Ep 496 | AI Won’t Take Your Job. Someone Using AI Will

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I'm really excited about today's episode. It's a little bit different than a lot of what we've been covering recently. As you can see by the title of the podcast, AI is not gonna take your job, but someone using AI will. What I'm trying to get at is that AI is a tool, in my opinion. It's not a threat. And we have to be thinking about how we stay ahead. It's not a threat unless we fail to stay ahead. I've been thinking a lot around AI. I operate in, in many different spaces. Where I have peers that are fearful of it eliminating certain jobs and certain needs. And while I may have had a little bit of that initially, those feelings, the more I read, the more I study, the more I practice certain things, the more my opinion has actually changed. Every time a new technology emerges, I think people panic. The immediate reaction is, Will this take my job? We've heard it with cars, we've heard it with the internet, and now we hear it with AI. However, when you look at history, it tells you something much different than that. Today, we're gonna focus a little bit on a powerful quote from an economist. His name's Richard Baldwin. And Richard's quote is, AI won't take your job, someone using AI will. We're going to talk about why that's true and how you can make sure you're on the winning side of this shift. We're also going to take a look at some past technological disruptions and get a better understanding as to maybe the real threat that AI poses, and it's, it's probably not what you think. And then the steps you can take today to stay ahead. Let's first talk about the history of certain technological disruptions. And how they actually impacted the job market, job creation. People have feared new technology before, we've already mentioned that, and they're, they're actually usually wrong because every major technological advancement that I've looked at has led to some degree of fear and resistance, but ultimately these innovations created more jobs than they destroyed. Let's give some examples here. Uh, one, the very first one where my mind goes when I started kind of doing some of this research was, was the car, the automobile. In the late 1800s, the late 1800s and the early 1900s, people had feared that cars were going to put blacksmiths and horse breeders and carriage drivers out of work. And, and yes, some of those jobs declined and ultimately were eliminated, but cars created entirely new industries, things that people didn't even— couldn't even fathom. Industries like mechanics and auto manufacturing, gas stations. How about highway creation? You could even fast forward to today where you've got ride-sharing services like Uber. So the car was feared, the automobile was feared because it was going to put what we know out of business at the time. But look at how many new jobs and opportunities were created with mechanics and highways and Uber and all that. How about a more recent example like the internet in the '90s and the early 2000s? I mean, I remember I'm 46 years old, right? So, when the internet really started picking up speed was when I was in high school and towards the end of high school. Many people thought it would destroy jobs in retail. And in print media and in just traditional communication. But instead, what happened over the course of time? It created digital marketing, it created e-commerce, created content creation, software development, even remote work. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. I think we'd all agree that the internet's probably served us pretty well in terms of business and productivity and just progress. Here's an interesting one. How about the ATM? The ATM, like where you go and it, you know, you put your card in and hopefully it spits out a few dollars. Banks introduced ATMs in the '60s and '70s, and people assumed that the bank teller would become completely obsolete. But instead, ATMs made banking far more efficient, and it allowed banks to open up a bunch more branches and hire more employees in customer service and advisory roles. Banks just scaled because they took something that frankly was, was of lower value in that it didn't require a knowledge worker necessarily to count out a few bucks, put that in the ATM, and then create all these new opportunities and expand their banks as a result. So the lessons from, from history here, and this is just a few examples, technology doesn't replace people, it just changes the nature of work. And I think the jobs of tomorrow haven't even been invented yet. Just like social media managers and data scientists and cybersecurity experts, that stuff didn't exist just 30 years ago. I really truly believe, based on the individuals I study and the research I review, I really believe AI is going to follow a very similar pattern. Now, what does this mean for AI and, and your job? Again, I'll go back to the initial quote. AI is not going to take your job. Someone using AI will. AI is a tool. It's not a replacement. The real question isn't, will AI take my job? I think the real question is, how do I use AI? How do I use artificial intelligence to, to do my job better than anyone else? That's where I'd be focusing my time and energy. I wouldn't be focusing my energy on, oh my gosh, this is going to take over my world. I'd still again be asking myself, how do I use this new technology to, to better do my job and do it better than anybody else? So for example, if you're in the real estate space, if you're a real estate salesperson, I'd be using AI-driven lead generation and AI-driven pricing algorithms. Different predictive analytics, uh, different AI to, to help give me more information on an area that previously I had to spend hours in researching. And if I do that, I'll outperform my peers that are stuck in these more manual processes. If I'm a traditional salesperson, can I get AI to assist with different follow-up? Can I automate more scheduling? Can I personalize different sales pitches. As a result, will I close more deals than someone trying to do everything themselves? Again, I want to get ahead of this. AI is not going to take my job. Someone using AI is going to. I think the biggest mistake we could all make though is ignoring AI. Companies won't fire people for AI. I don't believe they're going to. They're just going to replace outdated employees. With AI-empowered employees. I really truly believe that. And we're seeing it right now in real estate, where AI is helping find better, better leads and, and, and, and better pricing homes and automating follow-up. We're seeing it in sales and marketing, where AI is writing ad copy and analyzing customer data. We see it in healthcare. AI is actually diagnosing diseases and analyzing medical data. And improving patient care. And in finance, AI is detecting fraud, improving investment decisions, automating risk analysis. Now, you may hear this list and think, well, that's what people have been doing. And yes, that is accurate. And I think they're still going to be doing it, but at a far more efficient and effective— in a far more efficient and effective manner because they're going to be powered by artificial intelligence. So what are the action steps then you should be taking or considering taking to stay ahead in this age of AI? Number one, without question, I think you got to learn how AI applies to your industry. You're not behind, don't worry about it. You just got to change your mentality a little bit. How is AI currently being used in your field? Once you figure out how AI could be using— in how AI is being used in your field, how can you get a little piece of that? How could you learn more, become more educated? I think number 2, start using AI yourself so that you're working smarter and not harder. Fumble your way through it. Identify repetitive tasks that AI can handle for you. Leverage tools like ChatGPT for writing and for research, whatever it may be. Leverage different AI within your database systems. That should be introduced. And if it's not, may— might be time to look at other CRMs or database management tools, but leverage them to automate certain things. Think of AI as an assistant that helps you, I think, focus more on high-value work. Number 3, I think you should adopt and adopt a learn and adapt sort of mindset. The most successful professionals, I do not think, are the smartest professionals necessarily. They're just the most adaptable. So stay curious, take courses, experiment with AI tools before your competitors do. I think of a guy I work alongside right now who has been in the game for a fairly long time. I mean, he could be done his professional career if he so chose. He just really enjoys it. And I asked him the other day, like, hey, what are you working on? What are you doing? Oh, he said, I'm just taking this 10-hour AI course. He's just curious. He's just wanting to experiment with AI tools. He doesn't need to, but he wants to be ahead. He's hungry. He's interested in learning. And I think the most successful professionals, they're adaptable. They've got this learn and adapt mindset. So my, my conclusions for you and my, my call to action for today. I think it's that, you know, for you to recognize that AI isn't the problem. Being left behind is, is really the problem. Technology hasn't always changed jobs. It's also created new ones. And the best strategy is to embrace AI early, learn how to use AI, and leverage it to stay ahead. So my question for you, my focusing question for you today, how can you use AI to be better at what, what you do? Maybe an action step, start exploring one AI-related tool today. I really think the people who figure this out now will be the leaders of tomorrow. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.