"By 2023 and 2024, AI was cropping up more in my projects and client conversations. In one, customers said they wanted to implement AI in every part of their business. It felt like a huge shift, and I saw the writing on the wall of where the industry was headed."
"Instead of shielding myself from disruptions that AI was causing in my industry, my 'inner voice' told me to move towards them, and it paid off."
"I was interested in AI for years before 2023's chatbot boom, but I wasn't sure if I was smart enough to work on something so complicated. As AI grew more prominent, I realized I needed to think about my career strategically."
Gautami Nadkarni, a 33-year-old customer engineer at Google since 2018, recognized a significant industry shift when AI began appearing prominently in client conversations and projects around 2023-2024. Rather than resisting this disruption, she strategically decided to pivot her career toward AI specialization. Acknowledging her initial self-doubt about her capability to work on complex AI projects, Nadkarni committed to uncomfortable growth through upskilling and networking in late 2024. By November 2025, she successfully transitioned within Google to an AI-focused customer engineer role, demonstrating that embracing industry disruption and taking proactive career steps yields better outcomes than defensive resistance.
Read at Business Insider
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