ARC WILL AI STEAL MY JOB

Joining the conversation now is career coach Michelle Perchak. She is founder of MTV Coaching, which helps professionals navigate the job market in the age of AI. Michelle, welcome to ARC Seattle this morning.

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for being here. So while we know that AI will cause job displacement in some lines of work, what kind of roles are in demand in this era of AI right now?

So the roles that are in demand right now are roles that have their responsibilities, things that AI cannot do. So everything regarding centered on the customer and relationship building those skills will now be able to be replaced by AI. So if you're going to look at professions to get into or roles that you're interested in landing, make sure that a big part of that is relationship building and interaction, personal interaction with the customer.

What kinds of skills should job seekers be trying to obtain to compete in this new landscape? Career coaches call it upskilling. Can you explain what that means?

Absolutely. Upskilling are skills that you are not using right now. So if we're talking about the conversation centered around AI, figure out how you can embrace AI early. Run towards it, not away from it. Be a leader and show people at your company or on your team how you can use AI to do your job better, how you can use it to be more productive, how you have access to more data, how you can process more data, how you could actually supervise yourself and catch yourself on either making mistakes or missing gaps in your work. AI should be your pal.

As a career coach, do you often find that people have more to offer than they think and are just perhaps selling their skills and experience in not the correct way?

Absolutely. I always say that a surgeon cannot operate on themselves. You always need someone that can give you a neutral opinion, or someone that could really highlight your hidden potential. When professionals are in their realm of work, it's very difficult to step outside of yourself and evaluate yourself. You really need a professional to do that.

Finally, most people are really scared about this future. Even though you said AI is our pal, they're worried that they're going to be blindsided by a layoff because of AI. What would your message be? As in a HR expert?

So layoffs are always happening. They're not happening because of AI or any other trend in the industry. They're just happening because companies are evaluating what jobs are being duplicated. Who are the people who are not performing well? It's just when people look to blame someone, they always want to blame the newest kid on the block, and that's AI. Like I said earlier, let's think of AI as being our pal. It is definitely a way to embrace it. If you use it on a day to day basis, you figure it out and you're not afraid of it. And I use different AIs every single day. And I'm able to do a higher quality of work for my clients and I'm able to process a lot more. And the quality of my work is so much better than if I would just do it by myself.

All right, Michelle, interesting conversation in these changing times. Appreciate your help this morning.