🤖 Is AI Going to Take Your Job?

Why this might be the wrong question . . . and the ones I'm asking instead

Hi Friends,

As Pivot celebrates its ten-year (!!) bookiversary this September, I’m grateful to be experiencing a renewed interest in keynote speaking from companies whose team members are anxious about AI as it relates to their career development—with some understandably worrying that their job is at risk. I’m sure all of us have reflected upon this at some point these last few years, watching with a mixture of awe and horror at how quickly AI can perform certain tasks.

I have also been obsessing over these questions for them. Is their job at risk? What could I tell a room full of people whose primary job functions are, in fact, increasingly automated by or performed better and faster with AI?

But this week I realized I’ve been falling into the trap of asking the wrong question. It’s not all that helpful to ask, “Will AI take my job?” — one sure to induce future-tripping. AI is already completing many tasks, and assisting on many projects and jobs; but for most of us, it’s nowhere close to taking over an entire role.

💭 So the questions I’m asking now are:

• What tasks, within my primary role/s, is AI already better at, or well on the way? What tasks can I get even more help with? (A task is a discreet, concrete action with a clear deliverable—like drafting a slide.)

• What jobs within my role are most at risk? What jobs or projects are no longer needed? (Job as a combination of tasks that contribute to a one-off or recurring project—like publishing a podcast episode.)

• What larger responsibilities within my role do I deliver that AI can never replace? (Where a role is a sustained area of ownership, discernment, and results.)

As my friend Peyton Lindley put it the other day, given the complexity of the world now, it’s requiring us to engage with deeper, richer, more interesting questions.

Instead of asking, “Will AI take my job?” consider, “Am I operating at the task, job, or role level? What tasks can I delegate to move into my highest and best expression in terms of role and results?”

While AI can help me structure and improve a keynote, it cannot deliver the speech (no matter how eerie the “smug” humanoid robot demos were at CES), nor can it build rapport with potential clients, or connect with audience members.

This guy’s creator proudly referred to the smugness built into his humanoid robot display . . . and you’re proud of this?! Why?! 🙄

It might be at risk if I saw my role as solely editing keynote speeches (in actuality, a task—although not for specialists who have higher levels of expertise, experience, and audience attunement). But when I zoom out and recognize my true role as helping high-net-growth individuals navigate what’s next, I can see which elements to double down on (per the Pivot Method) and which ones to delegate.

To be fair, though, I have hired fewer entry-level copywriters and graphic designers these last few years. Instead of turning to sites like 99 Designs, I can do most of what I need myself in Canva with its AI-assist features. I encourage my team member, Faye, to ask our Pivot AI emissary (trained on over seven million words across two decades of my work) for answers when she’s stuck—but I’ve also asked her not to mindlessly copy-paste its milquetoast rote replies directly into customer-facing emails.

As you can imagine, I asked ChatGPT about all this. At first, it spoke to the ways various roles would be boosted by AI. Of course it did! 😂 Don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut. So I dug in a little further:

Me: Earlier, you gave an example that “One marketer + AI now does what took:
• a copywriter
• a researcher, and
• a junior analyst.”
So doesn’t that mean that copywriters, researchers, and junior analysts should be worried about their jobs and careers? What should they pursue instead?

ChatGPT: “Yes — people whose work is only copywriting, research, or junior analysis should be concerned. But not because those disciplines are dead. Those titles were never meant to be end states. What’s disappearing is not the craft — it’s the stand-alone, task-defined version of the job.”

Do you agree? It does seem concerning that AI is eating a large chunk of roles formerly seen as requiring craft, like video editing and animation. Have you noticed how many TV ads now feature animated characters, or how many articles for major media properties are narrated by an automated voice? Why hire actors when you can snap your fingers and receive a mediocre-yet-passable result?

🔥 On a related note, I’m delighted to be on the advisory board for my friend Bob Gower’s newly launched Splendid Torch consultancy for companies—check out the team’s insights in the 2026 AI Reality Check round-up (with a hat tip to Julie Clow who helped put it together!).

As Bob has framed this pivoting-around-AI moment during our walk-and-talks:

💬 I would love to hear from you in the comments . . .

What industry do you work in, and do you or your colleagues experience any job security anxiety as it relates to AI’s growing capabilities? How are you approaching it within your role or field? What would you advise a recent college grad to pursue?

🎧 Check out this related episode from the archives:

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We’re wishing you clarity, curiosity, and serendipity with your pivots-in-progress!

❤️  Warmly,