Will ChatGPT take your Job? Here are five ways to avoid the risk.
The last few months have been fascinating. Various breakthroughs in technology, all happening at the same time. As the world order we knew unravels before our eyes, an equally disruptive technological big bang is happening. It impacts how we live, work, and play to an extent we can barely imagine.
Late last year, Open AI launched ChatGPT, causing wild speculation. Would it replace writers? Does it make resumes obsolete? Can it answer in such humanoid ways it is a great way to respond to emails???Speculation aside, the applications are coming. They are covering so many different areas of business; you may wonder if we are entering a new era. In fact, there is so much going on in this sector that business may be unrecognizable in a few months’ time.
Time will tell what we will call this moment in history. The end of the digital era? The start of the AI era? If so, what does it mean for businesses, the economy, and workers.
AI is not new, and it is a moving target. This time, the target has moved to a new category of applications that touch the knowledge worker. Experts who thought they were safe from automation are either scratching their heads wondering what to do next or oblivious to the sea change happening in front of our eyes.
If we go by Julian Birkinshaw, the digital era started when we all went online and were able to find information everywhere. Information became so ubiquitous and fluid that it lost its value as key competitive advantage.
This led to a misalignment in behaviour. Experts kept thinking growing their linear expertise would help them to move ahead. Top experts became even more of an expert in their own field, not finding time to learn things outside. The digital era economy was needing newly combined skills and an open mindedness that had never been required before. If only we were faster, more adaptive, and less linear. While some professionals reinvented themselves, lots remained passive on oblique skill sets, learning only what they already knew so well.?
And now this. The digital era is abruptly coming to an end. The launch of ChatGPT is only one of many innovations that disrupt how we live, play and work. What does that mean for us? Does it change how we act, what we learn, and above all what we unlearn??
It absolutely does. So, what to do? Here are a few ideas.
1.?????Learn the art of #subtraction.
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Subtracting work is hard. For many of us, it is painful (give away your babies) or demotivating (my job is being taken away). That makes it complicated and confusing, unless we learn it as a skill. You might argue that′s the same thing. I don′t think so. Most people I see don’t know how to do it. It scares them. When I analyzed why they find it so scary, I discovered one of the main reasons is because they had never done it before. In other words, it was a new activity.??When people did it a few times and had a method for it, it became easier, less scary, and more intuitive. Ultimately, I found out it was a real skill that could be mastered like an art. The art of subtraction: the competitive advantage of our time. If we master this skill, AI becomes an opportunity, not a threat.?
2.?????#Experiment every day.
Top-down processes and the dogma that work must be about performance have left businesses focused on the wrong metrics: linear key performance indicators. Why are they wrong? They are not adapted to our time. We all know tomorrow will be very different from today so why track these linear targets? It is not only senseless, it actually jeopardizes your future success. I would call this ′the linearity trap′. You are performing well on linear metrics but have not seen the curve in the road, so you crash and burn… Despite performing well on linear metrics. You can avoid the linearity trap by building experimentation into our everyday job. A good dose of experimentation based on what you see happening in your market may keep you fresh, invigorated, and adaptable to whatever is thrown your way. One experiment a day keeps the doctor away
3.?????Redefine how you create #value?
The last few decades have been dominated by finance. Mariana Mazzucato highlights this in `The value of everything` (must read!). We have confused value extraction with value creation so we think we are creating value whereas we might be just extracting it. This happens in the economy (extracting rent for example) but it equally takes place in our jobs. I would argue that sitting in an exhausting meeting where we don′t belong and have nothing to add is a form of value extraction. We waste our energy on something that extracts value but doesn’t create any in return. If we focus on what drives our value creation we can enhance it. Yes, we can amplify the value we create simply by focusing on it.
The time of large systems, clunky hardware and stable infrastructure is over. The time in which AI didn’t touch your job is gone. Today, Tech and specifically AI can help you in many, ever-changing ways. If we ask ourselves the question: What is the job to be done for AI, we free ourselves from our bias. We can reinvent what it means to be creative as we redefine creativity, amplified by AI. Compare it to wearing glasses. You see with your own eyes but through a lens. You create with your own mind, helped by AI.??Clayton Christensen would say: Find what′s the job to be done. What job can it do for you? That personal nature of AI application makes it so powerful. Whether AI helps you to create tailor-made drugs or does your business analysis, it plays an increasing role in everything you do. So, craft your job and delegate the linear tasks it can do for you. Give it a job to be done.
5.?????Work faster & #free yourself
We have become accustomed to working excessive amounts of time. We run incessantly from meeting to meeting and have integrated work into our homes. I had imagined the pandemic we would help us all to work less but we didn’t. We embraced the never-ending workday. However, now is the time to cut back. When I asked a team member for a report that would take her more than half a day to write, I suggested using ChatGPT this time. She started right after lunch and was ready in under an hour. We were both amazed and disturbed at the same time. How should we handle this? One thing was sure, this was a breakthrough, not a threat. When I asked her how she felt she said: I feel free. I went snowboarding for the rest of the day. I needed that and did a lot of thinking on how we can speed up things, time well invested.
So, will ChatGPT take your job? No. It remains an everything-deducer, not an omnipotent intelligence. Yet it will take chunks, deliver linear tasks and write some of your emails. Embrace it and make it work for you.