A talk built for CS students — full of code and architecture — falls flat with a commerce or arts audience who don't need or want implementation detail. But 'dumbing it down' isn't quite the right adjustment either; the goal is relevance, not simplicity for its own sake.
What actually needs to change
- Frame the talk around what these tools change for the audience's own field, not around how the tools work internally.
- Replace code demos with outcome demos — show what the tool produces and what decision it changes, not the implementation behind it.
- Spend more time on limitations and honest capability boundaries; a non-technical audience is more likely to over-trust a confident demo without that context.
What stays exactly the same
Honesty about what the technology can and can't do, and a genuine live demonstration rather than only slides, matter for every audience equally.
See an AI awareness session for non-CS students.
— Pranjul Rathour, GenAI Engineer from Kanpur, India. Open to GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks at any campus: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com.