This is going to be my one post on the place of AI and my opinions on how we are handling it in business and life.
AI. It’s been the big talking point for the last year or so and is still a front page topic. is it going to take all our jobs, spark a revolution, or create new opportunities? At first glance, AI does look like another seismic shift akin to the sewing machine, mechanised loom, or Ford’s production line. But there’s something fundamentally different about this wave.
Unlike past revolutions, AI doesn’t seem primed to create jobs at scale. It won’t spawn entirely new industries in the same way we’ve seen before. Instead, we’re likely looking at significant genuine job losses, particularly among lower-level white-collar roles.
In the Short-term, we’ll see disruptions as many companies will eagerly adopt AI to reduce costs and boost productivity quickly. But that’s where things get tricky as in doing that a certain way, you strip the long term growth out of your own company.
Lets take my own career as a technical PM. My effectiveness in this role comes directly from the breadth of my experience, having worked my way up through the lower level roles that AI now threatens. When I meet fellow managers lacking that foundational experience, their narrow perspectives are glaringly obvious. They struggle because they lack the hands-on knowledge gained from climbing the career ladder step by step.
If we let AI sweep away lower-end roles entirely, the future leaders and decision-makers won’t just lack depth; they’ll be missing the creative problem-solving skills developed by working through small, varied challenges. AI excels at averaging human outputs, but brilliance and breakthroughs often come from the “odd ones out,” those uniquely creative individuals whose careers and ideas evolve slowly over time.
Companies adopting wholesale AI driven job cuts might thrive briefly, lowering costs and increasing productivity, but will inevitably pay a steep price down the road. In five to ten years, we’ll experience a severe creativity and skill gap, causing real damage.
So what should sane businesses do instead? Integrate AI subtly and strategically. Take insurance claims, for example. AI excels at quickly identifying suspicious claims, far better than most humans on first initial checks, which means claim handlers don’t waste so much time sifting through genuine claims and can concentrate on the ones with a higher probability of being fraudulent. Leveraging AI in such a supportive way, rather than broadly replacing roles, allows businesses to boost efficiency without sacrificing human development.
This issue is particularly stark in creative industries. Jobs like artists, video editors, and audio engineers may seem like a good idea to replace with AI as it can theoretically turn an inexact set of processes into ones that can be managed precisely. But losing these foundational roles to AI doesn’t merely eliminate positions; it stifles future creativity. Rebuilding lost creative foundations is far more challenging than retraining white-collar workers. So, personally, while I use AI to eliminate tedious tasks,
I consciously avoid AI-generated creative content. Supporting human creativity, rather than replacing it, is critical.
How, then, do we roll with integrating with AI as individuals? I think back to my first corporate role during university placement, at the dawn of outsourcing to the Indian subcontinent. Everyone worried about job security. but a network technician named Richard Nixon told me simply: “Make sure you’re worth your money.” and that is how we should look at ourselves.
AI isn’t free, it’s a business tool, and companies providing AI will profit significantly. But AI has inherent limitations. The key is identifying human-specific strengths, intuition, flexibility, emotional intelligence, nuanced communication, and emphasising those. Managers seeking immediate cost savings might underestimate these qualities initially, but they’ll soon miss the critical human elements that AI can’t replicate 1.
AI, despite its capabilities, struggles to navigate human subtleties: body language, tone, persuasion, and ethical gray areas. These interactions are precisely where humans excel and prove their irreplaceable value.
Ultimately, AI is a remarkable tool, indeed it could be one of the greatest tools humanity ever creates, and if used thoughtfully, it will enhance human capabilities massively. But if handled recklessly, focusing solely on short-term gains, the long-term costs could be a right cluster f**k.
- Well not currently[↩]
