A.I.: You May Now Get Nervous

A.I. is here in a big way. And we're only at the beginning. For those of you my age-ish who remember the advent of the internet, you might remember how quickly things changed once people started getting online and using the technology. We've never been the same since. And that is where we are now.

A.I. is this generation's internet moment. November 30, 2022, the launch of ChatGPT, was the official starting gun being fired to kick off the race that will change humanity forever. Big statement, right? I meant every syllable. As such, it's time for some harsh truths. Here are my thoughts:

Is A.I. coming for our jobs?

For some, yes. As many jobs that can be automated away from manual, fallible, vacation-taking, sick-daying, mental health day needing, human hands. If this comes as a shock to you, I have no words of encouragement. I've been banging this drum for over five years on LinkedIn and my book. Anything that a bot vs. a human can do will be.

For example, those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area already got a taste of this type of automation. When did you last see a human toll taker at any of the bridges? The new automation allows for less, more manageable traffic patterns, easier tracking of vehicles (and any shenanigans), zero physical harm to toll takers, no need for physical cash exchange, etc. It automates away over 80% of the time it takes from the approach to the bridge to traversing it completely. Diving deeper: (wearing a business hat) this eliminated numerous headcount, which was expensive, fallible, and dependent on too many human factors that constantly challenged continuity. Automating this process saved millions of dollars per year, thousands of aggregate commute hours, and lightened the load for emergency crews often dispatched to deal with cars overheating, running out of gas, or deemed inoperable while waiting in slow-moving lines at the toll plaza.

Sure, there were jobs lost. But those jobs were made redundant out of necessity for a solution that clearly worked better than the rather manual, human process that existed for decades prior. Innovation isn't pretty and often requires a human toll of some sort. But, inevitably, it makes our aggregate lives better.

Which jobs are safe?

The "safest" jobs, in my opinion, are those that require human interaction, soft skills, and highly nuanced reasoning—tasks that are currently impossible for a robot to perform. And even then, A.I. will likely be integral. For instance, a robot will likely not replace a plumber in my lifetime. However, likely within the next year, all dispatchers will be.

Let me reiterate here: Any task that a human currently performs but which a bot can perform exponentially more quickly, flawlessly, consistently, and affordably is already on someone's Asana board or business plan. I'm working on an AI-based business idea right now that will run every aspect of your life from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep. The only humans on my team will be myself, a lawyer (because, you know...), an engineer, and several experts who will leverage A.I. to offer supremely relevant and effective recommendations in their respective fields to my HNW clients, who are low-key begging for this type of "life automation." From a business perspective, I no longer need a bunch of people handling processes. That requires managing people, numerous alignment meetings, ensuring efforts are aligned with OKRs, dealing with recruiting, HR compliance BS, blah blah blah. No thanks. I'd rather train a chatbot on my specific information, create an internal and client-facing app, and allow all the bots to execute at lightning speed and infallibly while I focus on scaling the business. I know you feel me if you're mostly (business) human averse like I am. Less humans to manage, less CapEx, less wasted time, more revenue, more lives (positively) impacted, more joy doing work I love...sign me TF up!!!

What should I do now?

If you're directly in the path of A.I., it's time to take action. You can either stand in the middle of the tracks and wait to be hit by the train or figure out how to govern the train itself. A.I. isn't "coming for your job." Please stop with this narrative. Um, A.I. isn't human. It is being trained to evolve processes that business has been asking to be evolved for decades. We have been working toward this outcome for as long as transistors were created; so sorry, folks, this isn't "new." We've been asking for this since The Jetsons, so I'm still scratching my head at all the plebes all up on the socials acting like the world is about to end. Dafuq?

A.I. is leverage. See it that way. If you're wise, you'll learn as much as you can about it NOW and figure out how to leverage it to do the job you're doing better. Why do you think I've been banging this drum to Executive Assistants for the past 6 years? It has always been quite clear to me that 85% of the EA role would be automated away within the time I'd predicted. The more nuanced, high touch roles within the community are safe, typically supporting the HNWI and C-suite set. Bots and a few daisy-chained apps can handle the lower-level roles quite effectively, requiring only a handful of A.I.-competent EAs within large organizations who are, essentially, "bot wranglers."

There are sooooo many resources in the wild that will help you learn everything you need to know about current A.I. offerings and proactively carve out a path that will either save your job or, potentially, help you start a business of your own selling to those who ignored the sirens and are now trying to dog paddle in a tsunami. The thing is, people have gotten lazy. They'd rather spend their time making and watching useless TikToks than use a few of those hours watching informational videos on YouTube, reading a few white papers, learning how to code and create their own low-code apps on Replit, etc. Welcome to a basic lesson in Darwinism, kids. Choose well.

From Tea Leaves to Layoffs

These layoffs aren't exactly how they're being advertised. Companies have rather cunningly co-opted the prevailing market downturn narrative to rightsize themselves on their balance sheets. Ready for another truth bomb? That call to return to work...yeah, more subterfuge in most cases. Companies were allowed to write off mostly empty buildings as long as they could prove some form or attempt at profitability was occurring. Welp, three years later, the hourglass has run out of sand on that side. Our tax friends are no longer accepting those write-offs for empties because there is no verifiable attempt to make a profit. So it's time to pay the piper. This means a certain number of physical butts need to be in seats in order to write off any losses that remain. Don't need all the butts—just enough to satisfy the requirement. So back to work many of you will go under the guise of being together again. Mmm hmm. #insertsideeye

The recently opened A.I. floodgates are partially responsible for the current wave of layoffs and will be wholly responsible for the continued right-sizing we're going to see over the next year. As more and more companies leverage these technologies and radically change how they conduct business internally, companies will be mostly run by specialists and a flurry of bots. The companies that adopt first and quickest will be the ones who succeed wildly. OpenAI (winner) vs. Google (oopsies!). #secondisfirstloser #especiallyinbusiness

In Conclusion

These layoffs will continue. And unlike years past, most of these roles will not be rehired. Instead, new roles will be created for those who are A.I. savvy and can competently leverage A.I. to run extremely efficient, reliable, and consistent processes that achieve my triad: make the company money, save the company money, and/or create an efficiency that achieves both.

A.I. is not to be feared. WE created it. Instead, it's to be seen and used as a tool to help us maximize our time, focus, and efforts moment-to-moment. The wait-and-see approach will do you no favors with regard to A.I. It's here. It's already embedded in our fabric and is only now emerging from the shadows. Some will choose to fear it, poo poo it, worry if it will bring the end of civilization, etc. Keep doing that. But stay over there. The rest of us will learn everything we can about it, use it wherever we can, and keep an eye on it to ensure it stays on track. We'll let it help us build individual and collective wealth, opportunity, and education and ensure we have a fully prosperous future, which might seem scary and uncertain right now but is what we've been working toward all along.

TL;DR

Get on YouTube. Save your damn self.