Time to read: 7 minutes
In this newsletter, you will find two topics:
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Stop Asking What AI Will Do. Ask What You Will Do.
Hi {{first_name | default: 'there'}},
Last week I stood in front of a room full of IMD alumni in Zurich and opened with this.
Neo awakens in the Matrix.
I did not open with this because I think we are living in pods, but because something that felt like science fiction in 1999 has a way of feeling a little less fictional every year.
They laughed, slightly nervously. That felt about right.
The workshop was about AI's impact on humanity. I chose to go somewhere uncomfortable.
About halfway through the session, I asked everyone to open their AI tool, their ChatGPT, their Copilot, whatever they use every day, and send it this prompt:
"Based on everything you know about me from our conversations, what is one significant mistake I kept making in the past year? Not operationally. In how I thought, decided, or avoided something. Describe the pattern behind it. What did it protect me from at the time, and what might it be costing me now?"
The room went quiet. Then people started reading.
One person: "You keep delaying launches until you have the perfect system. You go for 100 percent when 80 would have moved you forward."
Another: "My AI barely knew me. I had been careful about what I shared. It reflected back my privacy, not my patterns."
My own AI: "You want to do everything. You slice yourself into too many topics at once."
There is something unexpectedly honest about asking an AI for a mirror.
It don't believe you get fluffy feedback. It simply reflects what you have given it. And in doing so, you discover something important, not just about your blind spots, but about what you have been willing to show and what you have kept hidden.
You see, thinking is becoming cheap. Democratic, even.
And not just thinking, the inefficiency that knowledge work was built on. Companies sell things that are complicated, difficult to access, need lots of coordination.
Much of white collar work was built on that.
The coordination that only certain people knew how to navigate. The analysis that took a team a week.
White collar workers, likely like you and me, mastered a part of that complexity, used to have privileged access to tools, so we get salaries.
AI is making all of that faster and cheaper.
What it cannot make cheaper is what you do with it. When you outsource your thinking, you cannot also outsource the responsibility for it. The AI will not be accountable for what you do with its output. That remains yours.
And we live in in a world where everyone has the same tools, so what you do with your agency, your judgment, your relationships, your courage, that is the differentiator.
The Right Question
When it comes to AI, there are two questions we can ask. The first: what will AI do? It is the question in every headline, every conference. It is also not ours to answer. A handful of people on the west coast of the United States are making those decisions.
The second question: what will I do? That one belongs entirely to you.
Most of us spend about ninety percent of our mental energy on the first question and almost none on the second. Which is exactly backwards.
Your Career in the AI Age
When I coach, consult or just speak with senior professional with decades behind them, the question underneath almost every AI-fear they is similar: "I am not sure what I still bring that matters."
People with fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years of experience who are suddenly unsure how to talk about their value. What is it that they do, which is so strong, that even in this AI-driven world, it is here to stay?
The problem is not that they have nothing to offer. The problem is that the language they used to describe their value no longer fits. And they have not yet found a new one.
Finding that language is hard. I know, I have been there many times in my own career.
Your Career in the AI Age
That is exactly why I created a new working session: Your Career in the AI Age.
It is a 2-hour live workshop on 18 April, 9:00 to 11:00 am CET, maximum ten people, where you do the actual work of figuring out what you specifically bring that still matters, and how to say it.
In two hours you will:
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Know exactly which parts of your expertise AI cannot replace
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Have a clear, confident narrative about your professional value, updated for the world we are actually in
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Walk away with a written positioning statement ready to use on LinkedIn, in conversations, and in interviews
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Have a concrete idea of your next move
This is for you if you have ten or more years of experience and feel the pressure of AI reshaping your field. You will not just listen. You will think, write, and leave with something done.
The early bird price is CHF 199, going up to CHF 279 shortly. Ten seats only.
Thanks for reading. If something here sparked a thought, or if you were in that room on Wednesday and want to continue the conversation, hit reply. I read every response.
Did you miss our last newsletters?
Inboxes can get a little crazy, right? Just in case you missed them, here are the links to our previous newsletters:
- Newsletter #27: I’m sharing why I stopped asking my teenager about jobs, why judgment beats answers in the AI age, and how to train real sense-making. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #26: I’m sharing why AI’s “adolescent” phase could disrupt 50% of entry-level jobs, what’s really holding leaders back, and why sending applications isn’t enough. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #25: I’m sharing what Davos revealed about AI and accountability, why human conversations matter more than ever, and how to navigate career change with clarity in uncertain times. → LINK HERE
Thanks for reading. Just drop a quick reply if you have any feedback.
Wishing you a great weekend ahead.
Warm regards,
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