Will I be redundant in five years? This is a question many people are asking as artificial intelligence (AI) hurtles towards us at hyper speed. Many of us are starting to think about the potential impacts on our lives, both personally and professionally.
As a transformational change specialist, I work across many industries from health to manufacturing, marketing and media. At a recent meeting, the owner of a large digital marketing agency told me how he is starting to plan his next reinvention – he believes his profitable business will be irrelevant within three years because AI will replace the valuable services he currently provides to his customers. With his reinvention mindset he was getting ahead of the game to ensure he didn’t get left behind and stuck in the past.
The age of AI is taking into a period of revolutionary change, where everything changes at a pace many of us will have trouble adapting to. The most recent lived experience of a comparable scale of change would be the disruption the COVID pandemic had on our lives. We understandably responded with fascination, disbelief, fear and anger as our lives were put on pause and many jobs disappeared.
The difference is, this time, we won’t be returning to our past lives, as they will be outdated and irrelevant. There are two options available to us: we could try to ignore it and pretend AI is not a thing, or we can accept that our lives are changing and start to take positive and proactive steps towards influencing our future.
Learn more about navigating change in Gary Waldon's book Reinvention.
Here are five things you must do now before AI leaves you behind:
1. Accept change is happening
When confronted with significant changes that are mostly out of our control, most people will respond with fear.
This fear of the unknown is because when things change, our normal lives and habits will also change. If we choose not to accept that things are changing, then we have no incentive to change and will remain stuck in the past. However, the world will continue to change, leaving us behind.
As a reaction to change, we will undoubtedly grieve for the ‘good old’ days, which is natural as we start to find our footing in the new world.
2. Build a reinvention mindset
Reinvention is the one skill that will serve us well throughout life. Life is made up of many life-changing events that will demand us to adapt and change.
Life-changing events could be getting a new job, having a baby, losing a loved one, a divorce or moving house. Regardless of the event, the result is that we no longer fit into our old life, and so we need to change to remain current and succeed.
Reinvention may be hard work, but like any skill, the more we do it, the better we become.
3. Take a reality check
With significant change comes new opportunities. But before we can take advantage of them we should take a good hard look at ourselves. We now get to undertake a personal review of ourselves, our lives and characteristics.
Think of it like moving house – why take all that junk that hasn’t served us well into our new place? Ditch them and start again so you can be better equipped to create new things that fit the new place.
By doing an honest assessment of the good, bad and ugly elements that make us up, we can choose the traits and skills that will serve us well as we move into the new world.
4. Empower yourself
Things have changed and so must you. This means that you will need to build a new toolkit of skills and knowledge to succeed.
Start by learning as much as you can. Podcasts, articles and courses are freely available to help build up this new skillset. Many of the big AI players, such as OpenAI and Google, as well as universities, offer free courses to help you build your AI proficiency.
Start learning so that you can keep earning in the new AI world.
5. Take action
Knowledge without action won’t help you become productive in the AI world. There is little use for a brain surgeon who knows all the theory but has never actually operated on a real patient. The same applies to you.
Start using your new knowledge so that you can become an expert practitioner. Action learning is the best way to turn knowledge into practical skills. Deep learning results from trying something, failing, adapting and learning.
Build a custom GPT, create an agent or get AI to write a business plan for that great idea you have been dreaming of.
Take control of the things you can influence
The best approach to managing unavoidable change is to take control of the things you can influence. AI and its progress is unavoidable, however your response is completely within your control.
Fear of the unknown will create anxiety, but the more familiar you become with this new world, and the opportunities it offers, the less your fear will control you.
The great thing with AI is you can now explore many fields that would have previously required years of study and experience. So much of the world is now available to you through AI – all you need to do is prompt yourself to explore it so you don’t get left behind.
