This project is called Between Campus and Code, and we have spoken to thirteen leaders in their fields around the world. You are so interesting to us because a lot of what we have been discussing concerns people aged 18 to 25, and you are in that age, building and studying and learning all of the things we have been talking about. So for a first question, give a very brief introduction to who you are, your age, where you live, what you do.

I'm 21 years old, and I'm studying at Polytechnic University. I'm living in Armenia, and I'm also working as an AI automation and CRM implementation specialist. I like playing piano and guitar. I think that's it.

And what are you studying there?

I'm studying in the Information Systems department, in my fourth year of the bachelor's degree. It's anything about information technologies, IT. It's a broad industry, let's say. So I learn AI, I learn mathematics, I learn coding, and so on.

Could you walk me through the last automation that you built? And roughly how many hours of someone's work does that automation now do per week?

Actually, I'm building lots of automations during my work, so I can pick one that I created today or the day before.

That automation is created with n8n, and it's an AI agent that I use for outbound campaigns. There is a tool that sends automated emails to clients for leads. And when a lead gives a positive reply and is qualified for the company, it should be moved to their CRM system. For that, there should be a classification to understand what type of lead it is: an interested lead, a booked-meeting lead, or a not-interested lead.

With that AI agent, I differentiate what type of lead it is, and the agent also adds a suggestion for the salesperson at that company to understand what the next actions are for exactly that lead. And it moves all the information from the outbound system into their CRM. This is one of the latest automations, one of the more interesting ones, that I've created.

Regarding the time it saves: it depends on what they do and how they use it. Before that automation, maybe they didn't even put the lead into the CRM. They kept it in their mind, and sometimes they forgot about it. And whenever they did put it into the CRM, it was all manual: creating the person, creating the lead, adding the information.

Creating one lead takes approximately two to three minutes per person. And understanding what the person wrote, what company it is, and what to suggest takes approximately five to seven minutes. So I can say it takes approximately ten minutes for one lead overall. With that automation, it takes seconds. That's the time they cut from their daily work.

For me, it sounds almost like magic when you describe building something like that, because I would not even know where to start. When you are speaking with a company about these automations, is there ever a discussion of whether to automate something or to hire a person to do it? Picking between one or the other?

It depends on whether it's an automation or an AI agent. If it's about just automation, moving something from one place to another, or, for example, doing lead generation automatically, then our clients always agree, and they want to automate it.

But when it's time to speak about AI agents, as we know, AI can make mistakes, and because of that, sometimes they are thinking: maybe we don't need to use AI, and this time we need to hire someone instead.

And regarding the automations, I haven't seen any client who thought they didn't need that automation. Because before implementing that working system for them, first of all we describe to them how it will work, and they never have those doubts about automations.

My first job in sales was 13- to 14-hour days, usually doing very boring, repetitive work. That really shaped who I am in my career. It built my knowledge, doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again, for years. And it's exactly the type of task you're automating now. You are automating the things that made me into the professional I am. What do you think about that?

Yes, I have many friends who did all that kind of job manually in sales processes. For example, finding leads, sending them an email, following up with them, creating proposals for them, everything. And I think that now, if we see someone who doesn't use AI or who doesn't use automations, then something is not working.

So I don't think there can be someone who currently doesn't use any of these solutions. And it's really great that you learned it, and now you know what you do, and you just automate it. Because if you don't know what to do, and you only know that it happens somewhere, there can be a misunderstanding about what you're doing. So in any case, it's better that you first see how the process works, and then automate it.

But what happens when that first part is cut? I had to do all of those things by hand, so when someone tells me they can be automated, I understand what is being automated. What about people your age who skip that stage entirely? Have you heard anything from people your age having difficulties finding a job because of this?

Actually, I don't have any friends or relatives who have had this problem. All of my friends who are finding jobs are programmers. And now, because they know that their job is also done by AI, let's say 70 percent of it, they just do something else. They do vibe coding, they learn new things.

But about the ones who think that AI has taken their job, I want to mention one thing: companies can also be bringing in new employees, using AI, making the sales process better, and having more revenue. So that is the other side. What I mean is that in any case, I don't think people will find it too difficult to find jobs, because there is always a solution, and there is always a way to find the right step. I think.

You are studying and working at the same time, and I assume learning in your free time as well. Have you learned more from Polytechnic, or have you taught yourself more? I mean things you can actually use every single day or every single week.

If it's about AI and automation, I've learned everything without Polytechnic. I've just watched videos, I've tried, I've failed, and then I succeeded. But what Polytechnic gave me: it gave me friends, it gave me, let's say, the theoretical part, mathematics, and so on.

The job title, the position that I have now, the skills that I have with AI, that's something I learned myself. But in Polytechnic, I've learned coding, I've learned machine learning, those kinds of things.

Have any of your professors ever asked you how you are doing this? Have they wanted to learn from you?

Yes, I have one professor, and he's not that old; he's approximately 30 years old. He asked me what I'm doing, and I said that I'm doing automations without writing code, or if I write code, it's low code. And he asked: how do you do that? How is it even possible?

He didn't know about the third-party automation platforms. So I started showing him how it works, and he was surprised. Oh, really? There is something we can do without writing code? Yes. No code means using modules instead of writing code, and low code means I sometimes use coding parts inside it.

But the other professors I have are older. In Polytechnic, let's say, all the professors are old, and they didn't ask me what I do and how I do it. But I'm sure that if they knew I'm using low-code automations, they would have the same questions.

Is there something you already can't do, or wouldn't want to do, without AI? Things in your life, your work, your education, where AI is just a must-have?

Yes. The first thing is creating documents, because I don't like it. I don't like writing the content. And this is the most important part where Claude or any other AI tool has helped me. But also doing research. Before, I was searching on Google and finding books to read, or finding videos on YouTube. But now, I just ask any AI to create a course for me, so that I can learn from that. But for other things, for example creating the automations themselves, I always like creating them manually, from scratch, because that is interesting for me.

Does it worry you, or does it free you, not being able to do things without AI anymore?

It worries me when I think that I might not be able to use AI for that content generation part, or for learning new things. But as I did it before, it would not be difficult for me to do it again.

When AI gives you an answer, how do you decide whether to believe it or not?

At first, I don't believe it, and I need to double-check it. First of all, I tell it: please double-check what you have sent me. Give me the sources where you found that information. And then, after it gives me the answer, depending on the question, depending on the urgency and the importance of that question, if it's needed, I will double-check it from my side. If not, I will believe it in that case. But the first answer, I don't believe that first answer.

The CEO of Anthropic has said that within five years, AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. First of all, do you believe that's true? And second, what do you feel when you hear that statement? What do you feel in your chest?

Unfortunately, I think the same thing. And what I feel is that I need to keep moving. For example, the work that I do, creating automations, AI can now do it too. I just need to do some updates after the AI creates the automation. So what I think about is learning new things. Because every time something changes, something else is being created. If something disappears, then another thing is created. What I'm thinking is, everyone should learn new things and should always try to do new things. We should always try to find new solutions. Because just sitting and doing the thing I did one year ago means thinking about not having a job in the future.

I used to think I would always understand what young people are doing, that I would always be young. When my parents or someone from the older generation had a hard time with the computer or the internet, I thought, how is it possible that they don't understand? I'm starting to understand them now. Do your parents understand what you do at work?

I don't even tell them about it, because I just say I do some work with computers. It's like programming, but it's not the same thing. If I told them AI automation, I think, okay, they know about it, but they don't know what it is. They haven't used it.

Can you tell me about a time when AI, or one of your automations, embarrassed you, put you in a difficult situation?

I need to think about it. Yes, I remember something. When I was new at creating automations, I was using make.com, and I had created an automation that was sending our clients reminders about the billings they needed to pay us. And actually, the automation was working perfectly. I just opened it to do some updates, changing the text of the reminder messages. And I didn't see that I had added another module, and I saved it. Because of that module, all our clients got a notification about billing. But they had already paid it. That was an embarrassing thing. But I think the automation was working. The problem was with my eyes, let's say, that I didn't see that module.

A lot of the history of humanity has been about being able to work and take care of your family. Urbanization, people leaving villages, leaving countries, leaving continents to find work. It has shaped humanity for its entire history. Your work travels in a wire. You don't have to leave Yerevan for the entire world to know what you're doing, and you don't have to stay in Yerevan either. I think you are part of the first generation of human beings that can truly live like this. So where do you see yourself in five years? In what city, in what country, doing what?

I'm not thinking about the country or the city where I live. I'm thinking about who I am with and what I do. It's actually a difficult question, and I always have different answers to it. If you had asked me this question one hour earlier, I would have given another answer. So I need to think about it.

But right now, I'm working hard to have something easier in the future. What I'm thinking is just working now to have a future where I will not work as much as I do now. And another thing: I'm thinking that I will be with my parents, with my relatives. It doesn't matter where I am. I will just be with them. This is what I want.

Now I have some sentences from the other people I've interviewed in this series, and I want you to react in just a sentence or two. Here's the first, from a Babson professor: the students who spend four years using AI to write their papers and fix their grammar are not going to be the winners.

If that student who uses AI doesn't understand what the AI does, then I agree with that statement. But if the student uses AI, and AI does all the work, but the student understands what the AI did, and could do it themselves, asking questions rather than taking everything from AI, then I don't agree. So it depends on the usage of AI. But if AI is doing the whole job and the student doesn't research anything, then it's a true statement.

This one is from a UCL economist, and you can consider it regarding AI: answers are cheap, good questions are scarce.

I agree with that. What I understand from it is that sometimes, just by asking the question, you get the answer from it. The answer comes from the question. That's why answers are cheap. I mean, the questions are what make us think about answers.

From a Minerva professor: to be great with AI, you have to be great at certain things without AI.

Yes, 100 percent agree with that. Because, for example, if I'm not familiar with healthcare, I can't do anything with AI there. Without any knowledge about it, yes, AI can give me answers, but I will not be a doctor.

Two questions left. I've interviewed thirteen people before you: professors, deans, executives. You are the youngest interviewee in this entire series, and you're a student. I asked all of these university leaders what they would say to students worldwide about AI. Now I'm asking you the reverse. What would you say to universities? How should university leaders approach the question of AI?

What I would say is: do not ban students from using AI. Encourage students to use AI, so that they will not cheat. They will use AI in their daily work, but they will work alongside it as well, not only with AI; they will do the work, they will think about it. But if we ban something, people want to do the banned thing.

So I would suggest that universities add solutions that work with AI. And the tools and possibilities that AI gives, the solutions it offers, universities should learn about them too. Because it's making our work faster. It's making us think more flexibly and be more flexible. And I would even say that at school, pupils should start using AI.

Final question. One of the people in this series is Stephen Brand, a 68-year-old Babson professor who spent his career interviewing the inventors of things like fiber optics and the personal computer. He opened his interview by telling me: I'm 68 years old, and I wish I were 18. I truly believe the opportunities available to 18-to-25-year-olds today are extraordinary, so I'm not worried. You're 21. You are right in that age category. Is he right about the opportunities being extraordinary? Take your time, and just give your view, as a person living on this planet, in this day and age.

I would say that I would like to stay in this age, at this time, and use these solutions. And also, why not, I would even like to be younger than I am now. For example, I would like to be 16 years old, not 21 years old, and start using AI.

Please, stop. You're 21, you can't wish that you were 16, that's ridiculous. Anything else you want to say to the world before we finish?

I would like to say that we should always be happy. It doesn't matter if we do what we want, or if the time has ended and we don't have anything to do. We always have the possibility, we always have the chance, and we always have the solutions. It doesn't matter if it's with AI or without it.

*This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. The interviewee reviewed and approved the transcript before publication.