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What a Zicklin Alum Knows About Thriving in the Age of AI

June 18, 2026

How to navigate the working world while AI is rewriting the rules in real time? It’s a question in the back—or front—of nearly every student’s mind these days, and one person with some answers is Zicklin School of Business alumnus Yash Upadhyay (BBA, ’05).

Yash gave a presentation entitled “From Classroom to Career: Thriving in an AI-Driven World” at a recent Mitsui Lunch-Time Forum at the Weissman Center for International Business. It offered practical tips rather than doom and gloom.

AI is increasing democratization in the workplace, Yash noted, by enabling businesses to scale up cheaply and empowering employees to create things that used to be limited to specialists. Admittedly, it’s a potential job threat—“I used to run teams of 30. Now with AI, teams will be one or two people using agentic AI,” Yash said—but fortunately, there are skills that can’t be outsourced to bots, and plenty of steps students can take right away:

  • Become AI savvy—don’t just use chatbots. Upskill with free courses in AI from Google, Open AI, or YouTube (or paid ones from Section School or LinkedIn Learning). Follow influencers in your industry or sector.
  • Network. “I connect with people three to four times a week,” Yash offered. Human connection and communication are more valuable than ever in the AI age. Express curiosity about people’s work—“I want to learn how you do X”—and follow up with a LinkedIn connect request, or ask for a coffee date.
  • Start building—all you need is a laptop. Train yourself on some YouTube videos and create a tool: Yash trained AI to keep him updated on personal finance, news, and trends.

In a Q&A session after the presentation, several Baruch students described their own AI projects. Zicklin grad student Shad Hussain (MS, ’26) said that in the two years since he moved to the U.S., he managed to build a vast and robust social network thanks to an AI agent he created that auto-sends new contacts follow-up emails every three days.

To learn more about the Weissman Center for International Business, click here.

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