Your Career is Still Loading: AI, career anxiety, and building skills for a future that’s still taking shape (Cognitive Complexity)

What do you prepare for when the work you’ll do and how you’ll do it is still taking shape? Join Afi Blackshear of Kercher Law for a moderated conversation about AI, career anxiety, and the opportunity to help shape what comes next. Afi is a lawyer, but the way he practices and the skills his work demands is changing. As some jobs disappear, new ones emerge, and familiar roles transform, we’ll explore why enduring skills like curiosity, judgment, and clear communication can become even more valuable and how experimenting now can give students a head start. You don’t need your whole career mapped out to start building it.

Bio

Afi Blackshear is a lawyer at Kercher Law, where he is helping build an AI-native litigation practice centered on human judgment. A Stanford Law School graduate, Afi previously practiced at Kirkland & Ellis and clerked for the Honorable Judge Harry D. Leinenweber of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

His work on AI spans the rules that govern it, the people it affects, and the ways it transforms professional practice. Through the Center for AI and Digital Policy, Afi contributed to the Council of Europe’s AI treaty, including serving as a formal delegate in the treaty process. At Stanford, he represented clients in submissions to federal agencies addressing AI, consumer protection, and algorithmic decision-making. He also co-founded The Periphery, a podcast that broadens participation in conversations about technology, with guests including former Federal Trade Commission Chair Jon Leibowitz.

Having lived in Bangkok and Egypt, Afi brings a personal perspective on how rapidly the future can change. His work asks how people can help shape that future: developing judgment, asking better questions, and building the confidence to pursue opportunities that do not yet have a name.

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