Jevic Muteba saw it coming.
After more than a decade in tech, he recognized AI wasn’t arriving; it was already here. But what scared him wasn’t the technology.
It was who was building it.
“The biggest or the scariest thing for me about AI is who is actually building the AI versus you building the AI. There are not enough Black and Brown people with the prompts and fact-checking everything. That should
Jevic Muteba
be the scariest part.”
“The biggest or scariest thing about AI is who is building it versus you building it,” says Muteba, customer success lead at Gauntlet AI. “There aren’t enough Black and Brown people with the prompts and fact-checking.”
More than 90% of global enterprises will face critical skills shortages by 2026, according to IDC research, a gap that will cost the global economy $5.5 trillion in lost productivity. Many career professionals wonder if they can adapt fast enough.
Muteba’s Boston-based organization runs a 10-week intensive program that transforms experienced engineers into AI specialists commanding starting salaries of $200,000, some securing contracts exceeding $500,000.
But you don’t need to become a software engineer to stay competitive. Strategic upskilling that pairs your institutional knowledge with new capabilities is what matters.
What’s at stake
In Houston, where energy, healthcare, and manufacturing drive the economy, the AI skills gap threatens regional competitiveness. One in 10 job vacancies now require new skills, and these positions are posting significantly higher wages. Workers with AI skills commanded a 56% wage premium in 2024, double the previous year’s 25%.
Mike Yates, senior designer at Houston’s Teach For America Reinvention Lab, sees the disconnect daily. While leading AI initiatives and running hackathons for TFA staff, he’s watched the gap between traditional learning and current needs widen.
Udacity survey shows that 9 in 10 workers use AI tools on the job, yet three out of four abandon them mid-task due to concerns about accuracy and poor workflow integration.
“Technology lifted me out of poverty,” Yates says. “I truly believe AI has the potential, at a much larger scale than anything we’ve seen before, to lift families out of poverty. But only if people know how to use it.”
Yates grew up in Houston and comes from a family of educators. He spent years working at the intersection of learning and emerging technology. He says one of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that mastering it requires becoming a technical expert overnight.
“It’s never really about the technology,” Yates said. “It’s about isolating the specific skills you need, practicing them deeply, and then using AI as a partner to identify gaps and improve faster.”
At the Reinvention Lab, that philosophy shows up in hands-on training. Instead of long lectures or abstract theory, staff, educators, and alumni participate in short, focused workshops where they build practical AI-powered tools that directly improve their work. The goal is not to turn everyone into an AI evangelist, but to move people from fear to fluency.
Anthony Palmiotto, director of higher education at OpenStax at Rice University, sees the same shift playing out in higher education. OpenStax provides free, open-access textbooks used by colleges across Texas and the country, including new computer science materials that cover AI and data science.
“What people are really asking is what skills do I need, and how do I work alongside AI,” Palmiotto said. “And the answer depends on your domain.”
The action plan
Rather than chasing every new tool, Palmiotto encourages workers to focus on adaptability. AI systems will change, upgrade, and evolve, often within the same platforms people already use every day.
“Every piece of software people use now, whether it’s Microsoft, Google, or Salesforce, is embedding AI directly into their workflows,” he said. “Learning how to use those tools well is a powerful first step.”
“If you’re building things, you use different skills. They understand the bottlenecks and challenges,” Palmiotto says. “Only the person in the job now knows if that AI tool is actually effective, correct, and accurate. That’s what they bring to bear.”
Start with what you have. Muteba uses ChatGPT for executive communications and Perplexity for research. “I deal with many clients from B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer). I’d like to understand what they do and how they make money.” Before calls, he gets company evaluations and key questions. “I can’t imagine working without them.”
Leverage Houston’s ecosystem. “At Lone Star, Houston Community College, San Jacinto, Rice, University of Houston, and Prairie View A&M—short courses, certificate programs, or longer four-to-six course programs. Every model to put together,” Palmiotto says.
He advises: “Talk to your employer about needed skills, but also talk to institutions. Find out about prerequisites and requirements.”
Build adaptability, not just credentials. Essential skills: adaptability, prompt engineering, critical thinking, and domain expertise. “You should be using AI every single day,” Muteba says. “It’s like the new underground railroad.” Companies seek professionals who can guide AI implementation with wisdom and spot when it’s failing.
