Artificial intelligence is on everyone’s minds these days. AI has reshaped almost every industry and continues to evolve almost daily. For many business leaders and college students, there is a question of how to remain indispensable in a workforce where technology is already solving many tasks that humans used to control. Two of the most recognizable names in technology have taken that question directly to students at High Point University in North Carolina, offering strikingly similar answers rooted in curiosity, problem-solving, and human traits that AI cannot currently replicate.
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak and former Google executive Teena Piccione both serve in High Point University’s Access to Innovators program. This unique initiative brings global business leaders to campus to mentor students directly. Their recent visits, spaced only months apart, offered a side-by-side look at how two generations of Silicon Valley leadership are thinking about the AI revolution and the careers it will create, disrupt, and redefine. Below are some insights shared by these executives, along with ways HPU students can take these messages to heart and build successful futures.
Steve Wozniak: Curiosity and Joy Still Drive Innovation
Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, has served as High Point University’s Innovator in Residence since 2016. In February of 2026, he spoke to hundreds of students at the Hayworth Fine Arts Center just weeks before Apple marked the 50th anniversary of its April 1, 1976, founding. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of machine learning, Wozniak focused on the foundational mindset that produces breakthrough technologies like AI, rather than on the technology itself.
During a sit-down conversation with Lou Anne Flanders-Stec, the founding dean of HPU’s David S. Congdon School of Entrepreneurship, Wozniak described how curiosity and joy were integral ingredients to the beginning of his company. He reminded students that he and Steve Jobs started the company with no money in their savings accounts and that his salary at Hewlett-Packard at the time was only $25,000. He shared the story of quickly developing a floppy disk for Apple despite having no prior knowledge of how to do it. This story was a unique example of how humans solve problems and how they can come up with inventions that AI cannot think of.
“What you love is very important,” Wozniak told students. “That’s what you’ll put the time in to be one of the very best.” The message landed with aspiring entrepreneurs like Evan Taylor, a freshman finance major from Atlanta, who said Wozniak reinforced the idea that “innovation starts with curiosity and the willingness to experiment” and that meaningful change requires action and commitment to ideas, not just access to tools.
Teena Piccione: AI Will Change Jobs, But Not Replace Human Judgment
Wozniak explored the philosophical case for human creativity in his session with students. For hers, Piccione delivered an operational glance at change. As a former global transformation and operations executive at Google, Teena now serves as Secretary and Chief Information Officer of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology. In addition, Piccione has been HPU’s Data Expert in Residence since 2024. She addressed business and engineering students gathered in the Bertram L. Podell Extraordinaire Cinema, acknowledging the elephant in every classroom.
According to Piccione, Google and nearly every major company are racing to integrate artificial intelligence into their operations to ensure efficiency. However, she argues that wholesale jobs are not being eliminated by saying, “Now, does that mean I’m taking away your job? No! We still have to have human interaction, and we have to be able to say, ‘How can a human give us common sense? How do we make sure it’s right? And how do we make sure it’s good?” She reminded students that graduates can succeed more quickly if they work alongside AI systems, question their outputs, and apply judgment that models cannot. In addition, taking coursework in media, technology, and AI can help students add technical skills to their resumes, regardless of the industry they’re in.
How Wozniak and Piccione Are Leading the Next Generation of Workers
Wozniak and Piccione offer back-to-back advice that converges despite coming from different eras and corners of the tech industry. Both executives stressed that technical fluency alone cannot land you a job, and both were very insistent on encouraging human creation through curiosity, common sense, problem-solving, and honesty. Finally, both used their platforms at High Point University to push students beyond surface-level career planning toward more impactful questions and decisions.
In her mentorship, Piccione urges HPU students to pursue jobs that allow them to make an impact at scale. Technology sectors have many opportunities for growth as AI and other inventions change the scope of what humans are doing in the workforce. She has also walked students through practical steps that may be lost in the common AI conversation, such as how to write a resume that stands out, how to prepare for interviews, and how to choose references who will speak honestly on their behalf. In contrast, Wozniak encouraged students to identify real problems worth solving and to approach challenges with the same playful experimentation that defined his career, reminding them that failure is part of the process, not a label to attach to themselves.
Finally, a generational message has been set in both sessions at HPU. Wozniak came of age in a hardware era where innovation required physical prototyping and personal financial risk. Piccione built her career in an era where cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and generative AI are collapsing those cycles into weeks. The fact that both professionals agree on the underlying drivers of success means these traits may have more durability than you might think. Curiosity, honesty, and accurate problem identification can help HPU students remain relevant in their career field after graduation and throughout their lives. These skills can also continue to be passed on as the world changes in ways we may have never dreamed of.
Why High Point University Puts Students in the Room With Tech Icons
When residents from HPU’s Access to Innovators program speak with students, they aren’t just coming once and leaving, nor are they only offering large lectures or online masterclasses. Instead, they mentor students directly through programs like Q&A sessions, classroom visits, brainstorming workshops, and lunch meetings. For example, during his February 2026 visit, Wozniak met with HPU Minds, a student group developing a headset that reads brainwaves to control devices, and also spoke to a software engineering class. This small-group exposure doesn’t exist at most universities, and it sets all HPU students up for success.
For business-oriented students entering a job market that will likely be radically different in five years than it is today, the takeaway from High Point University’s twin tech visits is straightforward. Although AI will undoubtedly continue to change all industries, the people who thrive in these jobs are those who can cultivate judgment, stay curious, keep learning, and remain honest about what they know and what they don’t. Whether the advice comes from the garage that birthed Apple or the cloud division at Google, the underlying message to HPU students is the same: master the human side of the work, and the technology will follow.