TL;DR: Whether AI replaces you or not depends exclusively on the decisions you make from now on. I can’t suggest anything in particular, because every case is unique, but I can help you understand the changes that are happening so you can make informed decisions.

Chapter 1: It’s not you, it’s your role

For a company to work, thousands of tasks need to be performed daily. On top of that, many of these tasks depend on each other, or must be executed conditionally depending on the circumstances.

The most effective way to make this happen is to group similar tasks —or tasks that must run sequentially and/or conditionally— and assign them to a person, or to a group of them.

Many of those tasks are so common across companies that they’ve been grouped and given a shared name, such as: customer support, marketing, software development, accounting, etc.

Even in large companies, there are entire areas dedicated to managing related tasks with an internal hierarchical structure —presidents, managers, supervisors, etc.

Something that seems so obvious and intuitive is the fundamental basis of the change we’re living through, and I recommend taking a few minutes to think about cases you know, identify which area and role you’re in today, and some examples you’ve seen in large and small companies.

Chapter 2: Information

Handling large amounts of information or data —whether to move it in an orderly fashion from one point to another, organize it and route it to those who need it, or simply act on it— is an incredibly complex task for people.

Managing huge amounts of data without mixing it up, losing it, or making mistakes requires highly trained profiles and/or people with many years of experience in similar tasks.

The people who perform this kind of work hold roles like programmers, accountants, data analysts, writers, auditors, digital marketing specialists, and they tend to be hard to train and replace, which is why they’re usually paid above-average salaries.

Chapter 3: The disruption

Everything I described before —and you were kind enough to read— was pre-AI.

All that hierarchy, those roles and the individuals in charge of those tasks have been blown to pieces since “this tool” appeared —one capable of handling, sorting, summarizing, routing, transforming, and performing almost any task involving data, in the time it takes you to make your first coffee of the day.

Chapter 4: Caught off guard

This new “tool” appeared almost out of nowhere, with no user manual, and available to everyone at the same time.

Such a disruptive change caused disorder and a series of bad early decisions because it caught all of us off guard, without a clear action plan to stick to.

Chapter 5: Time

We were never good at estimating how long complex tasks take; on top of that, procrastination is part of our DNA.

That’s why very few large or complex projects finish on time, in shape, and within the designated budget.

I’ll use programming as an example, since it’s what I know a bit more about. What 3 years ago, pre-AI, took me over a month of design and development, today I can do in a day (procrastination included), and with better quality.

And for those who aren’t aware, programming is nothing other than managing enormous amounts of information —just like marketing, finance, customer and vendor management, etc.

Chapter 6: Unforced errors

Here I’ll simply list the most common mistakes companies and people have made post-AI:

1. Keeping the same structures, people, and processes when there’s now a tool capable of doing what an entire area used to do.

2. Firing people just because there’s now a tool capable of doing what an entire area used to do.

3. Making no changes at all in areas where they could now use a tool capable of doing what an entire area used to do.

4. Forcing people to use said tool by whip, expecting productivity to magically emerge from that absurd decision.

5. Measuring a pizza delivery driver’s productivity by the amount of fuel they burn, or a desk worker’s by the number of tokens —which is practically the same thing.

Chapter 7: The screen

I’ll be honest and direct on this point: if most of your workday happens in front of a screen, you’re in trouble —no matter what you do or where you sit in the organizational hierarchy. Today nobody is completely safe.

If your role requires managing information behind a screen —whatever digital work you do— today it’s absolutely automatable or doable by AI or some process that includes it, with almost no exceptions. And if it hasn’t happened yet, it’s only a matter of time and budget, but take it for granted that a tool will show up that does your job much better than you and in a fraction of the time —no sick days, no vacations.

Chapter 8: What to do post-AI?

Did you really think I had the answer?

No, my friend, there isn’t one —or at least I don’t know it; but there are a few loose ideas I’ve been able to validate, and they’re better than getting on your knees and crying. I’m leaving them here in exchange for you sharing this article:

1. Your role: the title that justifies your salary relative to others has practically disappeared or is about to. It’s easier to grasp if you think of a role as the name given to a set of tasks and responsibilities that today can be automated and absorbed by another process or person.

2. Your expertise: your job, one way or another, is going to change, and there’s nobody better than you to lead that change. Be the one who makes your own role obsolete.

3. You’re on your own: there’s no hero in this movie coming to save us; we’re all in the same fragile situation, and there’s no option but for us —the ones who best understand our job responsibilities— to be the ones who decide which tasks we’re going to delegate to AI.

4. It was yesterday: here I’ll be even more direct than in the rest of the article; if what you just read feels new to you, or you haven’t given it a thought yet, it’s because you’re considerably behind. You need to pick up the pace starting now and put in the effort to get ahead of this change; that’s the safest place to be today.

Will AI replace you? It depends!