You don’t have to be a coder to belong in tech.
That’s one of the things Mushfiqoh Samodien, Business Director at Aspire Solutions, would like more young women to know.
As a mother of four, business leader and woman working in an industry that is still largely considered male dominated, Samodien knows that the picture we have of what a “tech person” looks like can sometimes be part of the problem.
Her own work doesn’t start with coding. It starts with people and problems. At Aspire Solutions, she helps businesses figure out where they are, where they want to go and how technology can realistically help them get there.
And during Women’s Month, her message to women considering a career in the industry is refreshingly simple: don’t count yourself out before you’ve even started.
“If you are curious, if you enjoy solving problems, if you understand people, if you can communicate and if you are willing to learn, there is a place for you in technology,” she says.
Technology should solve a problem
For Samodien, Aspire is about building a bridge between business objectives and technology. This means understanding what a business actually needs before introducing a shiny new system just because everyone is talking about it.
“We don’t believe in implementing technology simply because it is the latest thing. Readiness and foundation are key.”
Aspire works across education, advisory, management systems, data, digital processes and technology implementation, but Samodien says the outcome they are looking for is ultimately quite simple: the business should operate better because of the technology.
That might mean saving time, getting better information, reducing risk or simply giving the people making decisions a clearer picture of what is happening.
It’s an approach that becomes particularly relevant when the conversation turns to AI.
Do we all really need AI?
There is a lot of pressure on businesses to adopt AI and digitise as quickly as possible, but Samodien believes we’re sometimes asking the questions in the wrong order.
Instead of starting with “How can we use AI?”, she believes businesses should first ask what they are trying to achieve and then look at whether technology can help them get there.
The problem isn’t necessarily getting businesses to adopt new technology. The bigger challenge is making sure it remains useful once the initial excitement wears off.
“You can introduce a fantastic system, but if your people don’t understand it, your processes aren’t aligned and there is no oversight, you haven’t necessarily created value.”
That doesn’t mean she isn’t excited about AI. Quite the opposite. Samodien sees enormous value in its ability to process information, identify patterns, generate insights and get repetitive work done faster, particularly at a time when businesses increasingly see time as currency.
She is, however, cautious about handing over too much responsibility.
“AI is intelligence that can assist us, but it doesn’t remove the need for human intelligence, judgement and accountability.”
Sometimes tech looks like a person with a clipboard
Ask Samodien for an example of technology solving an everyday problem and she doesn’t immediately reach for something futuristic.
Instead, picture someone sitting next to a road in a camp chair with a clipboard.
We’ve probably all driven past them at some point.
They are collecting data, but Samodien says the interesting questions start when you look beyond the clipboard. Why are they collecting it? Are they positioned in the right place? Is the information accurate? Where does it go afterwards and, importantly, does anyone actually use it?
Aspire looks at that entire journey, from planning how the information will be collected to making sure it can eventually be used by someone further up the organisation.
Suddenly, the person with the clipboard isn’t just counting cars. The information could help someone determine whether an intersection is safe, identify problem areas or decide whether another lane is needed.
“That’s where I see technology adding real value, not just collecting information, but turning information into something that supports better decisions.”
And then there’s the problem of finding things
Aspire’s Findology came from another problem that will sound painfully familiar to anyone who has ever worked in an office: businesses have information everywhere and nobody can find the thing they need when they need it.
There are documents sitting in emails, shared drives, cloud platforms, folders and different systems. Samodien says the team realised that information has very little value if people can’t find, understand or trust it.
Findology uses AI to change the way people interact with that information. Instead of only asking where a particular document was saved, users can begin asking questions of the information itself.
Again, Samodien comes back to human oversight. The aim isn’t to blindly accept whatever AI produces, but to use it to access and understand information faster while people retain responsibility for applying context and making decisions.
Should we be worried about AI taking our jobs?
It is almost impossible to talk about AI without eventually getting to the question of jobs.
Samodien doesn’t believe AI is simply going to replace people in the way some of the more dramatic predictions suggest.
Humans, she points out, bring intuition, emotional intelligence and context to the workplace. Her preference is to look at how technology can augment what people already do.
Let AI take care of some of the repetitive work and people have more time for problem-solving, relationships, creativity and decision-making.
There will be changes in the way we work, and Samodien doesn’t dismiss that, but she believes those changes should be approached responsibly rather than purely from a place of fear.
Interestingly, when asked which skills will become more valuable over the next five years, some of the first things she mentions aren’t technical skills at all.
Communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, adaptability and collaboration are high on her list.
“The people who can sit between those worlds, who understand the technology but can also communicate with a business leader, understand a customer and ask the right questions, are going to be incredibly valuable.”
Making tech feel like a place women belong
For Samodien, one of the barriers women still face in technology is perception. There remains an idea that you need to be highly technical, or specifically a coder, to have a meaningful career in the industry.
Her own experience has shown her how much broader the sector actually is.
Technology needs people who understand business, processes, communication, governance, data and, perhaps most importantly, people.
Samodien is passionate about empowering other women with opportunities to grow in business and participates in mentorship programmes and organisations as a way of giving back. For her, getting more girls interested in STEM and ICT means making technology feel accessible in the first place.
Rather than presenting it as something intimidating and highly technical, she believes young women should be shown what technology actually does: it solves problems, improves people’s lives and creates opportunities.
They also need to see women already doing the work.
“Representation matters. If a young woman can see herself in the industry, she is more likely to believe that she belongs there.”
But getting women through the door is only part of it.
“We need to support women beyond entry-level positions, into decision-making, ownership and leadership.”
Don’t disqualify yourself
Perhaps that is the Women’s Month message worth holding onto.
You don’t have to know how to code before you’re allowed to be interested in technology. You don’t have to fit the picture you have in your head of what someone working in tech is supposed to look like.
Samodien believes curiosity, communication and the ability to understand and solve a problem can be just as valuable.
“Don’t disqualify yourself because you aren’t a coder. Your ability to understand a problem and bring people and technology together can be just as valuable.”
And as AI continues to change the way we work, she hopes the conversation over the next five years becomes less about everything technology can do and more about where it actually adds value.
For Samodien, the future isn’t AI versus people.
It is finding the balance between AI, technology and humanity, and making sure there are enough different voices around the table to help us get that balance right.
Leave a Reply