💡 How Do Humans Remain Relevant? (Issue 134)

The age of AI challenges our careers and businesses

Will knowledge workers become irrelevant?

If you operate a knowledge-based business, will AI make your life easier or threaten your business model?

In the evolving world of easy access to infinite knowledge through ubiquitous AI services, what value can human beings offer to stay relevant? Where should you focus the long-term strategy of your services business to be the most valuable?

This type of disruption hit earlier with robotics. Manufacturing jobs dwindled as robotics entered the scene to perform tasks that previously required human operators.

“The researchers found that for every robot added per 1,000 workers in the U.S., wages decline by 0.42% and the employment-to-population ratio goes down by 0.2 percentage points — to date, this means the loss of about 400,000 jobs. The impact is more sizable within the areas where robots are deployed: adding one more robot in a commuting zone (geographic areas used for economic analysis) reduces employment by six workers in that area.” (source)

Now, AI is disrupting knowledge work. Will it have a more substantial productivity effect (e.g., making tasks easier) or a displacement effect (e.g., eliminating jobs)?

We’re already seeing some signs of the displacement effect kicking in. Duolingo’s CEO recently announced that the company will be “AI-first” and will “gradually stop hiring contractors to do work that AI can handle.”

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But, AI doesn’t possess empathy, ethics, or human judgment!

I’ve been guilty of what the author mentions in the article linked below—believing that humans will still be valuable in the age of AI because we have empathy, compassion, and the ability to build rapport with other human beings.

Humans as 'luxury goods' in the age of AI

As he states, yes, all of that has intrinsic value. But does the “human touch” have economic value? He doubts that it will.

Instead, he believes the value in this new system will lie in curiosity, curation, and judgment. You can read his excellent and detailed article linked above, but I wanted to touch on the topic of curiosity.

“When answers become cheap and abundant, good questions are the new scarcity.”
— Sangeet Paul Choudary

Infinite information is useless if you ask the wrong questions and retrieve answers that don’t solve the real problem. I often see this in my career coaching business. Some clients ask, “How do I write the perfect resume?” It’s the wrong question because creating the perfect resume won’t solve the real problem: landing a great new job.

I say this all the time: “Your resume isn’t how you will get a great job. Yes, you need a decent resume. But there are better investments of your time that will help you find great jobs and get offers.”

The right question actually is, “How can I best discover the right job for me?”

Similarly, your solopreneur business will thrive in this new age of AI if you are the one asking your customers the right questions to solve their most important problems. For now, that requires unique human insight to focus your curiosity to yield the best relevant results.

Yes, we now have access to a plethora of amazing AI tools. However, we need to ask them the right questions and direct that horsepower toward solving the right problems. That’s where your extraordinary human brain still has tremendous value and will help you and your business remain relevant.

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Larry Cornett is a Freedom Coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate! Check out his new Invincible Solopreneurs Daily Journal!

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