Panel: Technology outlook and careers

In this Princeton ACM panel discussion, our panelists addressed the overall technology outlook - with a special emphasis on how it impacts job seekers, career choices, hiring/layoff dynamics, and the general shape of future of technology that we should expect. Our speakers have consulting experience throughout the business community - including startups, business strategy, and customer experience - and they will share their advice about how that might affect how we position ourselves in the job market.
Main messages: 1. watch out for technology hype (especially about AI), 2. figure out how to make yourself valuable (it might not be a standard tech job category), and 3. we are in an business and government cycle that has created obstacles for companies to invest in R&D.
This panel was the January 2025 meeting of ACM Princeton Chapter.
The panelists:
Jeffery Lee Funk is a retired professor and an author of five books. As a professor at National University of Singapore in 2007, he taught a unique course on the economics of new technologies that helped him become an early critic of today’s startups and venture capital.
Leonard Lee is the founder and managing director of neXt Curve and is based in San Diego. His company currently advises some of the leading firms across the technology, media, telecommunications, and industrial technology sectors on frontier priorities that are shaping the future of tech and industries.
Debbie Levitt is Chief Experience Officer at Delta CX, a customer experience and user experience consulting firm. She has been involved in consulting for thirty years, helping companies with CX and UX strategy, research, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, and testing.