Dream big, think boldly – and do keep up! Leading AI entrepreneur challenges QE boys on careers in a fast-changing world
An Old Elizabethan who co-founded a $1bn-plus AI company urged boys to be flexible, to develop transferable skills, and to keep learning throughout their lives if they want to build successful careers.
Amar Shah (OE 1999-2006) said society is moving so fast that their career preparations are likely to be for job roles that do not yet exist.
Addressing a special QE Futures assembly, he pointed out to the Year 7 & 9 pupils that iPhones had not even been launched when he left QE – and that was only 19 years ago.
Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) said: “Amar gave a really inspiring assembly on Dream Jobs. His message – with its focus on skills, being adaptable to emerging opportunities and lifelong learning – dovetails very well with our QE Futures strategy.
“The emphasis on transferable skills resonates deeply with our focus on the six QE Employability Skills – communication, critical thinking, digital literacy, leadership, resilience and teamwork.
“Thank you, Amar, for doing so much to get our pupils dreaming big and thinking boldly.”
The introduction came from an OE of the same generation, Asif Ahmed (OE 1997-2004), who said: “You might know that Amar is one of the co-founders of Wayve, the autonomous driving business that is widely regarded as one of the world’s (and certainly the UK’s) leading AI scale-ups.”
At the time of Wayve’s $1.05 billion Series C investment funding round last year, the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “I’m incredibly proud that the UK is the home for pioneers like Wayve who are breaking ground as they develop the next generation of AI models for self-driving cars.”
Amar has moved on to investing in and building other equally exciting businesses.
Having already worked with AI-designed medicines, he is now focusing on a project to ‘democratise’ the MRI scanner to help the developing world– making the hardware cheaper to purchase, so it is more accessible, and using AI to mitigate the loss of functionality.
QE Futures is the School’s programme of careers and universities guidance & support. Its slogan is Find Your Path.
Amar’s own path has taken him from reading Mathematics at Cambridge to positions at Goldman Sachs and NASA, and to a PhD in Machine Learning. He has successfully founded several businesses.
His key messages were:
- Don’t prepare for one particular job, since many future careers are not even in existence yet.
- Build transferable skills. Adaptability and curiosity will matter more than any single qualification.
- Never stop learning. In doing so, you can help shape the solutions the world needs.
Amar argued for breadth of education – “every subject will impact your life”. He added: “Life is long; the world is constantly changing; learning is lifelong.” And he had his own clear idea of the importance of this stage in the boys’ lives: “School is learning how to learn (forever).”
Amar concluded his presentation with these words: “I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”