VNDirect Chairman says he "no longer finds joy in work"

“In 2008-2010, I suddenly lost my passion and no longer felt joy in my work. Accordingly, I decided to quit and take a 7-year break before returning,” shared Ms. Pham Minh Huong - Chairwoman of VNDirect Board of Directors - at The Makeover 2025 event held in Ho Chi Minh City on October 15.

She said that the time she returned to work and led VNDirect was due to an objective reason: the General Director at that time asked to resign and change jobs. With no other choice, the "female general" had to return.

And from here, Ms. Huong emphasized the goal is to find joy in work, and start changing and restructuring the working environment at VNDirect. In that process, applying technology and AI plays an extremely important role.

“There were times when I went to work and was successful, but when I looked back, I asked myself if I had deep joy inside. How can I create enthusiasm for myself every day?” Ms. Huong shared. Because according to her, doing business is not always favorable.

She said, it can be fun when things are going well, but when times are tough, not getting discouraged is a big challenge.

Not to mention that every person has their own limits, Ms. Huong emphasized that how to overcome one's own limits is a problem that her company's leaders as well as other executives are always looking for an answer to.

Nowadays, in the era of technology explosion, AI is known to not only help people "free" themselves from boring, repetitive work, but also open up many other opportunities, helping human resources to be more productive.

Chủ tịch VNDirect kể từng không còn thấy niềm vui trong công việc - 1 — Report on the Status of AI Application in Vietnamese Enterprises 2025 by Talentnet (Photo: Screenshot of the report).

According to the Report on the Status of AI Application in Vietnamese Enterprises 2025 developed by Talentnet in collaboration with the Vietnam Human Resources Club (VNHR), up to 91% of survey participants said they have used AI to some extent in their work.

Of these, up to 55% of people who "have effectively applied AI" believe in the former president of OpenAI's view that "AI's capabilities will go far beyond human imagination", while in the "experimenting with AI" group, the number is somewhat more modest at only 41%, a difference of 14%.

According to this report, it seems that the more AI is used, the more people believe in the great potential of this technology.

However, AI is still a new tool, with only more than half saying they are applying it effectively. This clearly reflects the "learning while doing" mentality of Vietnamese businesses in the digital transformation wave.

“Only 14% of businesses have AI regulations that are actually being effectively applied in practice,” the report also points out, pointing out that this is a big gap that leaders need to fill, not just with policy, but with a mindset and culture ready for transformation.

The top two challenges when leading AI in an organization are lack of leadership support and lack of confidence in one’s own abilities. This is especially true for older groups with more seniority.

To overcome this challenge, Ms. Huong stated that everyone needs to clearly realize that the current economy is no longer a "knowledge economy", but a "connected economy".

Therefore, applying technology to connect people is an inevitable trend. Thanks to that, borders are no longer there, as evidenced by the fact that Vietnamese people can travel, live and work all over the world or Vietnam's GDP is also more sensitive to global fluctuations...

Overall, workers are mostly optimistic about the potential of AI, although they are still cautious about the risks it can bring. Businesses can boldly accelerate the pace of digitalization, but they also need to frankly recognize that AI is a new technology, still has limitations and needs to be further honed to perfect.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/chu-tich-vndirect-ke-tung-khong-con-thay-niem-vui-trong-cong-viec-20251015175753600.htm