When I first researched platforms like Taleo and BambooHR, I realized that many HR systems were essentially CRMs with preset filters and limited adaptability. During a hackathon, my team decided to build something more dynamic Рђћ a self-hosted HR chatbot using Rasa and inmem. It was our own solution for streamlining applicant tracking and screening.
Although we didnt place highly in that AWS-sponsored event, the experience was transformative. We also developed a lightweight AI-powered workflow to extract the most relevant resumes, which was my first time hearing about Linux. Yes, you read that right.
That one project led me down a rabbit hole of system engineering and backend architecture. Over the next three months, I worked with a mentor to build out a basic data engineering pipeline infrastructure from scratch.
Fast forward to now, AI is everywhere. Back in 2024, yes, not back in 2004, people were still debating whether AI could really impact data engineering roles. A year later, those same skeptics are noticeably quieter.
Something subtle but irreversible is happening, and it's making a lot of my peers anxious. Some are angry, thus they dont want to input data into ChatGPT knowing it might one day be used to optimize systems that replace them. I get it. IРђЎve had mixed feelings too.
But even when I choose not to use these tools, they keep evolving because others are feeding the system. The universe doesnt wait. So I made a choice: if AI wants my prompts and creativity to grow, IРђЎm going to make it work for me. And it has.
Designing dashboards used to take me weeks ro finding the right font, colors, layout that actually appeal to an audience? A nightmare. But now I just let AI generate the color wheel and formatting. I just focus on the ideas.
I struggled to understand the whole system architect of my data pipeline using Rasa and Supabase, now Midjourney created a beautiful image of the boilerplate wheel which might cost me my whole life to create. Trust me, I am not an artsie at all while my daughter has the cutest drawings I've seen. Apparently, her drawing gene was not from me.
Writing an executive summary used to take days. Now, I can distill six months of impactful work into 500 words in under 10 minutes. And tools like Gamma.ai help me turn that into a polished slide deck I can confidently send to leadership.
I think my manager was a bit surprised about that kind of quick turnaround wasnt like me before. So this is a new era.
I just read an article warning that companies cutting staff in favor of AI may regret it in 5 years. Up until now, this is unprecedented in our human nature history. The only thing we are assured is that humans bring emotional intelligence and intellectual mastery across a diversity of spectrums. AI only imitates and get the right shot after thousands of trials. What if one day, they happened to find their own rationale wrong? Would they accept that mistake ? For now, they still say sorry. What if one day, they are not willing to take accountability? Humans are different from any other objects in nature because we have intuition and we know how to take responsibility.
Thus, we have to balance between the sides of this sword by staying fully conscious of the tradeoff. Generative AI imitates patterns of creation, while humans originate intention, meaning, and purpose. I’m using this newly formed tool strategically, not blindly. Because I’m confident that we — as people — possess irreducible qualities: empathy, moral reasoning, and the ability to connect dots across unrelated experiences. These are the foundations of true leadership, vision, and trust. We have our own initiatives. We live by core values. And that will always set us apart.