At the age of 60, Thomas Quinn enrolled in Columbia for his M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy (IKNS), following a long career that began in computer engineering and pivoted to corporate finance after he received his M.B.A. from the NYU Stern School of Business in 1991.
“I realized something I hadn’t expected: I was in a career that looked successful from the outside—but inside, I knew I still had more to give,” Quinn said in a speech delivered at Columbia University School of Professional Studies (SPS) Graduation on May 15. “While my peers were trading their wing-tips for tee times, I chose to begin again.”
Quinn was one of two members of the SPS graduating class nominated by faculty, staff, and students to speak at this year’s graduation. During his time at Columbia, he collaborated across disciplines with classmates and faculty from SPS, Columbia Business School, and Columbia Engineering. He also completed an independent study on what he calls the “similarity tsunami,” the tendency of generative AI—such as ChatGPT and Claude—to narrow the range of ideas available to unwitting users.
In his speech to fellow SPS graduates, he shared the three most important lessons he learned as a student: “Knowledge is profoundly social,” “Stories create connection,” and finally, “Keeping technology in service of humans is not optional, it is essential.”
Quinn sat down with SPS to speak in depth about the experience of pursuing another master’s degree 34 years after gaining his first one; why he chose Columbia’s IKNS program; and how his IKNS degree helped him launch his consulting company Alpha Advisory, which uses AI and automation to help small- and medium-sized businesses grow and succeed.
Leaning Back Instead of In
Quinn began his Columbia education determined to learn about the perspectives and experiences of his classmates, many of them younger than him by several decades and coming from cultural backgrounds where an elder was often assigned a senior role by default.
“I consciously tried not to be the person who spoke first” in class and in group projects, he said. “I knew that if I was going to be working in the world after this, it was going to be with people who are younger than me. They would be the boss.”
And there was one clear advantage to being the oldest student in his cohort:
“You do get invited to every group project because they know you work hard,” Quinn said. “You’re not going to be that teammate who doesn’t show up for a meeting!”
A Backbone in Knowledge and Information Strategy
Though he considered similar programs at other universities, Quinn eventually chose Columbia’s IKNS program in part because half of its courses are electives, letting him take classes across different schools and departments at the University.
“It allowed me to pursue what I was most interested in,” said Quinn, who arrived at Columbia eager to learn more about how AI could benefit the business community. “The six IKNS core courses give you a backbone in knowledge and information strategy. The real key is, what do you want to do with your six electives?”
For example, along with the IKNS core classes, Quinn took a 400-level course at Columbia Engineering, a public speaking course on storytelling in the Strategic Communication program at SPS, and several courses in Columbia Business School. He also completed an independent study on AI-powered large language models (LLMs) under Harry West, a professor of professional practice in Columbia’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.
Studying “The Similarity Tsunami”
Quinn was especially eager to talk about his independent study on how LLMs tend to cause a “convergence of thought.” Working with West, Quinn interrogated 10 independent LLMs; each LLM was given 100 non-deterministic open-ended questions (10 questions in each of 10 non-overlapping categories).
“We showed that, within any category of question, if you let the LLMs run free, i.e. with limited context, they all ran to generally the same spot,” Quinn said. “And there is a paradox here: when an individual uses generative AI to address a question, that individual gets new information and is therefore ‘smarter’ on the topic. By contrast, when a group of people use an LLM to address the same question they all tend to get the same “new” information which makes the group ‘less smart’ overall.”
In his final paper—aptly named “The Similarity Tsunami”—Quinn argues that users of LLMs need to be aware of this tendency and actively manage the context provided to the LLM to incorporate more edge-case outcomes. Working with Microsoft Garage—Microsoft’s innovation hub—Quinn incorporated these findings into his IKNS capstone project, and he hopes to further his research with human subject trials in the future.
Through his work with West and the lessons he took away from entrepreneurial, knowledge management, and storytelling classes, Quinn has been able to harness his new skills to found and launch an AI startup—Alpha Advisory AI—that brings the power of AI to small- and medium-sized businesses. His clients include a Midwest public speaker bureau who harnessed the predictive power of AI to improve cold calling connection rates from 2 percent to 40 percent, and an East Coast contract furniture installer who wanted to streamline and automate their operations. Looking ahead, he is developing a consumer application that will enable businesses to “agentify” their website using the slogan “Your Website; Agent Enabled!”
“I do not believe that AI is coming for all of the jobs.” Quinn said. “I believe that AI can be a great creator of jobs—particularly entrepreneurial opportunities—but we each need to take responsibility for our own agency. Learn to drive the technology and you will become an invaluable team member who will be able to do more than ever before. Become a passive accepter of the technology’s output and you are at risk of being subsumed by ‘the similarity tsunami.’”
About the Program
Columbia University’s M.S. in Information & Knowledge Strategy (IKNS) degree integrates data, people, and strategy skills for the AI age. The flexible and interdisciplinary curriculum trains leaders across the entire value chain of data-driven management: Getting the data and analytics right (e.g., AI adoption, business analytics), creating a high performing, people-centric culture (collaboration, team/project management, organizational psychology), and finally the right change management to turn your strategy into reality.
IKNS is available full-time or part-time, online or in-person on Columbia’s landmarked campus right here in New York City. To maximize opportunities for networking and community building, our online students join our New York-based students on Columbia’s campus for three in-person Residencies during their studies. The STEM-designated Master of Science degree offers International Students (F-1/J-1 visa) an opportunity for Curricular Practical Training during their studies (CPT) and 3 years of work authorization in the US upon completing their studies (OPT).
Students train under world-class faculty, including former and current executives from Google, IBM, NASA, and Oliver Wyman, and join a powerful global alumni network in coveted positions, including at Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Pfizer, and the World Bank.
For more IKNS insights, news, and events, please go to our website, connect with us on LinkedIn, or attend one of our online info sessions. Visit the School of Professional Studies website to learn more about the SPS Student Experience.
