Adopt these three mindsets to strategically adapt your career in the coming wave of AI
How will you compete?
The rapid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation has been anything but remarkable since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Leveraging the world’s knowledge at our fingertips to get quick answers and improve productivity is a game changer. AI tools augment our human intelligence to amplify new levels of performance. Those not using AI tools are already falling behind.
A recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study found that consultants using AI were significantly more productive (they completed 12.2% more tasks on average, and completed tasks 25.1% more quickly), and produced significantly higher quality results (more than 40% higher quality compared to a control group)1. The chart below, from Ethan Mollick’s recent article “Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier,” summarizes the shift in performance found in the BCG study.
AI will unlock massive economic growth and societal benefits. McKinsey Global Insitute estimates that generative AI will add between $2.6 and $4.4 trillion in annual value to the global economy2. AI will also be a wealth generator like we have never seen for those positioned to do so.
AI is already automating manual work, freeing people to focus on higher-value work. AI is also creating jobs like “prompt engineers” and jobs we cannot imagine. While the BCG study confirms that AI tools will augment human intelligence, I believe this advantage will level out with AI significantly replacing labor at a faster rate. AI innovation continues to accelerate and will continue to do so as people and companies demand more of it. Costs will decline, and billions of people will have free access to the world’s knowledge. It becomes an equalizer as barriers are shattered. Simply put, AI will destroy more jobs than it creates in the near term. Innovations are hard to predict and can pop out of nowhere, leaving your job at risk.
Although it’s hard to predict when and how generalized technology will unfold, it’s clear that AI will replace jobs or automate job tasks over the next several years. Machine intelligence will accelerate faster than human intelligence. How you evaluate the rapidly changing environment and adapt your value proposition will dictate your relevancy in the wave of unprecedented change. Adopting mindsets to think like a strategist, product manager, and startup will help you navigate the coming wave of technology.
Strategist
The first mindset to adopt is to think like a strategist. Strategy explains how an organization, faced with competition, will achieve superior performance3. AI and other self-reinforcing technologies are a form of competition for jobs that humans vie for. In many cases, AI augments and amplifies our expertise; in other cases, automation goes to the extreme where it replaces people.
Michael Porter describes strategic competition as “choosing a path different from that of others.” It’s about uniqueness in the value you create and how you create it. As strategists for our careers and lives, we must have a consciousness of what makes us unique (internal awareness) and how we can apply that in the world to create value (external awareness). Even as the waves of innovation will roll in for years to come, we have great agency to ride these waves as strategists.
When I think about uniqueness as a form of competition and purpose, I am reminded of this passage in the Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene.
“Each human individual is radically unique. This uniqueness is inscribed in us in three ways - the one-of-a-kind configuration of our DNA, the a particular way our brains are wired, and our experiences as we go through life, experiences that are unlike any other’s. Consider this uniqueness as a seed that is planted at birth, with potential growth. And this uniqueness has a purpose.”
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
Here are ideas on how you can think like a strategist:
Long-term vision - visualize a compelling future with a journey of destinations that will lead to outcomes you value. Constantly reacting to events because you do not have a personal vision will lead to exhaustion and no competitive advantage built over time. This article can guide the creation of a personal vision.
Purpose - take an inner quest to discover your purpose and use it as an internal guidance system. This article can guide you to cultivate a purpose.
Focus on what you can control - allocate your precious time and energy to tasks and outcomes you control. This will conserve energy, save time, and improve productivity. I recommend adopting the Stoic philosophy by reading and following Ryan Holiday’s work.
Power dynamics - seek to build power - a powerful brand and network - that will amplify your strengths and increase the surface area of luck. This article explores power to supercharge your career.
Options - the person with more options has power and can more quickly adapt when the external environment changes. Have an authoritative direction, and understand the implications of your chosen path.
Ask yourself:
Where will you compete? Why?
How will you compete - what is your competitive advantage?
How sustainable is it?
Product Manager
The second mindset is to think like a product manager to manage the most important product of your life. You are the product manager of your career. You are responsible for where and how you engage in the world. Product management is the art and science of solving a custom problem with a unique product that customers love.
What is your product? How is it unique?
Here are ideas on how you can think like a product manager:
Product-market fit - package your expertise and continually adapt it to solve a valuable customer or business problem. This implies never-ending learning to deepen and broaden expertise and combine it in new differentiated ways. The market's needs are continuously changing, and so will you to remain relevant.
Value Proposition - clarify and articulate how the combination of your skills creates value with evidence that provides credibility.
Monetize your expertise through multiple offerings and channels - think entrepreneurial by packaging your expertise in a specific offering and channel to earn compensation. A portfolio of products reduces risk, similar to an investment portfolio. Relying on a single income stream is highly risky, even more so in today’s markets.
Market your product to stand out - feel proud of your product, and market it to target customers where you know you can deliver impact. Build up references and case studies on how you have delivered value - highlight its uniqueness.
Startup
Startups are scrappy, take risks, and innovate on the edge to find product-market fit and neutralize incumbents. The third mindset is to think like a startup.
Here are ideas on how you can think like a startup:
Adapt to market needs - Keep a keen eye on the dynamics of the domain you work in to recognize shifts, trends, and events that will influence your professional development roadmap. Innovate or die.
Take proactive risks - Nobody has a crystal ball to predict the future. You will never have all of the answers before making a move. Take calculated risks by understanding the downside, the probability of failure, and how you will recover. Then go for it.
Mentors and advisors - Leverage the experience of people you trust who can share their expertise and broaden your awareness of what you may not see as opportunities and risks.
Resourcefulness - There will be friction as you navigate the frontier of your craft. Resources you don’t have, people you need in your network, and forces you don’t control. Resourcefulness is a way of thinking and acting that does not accept the status quo and that you can’t do something. Think creatively to identify solutions out of your comfort zone that make you grow.
Mindset Benefits
Here are a few benefits of adopting these three mindsets to manage your career:
Decisive decision-making - with a clear vision and direction, you are in an excellent position of what to say “yes” and “no” to. Every day requires hundreds of decisions that guide the path and how it compounds over time. You will also be more productive by not consuming excessive cycles making these decisions.
Calmness - with a strategic mindset and analysis of the frontier, you operate calmly as life unfolds. You have anticipated potential events, and you drive confidently through the challenges thrown in front of you.
Growth - acting as a startup with a valuable product, you know that taking risks with experiments that put you in uncomfortable positions accelerates your expertise.
Fulfillment - given that you took an inner quest to strategically discover your purpose, the work you do is full of meaning and fulfillment. It’s not by chance that your work is bringing out your best self.
Achievement - you have targeted your expertise where you have a unique offering in demand, thereby increasing the likelihood of achievement.
Embrace and Experiment with AI
AI tools are everywhere, and new tools and services are launched daily. At a minimum, learn how to use OpenAI ChatGPT to accelerate your work by giving ideas or teaching you concepts. The only limit is your imagination. I also enjoy Inflection’s PI - short for “personal intelligence.” I find it more conversational and personal than ChatGPT. You can also talk with PI using iMessage, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. ChatGPT and PI are available on the web and mobile apps.
Given my background and interest in how AI shapes the future of work, I will share more AI tools and use cases in future newsletters. I intend to help you stay informed and leverage the tools to improve your performance and accelerate your path.
- James