Settle Down Chicken Little: AI Isn’t Coming for Your Jobs

Don’t get me wrong; I’m extremely empathetic to everyone who is unnerved or outright frightened by the rapid development of AI technology. We are talking about people‘s livelihoods here, and as the sole income for a family of 5 right now, including three kids (2 with special needs), I get it. Anything that messes with my job, rattles me to my core.

Couple this with the worst season of layoffs since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s a scary world out there.

So I’m here to reassure you, AI is NOT coming for your job, at least not in the totalitarian sense spread by fear mongers or clickbait articles.

Now that’s not to say industries won’t change; AI is rapidly developing new and better tools to do the jobs. The skill gap between departments and roles will continue to blur more and more as new tools come into existence to help the automation of rote and complex tasks. Things you only dreamed possible will be commonplace next year. I’m not saying change isn’t going to happen. It’s already happening.

I’m saying you don’t have to freak out about it. The tools are changing. But the fundamentals of good business are not changing. The relationships you need to build are not changing. The greatest benefit you bring to a company, YOU, can not be automated or replaced.

If you can move past the scary, I encourage you to view this moment in time as liberating and exciting. Tools are coming that will automate the 80% of your job that you shouldn’t be wasting your time, your talents, or your creativity on. It’s a time to find out what is your superpower; what is your secret sauce; what lights you on fire and what can you bring to the workplace, that only you can do. I know that sounds altruistic or overly simplistic, but it’s a truth that we’ve seen play out time and again with the advent of technical revolutions.

AI can either be the supervillain in your story or the perfect sidekick. Once you figure out what lights you on fire, learn every new tool that comes out related to it. Everyone will survive this technical revolution, but if you truly embrace it, it can launch you further and farther than you could ever possibly imagine.