spend an exorbitant amount of money on a mundane, seemingly simple task: rebranding emails to its new name, Happen Bank.
It turns out that switching the signature on corporate emails is a much pricier task than one would assume.
"We probably had 2,000 emails that needed to be rebranded," Sanborn told MarketWatch. "We got a quote from an agency that it was going to be in the high six figures to do that work of changing from the old template to the new template."
The expense would have risked putting the project over budget - but it turned out there was another option.
"A junior employee literally spent the weekend experimenting with AI to basically knock out all of the [work]," Sanborn recalled. The employee came up with a much more efficient way to do it, and "in the end, the solution saved the company six figures," he said.
The employee's use of AI - and, more importantly, their initiative - impressed Sanborn, who said he shares the mindset of his Nvidia (NVDA) counterpart Jensen Huang: "You're not going to be replaced by AI. You're going to be replaced by a person who's using AI more proficiently than you."
A recent survey from Resume.com showed that 41% of workers believed AI was replacing, devaluing or overlapping with parts of their jobs. Yet anecdotes like these demonstrate how some AI tools can actually help you stand out from your peers - if you know how to use them.
Use AI to execute your creative ideas
More crucial than knowing how to use AI tools is listening to what hurdles your company is facing, said James Lewis, president and co-founder of the National Society of High School Scholars. Lewis examines the challenges that recent high-school and college graduates are facing upon entering the workforce.
"Young people coming into an organization should have an open mind and great listening skills and document those pain points, and then go back and use AI to come up with some possible solutions," he said.
All-hands meeting, especially when you are a new employee, can seem pointless. It's hard to imagine that you might have better ideas than those who have been at your company for years.
But if you're actively listening and notice the same issues being mentioned over and over again, there is a good chance that higher-ups are struggling to engineer a solution. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate your critical thinking skills, Lewis noted.
When it comes to AI, it would be smart to show that it enhances your problem-solving abilities. At this point, many managers are aware that AI can help generate ideas or speed up routine work, said Priya Rathod, workplace-trends editor at career website Indeed. What they want to see is you apply these tools in creative ways.
"It still takes a person to evaluate what's useful, spot what's missing, make sound decisions and apply context," Rathod said. "The people who stand out are often the ones who can take information, think it through and act on it well."
And the further the task is from your job description, the more you'll stand out, Sanborn said.
"It was a great reminder that some of the best ideas can come from anywhere in the organization when you give people the space to be curious and try new tools," he said.
-Aditi Shrikant
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 09, 2026 17:29 ET (21:29 GMT)
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