“I’ve become rather unpopular because of AI.”
That’s what Marcus (name changed for privacy) told me recently. He works in credit risk modeling at a large, well-known bank.
He joined our challenge, started learning AI, and did what enthusiastic people do: he shared what he was learning and the wins he was having.
His department didn’t like it.
Where he works, AI is treated as a threat.
Colleagues see it as a danger. A culture has formed where people close ranks against it, and whoever brings it up becomes the outsider.
At one point he said: “You should rather not speak of AI if you want to…” — and he didn’t even finish the sentence.
He didn’t have to.
Here’s what struck me.
Marcus sees the opportunity clearly. AI can do a lot in credit risk modeling — especially the data side: cleaning, processing, preparing it for the models.
There are already companies building dedicated AI agents just for credit risk scoring.
The change is coming to his field whether his department discusses it or not. The silence only protects everyone’s comfort — and only until the first AI platform gets rolled out from above.
When that happens, Marcus will be the one person in the room who’s ready.
If learning AI is making you unpopular, you’re probably just early.
Keep going.
Kirill
P.S. I’ll be honest — I didn’t think workplaces like this existed. I guess not everyone is learning AI yet.