The secret to AI job security?

Over the past few months, I have been thinking a lot about what this new wave of generative AI really means for knowledge workers, careers, and companies. The ZDNET article, “The secret to AI job security? Stop stressing and pivot at work now – here’s how,” argues that the path to security in an AI world is to embrace change, focus on personal benefits, and pivot our work rather than panic, and that framing has been shaping how I think about my own role.

This is no longer abstract for me. Our son just graduated with highest honors in computer science and engineering, and the parts of the industry he finds most exciting are exactly the kinds of things AI is now starting to do really well. That naturally pushes us into some uncomfortable questions he poses about the future of work, from job displacement to whether we eventually drift toward something like universal basic income. He is more worried about that than I am, at least for now, because so few workers have truly embraced the technology in a serious, day in and day out way.

The ZDNET piece highlights how failed projects and job loss fears have lowered employee confidence in AI. I cannot help but wonder how much of that is becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. When the most visible stories are failures, stalled proofs of concept, and scary forecasts, it gives people a socially acceptable excuse to resist using the tools. If I do not trust it, I do not have to learn it, and if I do not learn it, I do not have to face how much it might actually change my job, for better or for worse.

In our company, we have taken the opposite approach. We assume AI is going to change everything about how we approach work, every role, every process, and even how we prepare for the day. My boss recently helped me set up a Claude morning briefing skill that pulls together my high priority to dos, does background research on the people I am meeting, and surfaces key context so I start the day already briefed. It genuinely feels like having an executive assistant riding shotgun! (PS-I do believe in the concept of digital labor!) When I see tools like Clawd Bot, I know even more digital labor is coming, like it or not.

As a knowledge worker, I operate under no illusion that AI is absolutely coming for big chunks of what I do. That reality has forced us not to hide from the technology but to lean into it. The question I keep asking myself, and that I think every professional needs to wrestle with, is this. What do I do that AI cannot. What do I have that AI does not. Once you know the answer, your job is to double down on those things.

Practically, that means you do not start by trying to AI transform your entire role. You pick one slice of your job and figure out how AI can help you do part of it better, faster, or more thoughtfully. Then another slice. Then another. The ZDNET article talks about finding clear personal benefits and being realistic about what AI can and cannot do, instead of over complicating things or treating it as a digital employee that will simply replace you. It is also helpful to think of AI, just like we hopefully view our coworkers, they are meant to be complimentary, not adversarial.

I was reminded of this while working on a custom job for a client. It hit me that we are sitting on data no one else has. Yes, garbage in, garbage out still applies, but the flip side is that great data in can mean differentiated value out. AI becomes a powerful wrapper around proprietary data, but without the right data, it cannot magically create a great answer for you. So another question I am asking is this. What am I building my moat around. What data, insight, or perspective do we have that a generic model in the open domain simply does not.

The ZDNET piece also emphasizes that successful applications of AI are all about human connectivity, and I agree that this will only grow in importance. Machines can process numbers and automate workflows, but humans build trust, make nuanced decisions, and create benefits for colleagues, partners, and customers. In an age when AI can easily isolate us behind screens and automated interactions, we are going to have to be intentional about doubling down on relationships that mutually enrich everyone involved.

And if AI does eventually replace me, I am not going down quietly. I am going to fight by mastering the tools, building on my distinctives, and controlling the controllables. The rest, the macroeconomy, regulation, and corporate decisions, is outside my span of control and will be what it will be.

In my experience, the future never lands in either extreme, utopia or apocalypse. It settles somewhere in between, as it always has. So my encouragement to other professionals is this. Do not camp in either ditch. Do not panic and do not pretend nothing is changing. Stay on the road, keep moving, keep learning, and use AI not as a crutch for your thinking but as a catalyst that forces you to get clearer on who you are and what you uniquely bring to the table.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-job-security-stop-stressing-pivot-work/#AIJobSecurity