A CMO told me her son is heading to college completely anti-AI because his teachers convinced him it’s cheating. Meanwhile, I’m doing the opposite with my daughter. One of these kids is going to have a much tougher road ahead.
As a mom with a daughter also starting college in just a week, this is important to me. I’m working hard to teach my daughter to use AI the right way. We have ChatGPT Plus and Perplexity Pro on her phone, and I try to talk about AI with her.
But I’ll be honest, it’s not easy. At home, I’m just “Mom” who couldn’t possibly know anything about tech, even though I help companies with AI adoption every day.
The difference between these two kids feels like a big gap. One is entering college believing AI use is morally wrong. The other is learning to see it as a teammate. Both will need to work in a world where AI skills matter more and more, but they’re starting from very different places.
This “cheating” mindset shows up at all levels in the workplace. I was recently in an executive staff meeting where I was guiding AI plans. Two VPs had completely different views.
One VP said she felt uneasy using AI because it seemed like taking shortcuts. Another VP had the opposite view. He could tell when his team hadn’t used AI because the work wasn’t as strong. He’d ask why they hadn’t used it, the way you might ask why someone added up hundreds of entries by hand instead of using a spreadsheet.
But women need to pay closer attention to this. A study in The Economist found women use AI 16 to 20 percent less than men in the same roles, with the gap even wider among high-achieving women. Researchers point to beliefs about doing it on your own and avoiding what feels like shortcuts.
This matters because professionals who do use AI earn 8 percent higher salaries on average. We’re creating a disadvantage by teaching that AI use is wrong.
There’s a lesson for us parents, educators, and leaders. How we talk about AI today shapes tomorrow’s workforce. Instead of “AI is cheating,” we need to teach good judgment, the right way to use it, and the human skills that make AI truly valuable.
My daughter’s generation will work in a world where AI skills matter as much as reading or math. I want her to see AI as a teammate that makes her work better when used responsibly.
