Taking Charge of Your Career in the Age of AI

AI is reshaping the work we do, and I don't think most of us anticipated just how much it would affect our day-to-day lives. Tasks that used to take hours of focused effort can now be completed in minutes. And with the help of new tools, people can take on work that once required years of experience and specialized skills.

Think about how much time we invest in developing our skills. Most of us start long before we enter the workforce, and we spend much of our careers building on them to become better at what we do. So what happens when the nature of that work starts changing faster than we can keep up with?

If you've spent much of your career working in a market that AI is now drastically changing, it's natural to wonder what that means for your future. Will your expertise still be valuable? What should you be learning now to prepare for what’s changing? How can you take a more active role in shaping where your career goes?

In the previous article in my AI Leadership Series, I focused on how leaders can help their team members adapt as their Seats evolve. But there's another side of that responsibility, and it belongs to each one of us.

I've long believed that we need to take ownership of our own development. AI makes that responsibility even more important. We can’t foresee all the ways our careers will change as AI takes on more of the work, but we can take a more active role in preparing ourselves for what's ahead.

Understand the Value You Bring

One of the first things I encourage you to do is take a closer look at the value you bring to your company. It's easy to think about your career in terms of the tasks you've learned to perform or the skills you've spent years developing. But as more of those tasks become easier to accomplish with technology, we need to get better at understanding what makes our individual contributions valuable.

What problems are you especially good at solving? Where do people turn to you for your judgment or experience? And how could you use the AI tools available today to contribute in ways you couldn't before?

Every person has a unique combination of strengths, interests, and experiences. Two people can sit in similar Seats and bring very different things to a company. The better you recognize what you bring to your work, the easier it is to see where you have opportunities to grow. And I think that's an important part of building a fulfilling career: finding opportunities to do more of the work you're naturally drawn to and have the potential to become great at.

For example, someone who's spent years preparing financial reports may find that much of the reporting process can now be handled with AI. But their experience understanding the numbers, flagging potential issues, and helping leaders make better decisions could become even more valuable now. And with less time spent preparing reports, they'll have more capacity to put that experience to use. 

The same is true in Seats that have nothing to do with numbers. A salesperson who used to spend hours researching prospects and writing up call notes can hand much of that to AI and spend more time on what customers value: understanding their problem and earning their trust.

Now is the time to build on what you already know and find new ways to contribute. Look at the work you're doing today and ask yourself where you're creating the most value. Which parts of your Seat depend on your judgment, relationships, or understanding of the business? Those are good places to start thinking about the competencies you want to develop next.

Embrace AI in Your Work

AI isn't going anywhere, and the longer you resist learning how to use it, the harder it will be to keep up as the world of work evolves. That's why I think it's so important to start exploring what these tools can make possible for you and your career now.

A good place to begin is by thinking about how AI can help you build on the value you already bring to your company. And that doesn't mean you have to become an expert in every new tool that comes along. You just need to stay curious about what's possible and be willing to experiment with the tools that can help you in your own Seat.

Start with the work you're already doing. Where are you spending a lot of time on tasks that could be done more efficiently? Could you use AI to help you prepare for a meeting, organize information, explore different approaches to a problem, or get a head start on a project?

I also think there's a tremendous opportunity to use these tools to develop our thinking. You can ask AI to challenge an idea, help you understand a subject you're less familiar with, or introduce perspectives you might not have considered. Of course, you still need to evaluate what it gives you. Your experience, judgment, and understanding of the business are what help you determine whether the output is any good. And that's an important part of learning to work with AI. The more you experiment, the better you'll understand where it can help and how to use it responsibly.

I can speak to this from experience. I'm 66, and I plan to keep working for a long time. Over the past year, AI has become a thinking partner in almost everything I write. It challenges my arguments, points out where I've contradicted myself, and helps me get a first draft down faster than I ever could alone. It hasn't replaced my judgment. Every call about what stays and what goes is still mine. But it has made me more productive, and it's pushed me to keep learning at a point in my career when it would be easy to coast.

I deeply believe that people who approach these tools with curiosity and a willingness to learn will put themselves in a better position to grow. And as their capabilities expand, so will the opportunities they have to contribute to their companies.

One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again.

Abraham Maslow

Take Ownership of Your Development

One thing I've learned over the years is that you have to be intentional about your own development. Your leader can support you, coach you, and even create opportunities for you to grow, but no one will prioritize your development more than you will. You have to invest time in learning, seeking out new experiences, and looking for ways that you can become more valuable.

That's especially important right now. With how quickly AI is advancing, no one knows how their Seat might evolve, even in the near future. And most careers today run across several Seats and companies. That's often how people grow the fastest and it's why the most valuable investment you can make is in yourself.

That's why you have to think about your development beyond your current Seat or even your current company. The competencies you build, the experience you gain, and the relationships you develop will serve you throughout your career, wherever it takes you.

Here are a few things I'd focus on:

• Invest in your personal and professional development: Keep building the skills that will help you create value wherever your career takes you. And remember that becoming a better communicator, developing greater self-awareness, and learning how to work with different kinds of people can be just as important (if not more important) as building your technical skills.

• Don't limit yourself to a particular title or industry: It's easy to define yourself by your job title, profession, or the market you've spent years working in. But the skills you've developed may be valuable in places you've never considered. Stay open to opportunities that allow you to apply what you know in new and exciting ways.

• Keep up with where the world of work is headed: Stay informed about how AI is affecting your profession and what companies are looking for in the people they hire. That knowledge can help you make more thoughtful decisions about where to invest your time and energy.

• Be intentional about your development: At Ninety, our Quarterly Discussions give team members an opportunity to sit down with their leaders and talk about their development. I think those discussions are incredibly valuable, but they shouldn't be the only time you're thinking about your future. Take the initiative to identify what you want to learn and seek out experiences that challenge you. Then make time to put those new competencies into practice.

No one can prepare for every possible change ahead, but we can put ourselves in a better position to respond when those changes come. And the more we invest in becoming capable, adaptable people, the more confident we can be in our ability to take on new challenges and opportunities.

The Future of Work Is Ours to Shape

Taking ownership of your career doesn't mean having all the answers about where you're headed. It means continuing to invest in yourself and being open to opportunities you may not have considered before. Some of those opportunities may be within your current company, while others may take you somewhere entirely different. And there's something exciting about knowing the skills you develop along the way can open doors you never expected.

Throughout this series, I've spent a lot of time talking about what founders and leaders need to do to bring AI into their companies responsibly. We've explored where agents belong, who's accountable for them, the agreements and principles that guide them, how to measure their impact, and how to help our teams adapt. But I wanted to end this series by focusing on something that's just as important: Each of us has a responsibility to prepare ourselves for the future we're helping create. 

I believe AI has the potential to help us build companies that are more productive, humane, and resilient. The kind of companies that will make an impact for generations to come.

One of the things I love about this opportunity is that we can give people more capacity to focus on work that draws on their unique abilities. But that future won't happen on its own. It will depend on the decisions leaders make inside their companies and the responsibility each of us takes for our own growth.

If you lead people, share this article with your team and make it part of your next Quarterly Discussion. Ask your team members how they're thinking about their own development and what you can do to support them.

To everyone who's followed along with this series, thank you. I hope it's given you some things to think about as you navigate AI in your own companies and careers. We've covered a lot of ground, but I believe we're just getting started when it comes to understanding what's possible.

I don't know exactly what the world of work will look like a few years from now. No one does. But after everything we've explored in this series, I'm more convinced than ever that we have a pretty amazing opportunity ahead of us. The future of work is ours to shape, and I’m confident we can make it great.