AI is no longer a specialist skill. It is fast becoming a baseline requirement for professionals across every industry, much like Excel was a decade ago. But what does AI literacy actually look like in practice? And how do you build it without a technical background?
In this episode of Work Right With Rich, Richard Farmer sits down with AI entrepreneur and educator Sherry Jiang to unpack what it really takes to become AI-ready. Sherry went from a corporate career at Google to building viral AI products, running sold-out courses, and hosting some of Singapore’s biggest AI hackathons, all without a traditional engineering background.
This episode is for business leaders, HR professionals, recruiters, and operators who want a clear, practical understanding of where AI skills are heading and what they need to do now.
Key Takeaways
- AI literacy is a baseline skill, not a specialist one. If you are waiting until you feel ready, you are already falling behind.
- Agency is everything. Stop asking “can I do this?” and start asking “how might I do this?” The mindset shift is more important than the technical skill.
- Communication is your biggest AI advantage. The best AI users are clear thinkers who can express themselves well, not coders.
- You do not need a technical background to build. A mental health professional with two days of experience placed in the top 15 of a 500-person hackathon.
- Pick a tool and start. Tool choice barely matters at the beginning. Competence is what makes the decision meaningful.
- Domain knowledge is now a superpower. The people who understand a problem deeply are the ones building the best solutions for it.
- FOMO works on leadership. Showing competitors who are already implementing AI is one of the most effective ways to get buy-in.
Episode Chapters
| Timestamp | Topic |
|---|---|
| 00:01 | Introduction: Why AI literacy is the new baseline skill |
| 01:04 | Meet Sherry Jiang: From Google to AI entrepreneur |
| 03:07 | How Sherry taught herself to build with AI |
| 04:30 | Building her first viral app: The rent vs buy calculator |
| 06:53 | Why she started teaching AI to others |
| 07:45 | Going viral on LinkedIn by cloning Google Finance |
| 09:16 | From a waitlist to 200 sign-ups in 24 hours |
| 10:10 | Is coding now the universal language? |
| 12:34 | Breaking down barriers: Who can actually build with AI |
| 13:18 | How the AI builder community has changed since 2024 |
| 14:28 | Inside the Cursor Hackathon: 500 builders, 50% first-timers |
| 15:29 | The mental health professional who placed top 15 |
| 18:20 | Why younger builders move faster and what that means for you |
| 19:32 | The architect who built a building compliance checker |
| 22:25 | The two most important AI skills: Agency and communication |
| 24:30 | Agency: Stop asking “can I” and start asking “how might I” |
| 25:17 | Communication: Why teachers crush it at AI building |
| 27:35 | Which platform should you start with? |
| 29:55 | Why community and relationships drive tool choice |
| 31:04 | Can you switch platforms mid-build? |
| 33:22 | How to pitch AI ideas inside a corporate |
| 35:24 | Using FOMO and case studies to get leadership buy-in |
| 37:54 | How to flip the script: Starting an AI strategy from scratch |
| 40:20 | The skunkworks team approach |
| 42:25 | AI engineers vs AI literacy: Where does everyone else fit? |
| 43:18 | AI bilingualism and what it means for your workforce |
| 44:18 | The future: Applied AI vs frontier research |
