If you're worried AI is coming for your job ... this is what to do about it. Tell your bosses to invest in it.
Wait! What?
Tell them to invest in automating the sh*t you hate - the stuff that stops you doing the work that grows the business. YOU have to own what gets automated.
If you don't do this, the bosses will decide. And they'll choose the things that benefit the bottom line, because that's what the stock markets are expecting and what McKinsey suits will be advising them to do from 30k feet. And that means you're at risk.
But you know what really needs automating so that you can grow the business. So get involved. Take control of the automations and prove the value of humans for growth.
This IS coming. Don't let it happen TO you.
Part 2: Make sure what you're keeping is actually yours to keep
Automate the shit bits. Keep the growth bits. That's the argument above and I stand by it.
Well now for something that might feel quite uncomfortable for some of you.
That advice has growth bits in it.
Most jobs do - a mix of grind and growth. For those people, the advice stands.
But some roles ... don't have that mix.
And I'm not just talking about data entry.
The latest AI models can reason through complex scenarios, build financial models, analyse contracts, write code and keep going for hours without stopping. This isn't "AI can do your admin." This is "AI can do the thinking work too."
So if your role is mostly analysis, mostly modelling, mostly reasoning through complex problems and producing outputs - even sophisticated outputs - that's not automatically safe just because it feels intellectually hard.
Here's what AI still can't do.
Reading a room and knowing when someone disagrees even though they're nodding. Sitting with contradictory data and no right answer and making a call anyway. Having the courage to kill a project everyone loves because the market has shifted. Thinking of a genuinely new way to approach something. Building the relationship over a cup of tea.
That stuff isn't automatable. It might never be. And it's learnable.
If you look at your week and most of it lives in volume and reasoning ... start moving. Not in a panic. But deliberately. Build skills in the areas AI can't touch - while you've still got time to do it on your terms.
Don't let AI happen TO you. But for some of you, that means something bigger than automating your workflows. It means moving toward work that's yours to keep.
Part 3: What if your work IS the growth product?
This one is for those of you who read the above and thought neither part applied to you because your work IS the growth product.
The analyst building the models the agency sells. The consultant producing the research the client pays for. The developer writing the code that IS the product.
Your work drives revenue. It's the growth engine. You feel safe.
But "my work drives growth" and "my job is safe" are not the same thing.
The business will keep selling that service. It'll just need fewer people to deliver it.
So whether you recognised yourself in part one, part two, or here - the move is the same.
Get closer to the bits AI can't do. Be the analyst they ask to be in the pitch. Be the one who reads the room when the data says one thing but your gut says another. Be the one who finds the new thing to analyse and buy that nobody was looking for. Be the one whose judgement call requires nerve, not just analysis.
The work that's yours to keep isn't necessarily the output, but it's very possibly what makes the output matter.
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