Now that software writers and coders are looking imperiled due to evolutions from AI systems like ChatGPT, the next question  is this: “what are the skills we need to thrive?” Simple answer: you need the capacity to boss and manage the machines*, and the components include analytical judgment, ability to work flexibly, emotional intelligence, creative evaluation, tenacity and curiosity.

If you check, the hot prompt engineering role does have some of those components. A prompt engineer is a compass to generative AI systems like ChatGPT.  The person helps  in getting AI systems to produce exactly what he/she wants. The people in this emerging trade make tons of money – and are indeed a little “smarter” than the AI systems.

According to ChatGPT “…Prompt engineering is the process of designing effective and efficient prompts for generating high-quality responses from natural language processing models such as GPT-3. It involves the selection and combination of various text inputs that can help guide the model to produce specific outputs.

Prompt engineering requires a deep understanding of the underlying language model and the task at hand, as well as the ability to create prompts that are tailored to the specific needs of the user or application. The goal is to design prompts that provide sufficient context and direction to the model, while avoiding ambiguity or confusion that could result in incorrect or irrelevant responses.

Two decades ago, writing and posting a web article involved “coding” at html level. Then, WordPress came and made blogging easier, with no requirement to master html syntax. Just like that, WordPress brought many people into the game of running blogs because it took out the tech in posting online. 

With ChatGPT,  what WordPress did to html-level writing could be done to the whole world of coding! In other words, for basic coding needs, you do not need to know anything about coding. If you earn a living in this space, you must prepare for that future.

*AI+ goes beyond tech.

Read this piece below.

ChatGPT has the fastest growing customer base of any technology in history, gaining 100 million users in just two months. And all signs suggest that business adoption will be equally swift. The new technology is top of mind for every CEO I talk with these days.

But while all are impressed by the power of these new tools, many are still perplexed about where to start. Unlike previous generations of A.I., which focused on relatively narrow tasks—predicting customer churn, for instance, or targeting supply chain issues—generative A.I. models can tackle a wide variety of creative tasks. And while the amazing breadth of these models makes them impressive, it also makes them daunting. Our recent polling shows the vast majority of Fortune 500 CEOs are still at the experimental stage, or planning their first step. 

Accenture CTO Paul Daugherty has a new piece for Fortune that may help light the path. He highlights five core ways that people can work with generative A.I. to create value. McKinsey also has a paper out this morning that is a primer for businesses exploring generative A.I., and provides helpful use cases. McKinsey’s Lareina Yee, one of the authors, told me their analysis “of the apparel, fashion and luxury sectors found that GenAI has the potential to add $150 billion in operating profits.” Hard to overlook.

Both Daugherty’s article and the McKinsey paper highlight writing software code as one of the areas where generative A.I. can make a huge difference—increasing productivity by 50%, McKinsey says. Which raises another interesting issue: For the last decade, the surest route to a good job was to learn to write code. But now that machines do that, what’s the new formula for job security? Microsoft provided some guidance this week in its Work Trend Index Annual Report. The skills needed to survive are those that will help humans manage the machines: analytical judgement, ability to work flexibly, emotional intelligence, creative evaluation and curiosity. 

To sum it up: generative A.I. is likely to have the most profound impact on the business world of any technology since the PC. And the best way to remain relevant will be to learn how to use it smartly. What’s coming, says Daugherty, is a reinvention “of the way work is done, dramatically amplifying what people can achieve.” And the companies and people that get there fastest “will gain a big leg up on less innovative competitors.” Fortune Newsletter

In this age, jobs are expected to be lost even as new ones are being created: “Despite how frequently layoff announcements reference the economy, an economic rebound won’t necessarily bring those jobs back. That’s because the rise of artificial intelligence is making companies question how many white-collar workers they really need, The Wall Street Journal reports. While demand for blue-collar workers remains strong, investors and executives realize they overhired at the middle management level in recent years, experts say. As leaders look to move forward with less bloat, one analyst tells the Journal that the need for knowledge workers may have peaked.”

Tesla investors can now relax and take ice cream. Yes, Elon Musk has hired a CEO to run Twitter. If not for  Tesla being asked to “recall” 1.1 million cars in China, the stock  would have seen a huge rally. (The  word “recall” is weak here  since most of its fixes are done over the air with no need to visit any dealership). Yes, Tesla will use over the air software updates to fix whatever the issues are with no need for any dealership visit. 

If Twitter succeeds in the everything app, many companies including PayPal, Booking , and Live Nation for tickets, could be disintermediated. But do not bank on that as these companies will not just wait to be flanked and destroyed.

This new CEO brings two key things: give Musk a cover to appear not to be running Twitter so that investors in SpaceX and Tesla will remain calm, AND as CEO, take the verbal and textual fires which Musk has been absorbing since he took the blue bird home. Left and Right, Musk will not allow this $44 billion special bird to fly out of his view! 

I predict that Musk will raise a huge sum of money on Twitter/X very soon because this company is coming back to NASDAQ within two years as a public company. It is a toy!

Yet, if you look at the big picture, Tesla will compound for Musk faster than whatever Twitter can deliver. Tesla is a category-king company in a huge market (all cars could become electric in decades) and if the goal is to add more digits in personal fortune, focusing on Tesla and SpaceX will serve Musk better.

But when you realize that rich people like toys with some buying football clubs, you cannot blame Musk for taking a bird home!

I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!

@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.

Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023

It’s official: Twitter has a new CEO. Linda Yaccarino, head of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, will take over the top job from Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion. Musk confirmed Yaccarino’s hiring Friday, saying she will “focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology.” Musk said Thursday that he will transition to new roles as executive chair and chief technology officer. Yaccarino had been at NBCU for over a decade and was instrumental in launching the Peacock streaming service. Musk says Yaccarino will help “transform this platform into X, the everything app.” He recently merged Twitter into a firm called “X Corp.” and has said he wants to build an all-in-one app similar to China’s WeChat. (LinkedIn News)

GTBank (yes, GTCO) was peerless a few years ago when it delivered an industry-leading cost-to-income ratio (CIR) of sub-35%, a critical indicator of operational excellence in banking. But recently, the CIR has dropped; from 42.3% in 2021 to 48% in 2022. Yet, it still leads the profit margin element in Nigeria’s leading companies.

From this plot, it is interesting how Dangote Cement outperformed MTN (a telecom company) on profit margin. Airtel Africa did not even make the cut, implying that it was somewhere below 11% on profit margin! Very interesting indeed!

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: Thanks for sharing Prof. I would love to understand this economics. In Market Cap, Airtel is No.1, But in Profitability, they are not even in top 10. As an investor, one is tempted to ask, “should I invest in a company with a higher Market Cap or a Company with a higher profitability”? Seems like a no-brainer right, because with more profit comes more dividend. So I am curious, what is the mathematics behind Market Cap and Profit Margins?

My Response: You have largely 3 types of public market investors – income chaser (dividend loving who want the certainty of income coming in),  growth builder (they invest for shares to grow fast), and value picker (pick beaten down equities and hope they recover).  Airtel has delivered great valuation growth which favours the growth builder. Dividend paying companies like Dangote Cement will appeal to the income chaser. Investment thesis is not about “profit”; Amazon was loss-making but was improving valuation over years.

That is why bankers will ask you “what do you want to accomplish in this investment?” Answering that question will help one build a portfolio.  I recommend this Tekedia course -Tekedia Investment and Portfolio Management –  for everyone .

Comment 2: Cement, which ordinary should be classed as ‘staple’ or essential product enjoys unregulated price regime, while telecom services have price control always looking over their shoulders. This is why both Dangote and BUA can enjoy better margins than MTN.

For the banks, their own profit margins aren’t much about hardwork or innovation, rather the system favours them so much that by doing the barest minimum, they can still turn in significant profits; we rarely have commercial banks that are not recording profits.

Our market system is broken, just like the Nigerian State, so profits and advancements aren’t necessarily tied to ingenuity and excellent execution, rather a case of aligning with the right forces, and your small hustle will balloon in profits.

The wealth without enterprise (or subpar enterprise) maxim is always in play here.

Comment 3: Everything should not be about profitability. Do a Salary survey and staff welfarism in those companies with high profitability ratio to revenue, then you will understand that this profit is to the detriment of their staff.

My Response: Actually, in the CEO Report, these companies with the highest profit margins outperform. Profitable companies have funds to pay workers. They represent the best paid sectors in the public market – banking, oil/gas, telecoms. I am not sure if you have data to show otherwise. By far, these 10 companies are the best to work for all companies traded in the public exchange in Nigeria. So, unless you show data, your comment that profit is detrimental to staff is not there