“But I also noticed the lack of soul nor warmth it conveyed. It was not my personal voice, and it did not express my genuine appreciation for the opportunity to impart my insights to thousands of you. You want to hear from me, not some algorithm of me.”
So, instead of delivering a lackluster AI-powered speech, the 68-year-old scrapped the draft entirely.
“So don’t worry,” he said. “I threw it away and took pencil to paper,” drawing applause from the crowd.
For Bastian, though, AI is best used as a tool to enhance work—not replace workers. He told graduates that authenticity and character remain among the hardest qualities for technology to replicate—and among the most important to protect.
“The most important asset that you have is your good name,” he said to graduates. “It’s your brand. It’s what you stand for. And there’s only one person that can take that away from you. That person is you.”
But, Bastian added, that as he climbed the ladder, he found out that lasting success rarely comes from shortcuts.
“Character isn’t revealed when life is easy. Character is revealed when times and decisions are hard. Many times, doing the right thing comes at a cost. But I always prefer to think of it as an investment, a smart investment,” he said.
“I’ve had many important decisions to make over the course of my career, and I must admit, taking a shortcut or pushing the easy button can sometimes be quite tempting. But they never yield an enduring result or an effective solution.”
“There’s also a really important attribute, and that’s humility with the willingness to actually listen more than you talk, to be able to make certain that you have an appreciation for what people do, to relate to the people,” he said.
Bastian echoed a similar message in his remarks to graduates, arguing that curiosity, humility, gratitude, and grace matter just as much as technical expertise—but admitted finding the right balance won’t always come easy.
“I’ve learned more from my failures than my successes have ever taught me,” he told graduates. “That’s where real learning occurs and confidence is born. So don’t be afraid to take that shot and bet on yourself.”
