The pace of technological change is faster than ever. Or IS it?

It was a cold, miserable winter day on the coast of North Carolina when two brothers achieved something remarkable. On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their bizarre-looking flying machine for 12 seconds, covering 120 feet.

Less than eight years later, Cal Rodgers began the first transcontinental flight across the United States.

Fifteen years after that, Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight in history, flying the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris.

Seven U.S. presidents later, humans walked on the moon.

Today, it's a cliche to say that technology is changing faster than ever. We tell ourselves that the pace of economic change is breathtaking, forcing us to adapt to shifting conditions more quickly than we've ever had to before.

Except that it's not really true. It is hard to argue that today's pace of technological change is any faster than it was between 1903 and 1911 — from Kitty Hawk to the first transcontinental flight.

In some ways, technology over the last few decades actually hasn't changed much at all. The first email was sent half a century ago. The World Wide Web became publicly available more than thirty years ago. The first scanning of a UPC barcode was on a pack of Wrigley chewing gum in June 1974. Richard Nixon was the president, and the U.S was still embroiled in the Vietnam War.

Yet while the pace of technological change may not be any faster, the types of changes that are affecting our economy — and our businesses — are very different. We are particularly focused on artificial intelligence and how it will disrupt business. These changes are dramatically altering the traditional role of humans in the economy and are causing us to reexamine our role as workers in the job market. And there is reason to be somewhat anxious about what that all means.

What we need to understand is how this new change is altering the role of human labour in the economy. How we connect to the job market is changing, and that has massive implications for businesses and entrepreneurs. Jobs are more relational and interpersonal, requiring soft skills like empathy, humor and tactful communication. Workers today are more likely to say their jobs are personally satisfying, and many workers would even say they're fulfilling.

Now that we're nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st century, the role of humans in the economy is no longer as secure. Artificial intelligence and robotics (which are also not new) are affecting almost every human job, in ways both good and bad. By some estimates, nearly half the jobs of today will be in some way impacted by the role of machines that will have the ability to learn and adapt.

As my friend Patrick Lor, partner at Panache Ventures, a pre-seed venture fund, said: "AI won't take your job. People that use AI will take your job. And companies that are better at using AI will kill your company."

Today's pace of technological change isn't any faster than at other points in history. We've seen rapid technological innovation before. What has changed is the way we're using technology to transform our jobs and our relationship to work.