Aren’t you just sick and tired of people waxing on about AI job destruction but clearly assume they are just going to be fine because they are just so damn important and irreplaceable? Oh, wait, you’re not also guilty of this, too, are you?
The harsh reality is that we all have a price on our heads to be replaced. As long as we are employed by someone else, we’re running the risk of pricing ourselves out of our jobs, because we’re just not worth the cost to our employers anymore.
We’ve always been walking costs to our employers. AI has just exposed us more than ever
Let’s cut through the noise and face our brutal truth head-on: we’re all vulnerable to AI, not just “them,” but you, me, everyone drawing a paycheck. It’s time we stopped comfortably pontificating about AI’s impact on other industries and professions, while conveniently ignoring our own glaring susceptibility. The harsh reality? Fail to evolve our work habits and embrace AI, and we’re setting ourselves up for irrelevance—fast-tracked straight onto the scrapheap of once-talented dinosaurs.
Here’s a simple litmus test: we can spot an executive bluffing about their AI knowledge in under two minutes. The buzzwords flow freely, but practical application? Hmmm… And guess what? Most people in your organization are quickly becoming adept at identifying the AI fakers. Authentic understanding—real competence—is becoming the gold standard that separates valuable assets from costly liabilities.
Leaders have avoided getting their hands dirty for decades, until now
For decades, people have survived on weaving their wonderful bullsh*t without getting their hands dirty. I remember once interviewing the RPA practice leaders across all the leading services firms and asking them to share their insights into the product functionality of the leading software tools. All of them failed to demonstrate any actual understanding of what these automation products actually did, beyond the usual rhetoric about “automating the enterprise”, infusing terms like “hyper” and “intelligent”. And they undoubtedly were dealing with clients who possessed equally scant knowledge of what these products did. In both cases, the leaders were dumping the real work down into the trenches of their organizations, where it inevitably faded into a series of insignificant pilot projects.
Let’s tackle the elephant in the room: the delicate balance between your cost, your value, and your replaceability
Here’s the cold, hard truth about employment today—we’re judged by one ruthless metric: how much we cost versus how much value we deliver. With AI reshaping expectations, the tipping point where our value fails to justify our price tag is frighteningly closer than most of us will admit.
The future of labor isn’t complicated—it’s about raw economics. For example, if you’re earning $200K+ annually, you’d better deliver exponentially greater value than someone at $75K with better AI chops. AI isn’t just another workplace tool—it’s an economic reset button that’s forcing every one of us to justify our salaries like never before. Young professionals, take note: this is your golden opportunity. If you can deliver equivalent or greater value at a fraction of the cost through adept AI integration, the future is yours to claim.
The Bottom-line: Don’t be part of the corporate hedgerow
Costs are like hedgerows – if you don’t keep trimming them, they keep growing back. But this time, many of these legacy hedgerows aren’t ever going to be replaced as enterprise leadership seems to eradicate legacy costs once and for all with their AI investments.
In this unforgiving AI economy, your salary isn’t just compensation—it’s a number continuously scrutinized, weighed, and measured against the value you’re delivering. But this really shouldn’t be about fear; it must be about clarity and being self-aware of our value. Justifying our price point has never been harder, but making ourselves irreplaceable AI warriors has never been more rewarding.
Hat Tip to Ted Shelton and his article on Labor, Capital and AI.
Posted in : Agentic AI, Employee Experience, GenAI, Generative Enterprise
