AI Is Reshaping Careers—How to Use It to Your Advantage

💡Some Will Adapt and Grow — Others Will be Left Behind

A recent survey from PEW research revealed that 55% of workers rarely or never use AI chatbots at work. Even more surprising? 29% haven’t even heard of them.

Do you believe that?

I don’t. I’d argue they are using it and fear of replacement makes them bend the truth. If we assume that this is true then most workers are up for a big surprise. Their management is definitely thinking about it.

Some jobs will be replaced some will be amplified.

Which side will you be on?

Today, we’ll look at possible job and skill transformation and how you can make sure that you surf the wave of transformation instead of getting wiped out.

I see this shift happen in real-time. At Stanford, my students don’t just use AI — they rely on it daily. They feed all their course material to a custom GPT and turn it into a top student. They then use it to prepare for exams, refine readings and even refine arguments for class discussions.

When they enter the workplace, they know how to leverage AI to become better. They’re not being replaced.

But in the workplace, not everyone has that advantage. Some jobs are narrowly defined by repetitive tasks. These jobs are at risk sooner than people expect.

But there is another reason many workers won’t see AI coming: IT restrictions.

Many companies have locked-down IT systems where data can’t leave company servers. Workers don’t have access to AI tools to transition their own roles.

So what will happen? Others do it for them. Their jobs are being redesigned without them in the loop.

🚦The 3 Buckets of AI Job Impact

First, lets look at data from the World Economic Forum about skills on the rise in 2025-2030.

What are the core skills in 2030?

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs survey, these will be the most valuable skills in the future:

• AI and big data

• Analytical thinking

• Creative thinking

• Resilience, flexibility and agility

• Technological literacy

• Curiosity and lifelong learning

• Systems thinking

• Talent management

• Motivation and self-awareness

Workers will be expected to drive impact through knowing how to set direction, set objectives — define the desired outcomes. Their work will involve creating new ideas (creative thinking) and improve procedures.

Leadership skills and emotional intelligence become more important as are continuous learning and adaptation.

Not every job will survive in its current form.

Let’s look at the buckets.

🔴 Jobs Easy to Replace

• Type: Predictable, repetitive, narrowly defined, pre-defined rules that drive decision making

• Examples: Data entry & processing, Basic customer service, SEO content writing

• Why: Immediate cost savings/business impact by replacing human labor with AI

These roles are not in a position of strategic influence, usually not managing others and have very little freedom for decision making. Most of the actions are defined by pre-defined process.

How to stay ahead

Move beyond that task execution. Start building out AI workflows (before someone else does) and become the AI overseer and optimizer. Shift into decision making roles. AI provides insights but does not yet drive strategy based on these.

🟡Jobs That Will Transform

• Type: Combination of insights, interpretation and multiple tools, processes with many dependencies, processes that require judgement and flexibility,

• Examples: Analysts and researchers, mid-level marketing, junior and mid-level engineers

• Why: AI will not remove the need for human oversight just yet.

AI can generate outputs but is not a true problem-solver. Although it can help users solve problems faster. AI can handle boilerplate code writing but engineers will be needed to architect the system and optimize performance. As well as manage dependencies.

🟢Jobs with AI-based Growth Opportunities

The jobs that will thrive with AI.

• Type: Hard to automate - leadership, managing stakeholders, Trust & Relationship driven - high stakes decision making, alignment between different organizations, expert judgement required.

• Examples: System architects/system design, deep problem solving.

• Why: AI lacks intuition, emotional intelligence and creativity. People trust humans in critical decision making positions.

This is the environment where leadership and strategic skills are getting rewarded. Even if ones job is currently task oriented and narrow, this is the time to zoom out, establish an AI-driven team for these tasks and jump into the role of a decision maker.

Leaning into creativity and problem solving and using AI as an assistant can further boost output and value creation.

💡 Main Takeaway

We shift fear of being replaced into an AI-driven career growth. 

We are looking at this from an opportunity perspective.

• If your work is pure execution, you know what an AI needs to do. Build AI-driven teams. Making the AI work for you before others do it will help you evolve into a position that controls the task doers. Step into a decision maker role. You can lead and optimize them.

• If your job will be transformed by AI then you can learn how AI will transform it. How will AI speed up research? Build custom GPTs or Gemini Gems based on your role and use them as your sparring partner. AI accelerates your work and with that your output.

• If your job involves strategy, leadership or deep creativity, AI will make you even more powerful. Start to include AI into your strategic goals. Maybe even try to start with an AI first approach. AI will not change your role but make you far more impactful.