Google DeepMind's AI Readiness Chief Urges Workers and Schools to Prepare for AI

Ibrahim may be the only person in the world with the title of chief AI readiness officer, according to CNBC. She has spent almost a decade helping Google DeepMind build AI and address ethical and existential questions around the technology. Earlier this year, she moved into the readiness role from chief operating officer. She said the job is not about DeepMind’s own readiness but about helping the rest of the world understand and adapt as AI moves beyond the lab into scientific research, weather forecasting, education and workplace productivity.

She said the central question is not whether AI will become more capable, or exactly how. The more important question, she said, is whether people have a say in how it is used. “While I might not know what it will do, I know that we still can – we have the agency to shape how we get there,” she told CNBC. She added, “You can't shape the right future unless you do so with the communities that it's going to impact.”

For workers confronting reports of AI-driven layoffs and automation, Ibrahim’s advice is to begin using the technology. “You have to start using AI yourself and create the time and space to do it,” she said. “You don't have to be the smartest in the room.” She and her teams at DeepMind put that into practice daily. She said her most transformational daily use case is briefing documents, which AI can help synthesize so she can absorb information quickly. That, she said, frees the team that prepares the documents to spend time on big thinking and other work.

Ibrahim asks all team members three questions: how they are using AI, what would help them use it more, and where they are not using AI. She said the third question is the human talent element and is critical. “That's what we need to hire for; we need to reward. This is what we want to continue developing in our employees,” she said. She added that applies to her as well. “AI can help automate all of my tasks, but it cannot automate my Tuesdays,” she said.

With two teenage daughters, Ibrahim said AI learning needs to start long before people enter the workforce. She said her daughters will inherit the technology being developed but are not getting a voice in how it is taught or integrated into schools and life. She said she would like schools to work more with teachers, and that teachers need to lead with students in exploring where AI makes sense. Students also need to grow up more literate about what the technology is and is not, and about responsible use cases, she said.

Ibrahim described a career path that took her from graduate study in electrical engineering to work on designing Intel’s Pentium processor and now to Google DeepMind and AI. She said so much has already changed in her lifetime, and the same will be true for the next generation. She said the best response is to teach a love of learning and curiosity, and the resilience to know change is coming and to have a role in how it happens. “One of the things that I think is going to be important is continuous learning,” she said. CNBC is accepting nominations for the 2027 Changemakers List. Ibrahim was named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list.