The Rapid Rise of Automation
Automation is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
And it’s already transforming industries across the globe… Blue and white collar alike…
For instance, at major ports, automated cranes and vehicles are revolutionizing logistics (World Economic Forum), causing The International Longshore and Warehouse Union to “voice concerns”.
Or companies like JPMorgan Chase are using AI tools to analyze legal documents in seconds, causing inevitable layoffs, especially in entry-level positions that are already dwindling (Bloomberg). No unions for those guys…
What’s Really Going On With Automation
From the perspective of capital: Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and machine learning are streamlining operations, reducing costs, and boosting efficiency.
Yay for humanity!
From the perspective of labor: Automation is leading to widespread layoffs as machines replace workers in roles that were once considered secure. In fact, entire sectors are being upended, with workers scrambling for fewer opportunities, adapting or getting left behind.
Woe onto automatable workers.
And this is only going to accelerate…
By 2030, McKinsey estimates that between 20% to 25% of jobs in advanced economies like the U. S., Japan, and France will be automated. (McKinsey&Company) This surge is believed to be driven by a combination of technical feasibility (we can automate things we couldn’t before), cost reduction (automation is cheaper), and labor market dynamics (labor is expensive). (McKinsey&Company)
Many industries, including manufacturing, retail, and even healthcare, are already witnessing significant automation, leading to changing jobs as well as permanent job cuts (McKinsey&Company).
Why Future-Proofing Your Career Is Essential
We shouldn’t need to spell out the obvious… But we will anyway.
As automation reshapes the labor market, the skills required for reliable employment are “evolving”.
Jobs aren’t what they used to be in the 1990s and early 2000s. Degrees? They lost their edge in the 2000-2020 era. And now, even having the right skills is no longer enough (2020 and beyond).
Ultimately, this is yet another step down the race to the bottom.
Basic cognitive and manual skills are becoming obsolete. As a result, millions of workers will need to shift career paths entirely to stay relevant. In fact, The World Economic Forum predicts that up to 50% of employees will need reskilling by as early as 2025! (McKinsey&Company).
In other words, future-proofing your career is no longer an option – if you wish to have a career that is…
Doomsday is already here, most people are too distracted to notice, that’s all.
The Plan to Future-Proof Your Career
There is a plan… There is a method to our madness.
We’ve already covered the big picture on how technological disruptions impact the job market and how you can leverage these disruptions for career success in Technological Disruptions and Your Career.
We’ve also explored how AI is changing the rules in recruiting, with HR departments using these tools to control job access, and what you can do to come out on top in AI and Machine Learning in Recruiting: What Job Seekers Need to Know.
Additionally, we’ve outlined long-term in Strategies for Long-Term Career Growth in an AI-Driven Economy, and reported on which jobs are future-proof and which ones are likely to disappear in Future-Proof Jobs.
Lastly, we’ve spent a lot of cycles on how AI affects career development and provided specific strategies in AI and Career Development.
As you might have gathered… This automation-AI disruption thing is a big deal, and we’re giving it a lot of attention.
Today is no different…
Today, we’re putting on our hard hats and giving you the step-by-step guide to building a future-proof career in the age of automation. We’ll show you:
- How to Shift from a Job to a Career Mindset
- How to Identify and Develop High-Value Skills
- Personal Brand Hacks Against AI Disruption
Understanding Automation’s Impact on Jobs
Before we dive into future-proofing your career, it’s essential to understand the landscape of automation and AI and how they’re transforming the job market.
Automation vs. AI: What’s the Difference?
While often used interchangeably, automation and AI are not the same.
Automation refers to technology that performs repetitive, predefined tasks without human intervention, typically found in manufacturing, data processing, and administrative roles.
A conveyor belt in factories putting caps on bottles, for instance, is automation. Routine. Repetitive. Predictable.
Automation has been around for decades. AI, however, is fairly recent.
AI, or artificial intelligence, takes automation a step further, mimicking human intelligence and decision-making. Think white collar, but more…
A customer support call center where a synthetic rep takes your call and tries to resolve your query, is AI. Not so routine. Somewhat repetitive. Not predictable.
What’s interesting is that, unlike the traditional notion of automation, AI can learn, adapt, and solve complex problems, enabling it to handle more sophisticated jobs including medical diagnoses, legal analysis, and even creative tasks (McKinsey&Company)
Of course, most of this work is currently virtual. But not for long…
Ultimately, automation and AI is going to combine – becoming AI Driven Automation – which is the type of automation we are talking about because that’s the type of automation that most threatens livelihoods.
Take Amazon’s warehouses as a prime example…
It’s not just conveyor belts moving packages from one spot to another. Neither is it virtual work in the land of texts, emails or conversations.
These Amazon robots get real work done, in every sense of the word. They are powered by AI, meaning they don’t just follow a set path. They adapt on the fly – dodging obstacles, adjusting their routes in real-time, and figuring out the most efficient way to fulfill orders.
In other words, it’s no longer just routine work; these robots are making real time decisions in a fast, unpredictable environment.
It’s “human replacement”…
Industries at High Risk of Automation
Simply put – everything. Every industry and job is going to be disrupted by AI Driven Automation.
It’s just a matter of time…
That timing, however, is crucial. It can mean the difference between having years to pivot and adapt to new opportunities, or finding yourself kicked out overnight from an industry that no longer exists.
Getting caught off guard could leave you scrambling for options in a market that’s already moved on.
Right now, this type of automation is particularly threatening to sectors with a lot of:
- Repetitive tasks
- Manual tasks
- Clerical tasks
Industries like manufacturing, retail, and transportation are seeing large portions of their workforce replaced by machines. Automated checkout systems are already getting rid of retail cashiers, and autonomous vehicles are eager to displace drivers in the logistics and transportation industries (McKinsey&Company) (McKinsey&Company). Even in banking and finance, automated algorithms are increasingly taking over data-entry roles and certain customer service functions.
Of course, workers are not asleep at the wheel… Some are resisting. We’re even seeing union strikes that explicitly protest automation. Meaning: being aware of protests, strikes and news can give you insights into the spread of automation in a sector – try to avoid moving into sectors where workers are aggressively protesting; those are doomed sectors.
(Sidenote: Labor action is not going to make much of a difference in the long run. But in the short run, pay attention to the obstacles that slow automation, as it may give you some breathing room to pivot out of a dying sector.)
Which Roles Are Safe from Automation (For Now)
There are two broad categories of jobs safe from AI:
- Jobs that are hard to automate
- Jobs that facilitate automation
Barring some unexpected advancements in AI and major cultural shifts, jobs that involve complex problem-solving, creativity, and emotional intelligence are less likely to be automated in the next decade.
These include roles in healthcare, where human empathy and decision-making are critical (e.g., nurses and doctors), as well as education, management, and roles that require nuanced human interaction, like therapists and social workers. (If people suddenly want a robot doctor or an AI boss, of course, these jobs won’t be safe either. But that is extremely unlikely.)
Additionally, high-skill technical roles, such as AI specialists and software developers, are expected to remain safe, as they directly contribute to the advancement of automation (McKinsey&Company).
Now that you have an understanding of what automation is, what is safe and what is at risk – let’s discuss careers…
1. How to Shift from a Job to a Career Mindset
A lot of people use the word job and career interchangeably. But this is mistaken.
What is a Career? How is it Different Than a Job?
As we’ve explained in The Ultimate Guide, a job is essentially a transaction: you exchange your time and skills for money. The more time you spend on a job, the better you get at specific tasks – at least in theory.
But a job alone doesn’t guarantee growth beyond the role you’re performing. It’s about maintaining the status quo, often without a clear pathway to long-term personal or professional development.
A career, on the other hand, is far more than just a job. It’s an evolving process that combines your professional labor with your personal growth.
When you have a career, you’re not just working to help your employer meet their goals; you’re working toward your own life’s ambitions too. A career allows you to invest in yourself through the process of your day to day work – you become more valuable, more skilled, and more marketable automatically.
Every day spent in a career opens new opportunities that make you more employable in the long run.
In the context of our discussion, shifting from having a job to building a career is crucial, especially because industries are being disrupted by automation and AI. A job may disappear overnight, but a career doesn’t. A career ensures long-term relevance, no matter the market changes.
How to Tell If You Have a Career
- Is there a history of progression? Are you moving up in skills, responsibilities, or roles over time?
- Can you raise your prices or salary over time? Does your value increase as you gain more experience?
- Are you working on bigger scope and bigger budget problems? Do the challenges you tackle become more significant as you grow?
- Are there bigger titles within your reach? Are you on a clear path for advancement?
- Are you continuously learning? Are you gaining new skills, knowledge, or credentials that make you more competitive?
- Do you have a long-term plan? Does your work align with a bigger personal or professional vision?
If you’ve answered yes to at least 3 of these questions, congratulations! You have a career, and it’s worth making it automation proof.
If you haven’t answered yes to at least 3, we’ve got some work to do… You need to get a career first! (We recommend ignoring the rest of this article for the time being, and following our instructions in Launch Your Career.)
What Makes A Career Future Proof
Assuming you have a career, let’s break down what makes it future-proof.
The definition is simple: a future-proof career means you’re able to remain perpetually employed – finding an equal or better job within 3 weeks – even in a changing job market. If this can continue until you voluntarily retire, you have a future-proof career.
Achieving this requires three critical factors:
- High Demand for Your Position: Your role needs to be in demand across industries. If there’s strong market demand, employers will always need people with your skills.
- Opportunities for Progression and Promotion: Your career needs a clear path for advancement. This ensures you’re not just stuck in one role forever, but you’re growing in scope, responsibility, and salary over time.
- Investment in Your Personal Brand: Every day in your career should enhance your reputation and personal brand.
We’re going to outline how these are achieved in the next two sections…
2. How to Identify and Develop High-Value Skills
At the core of it, what attracts employers and clients to you is your skill-set.
But the details are quite nuanced…
Unlike what most people think, skills don’t have inherent value. The demand for that skill gives it value in the market. (It’s not the skill, it’s the demand.)
In the past, many skills offered a disproportionate advantage to the effort it took to develop them, because only a select few possessed them. Because of this scarcity, professionals with these skills could command high wages.
For example, knowing how to program or manage databases in the early 2000s was extremely lucrative, as not many people had these technical skills.
However, with mass education and globalization, these skills have become widely accessible and much cheaper. More people around the world are now educated in programming, data analysis, and other previously very lucrative fields – reducing the value of these skills.
As a result, wages for roles dependent on many previously lucrative skills have declined. For example, IT support and basic software development, which were once highly paid, are now often outsourced for a fraction of the cost. (Even when the outsourced labor is not as competent or experienced, employers are willing to look the other way for the tremendous short term savings.)
Why is this important? It’s important because with AI-driven automation, this trend is going to accelerate even more, and across many, MANY industries.
In fact, the vast majority of skills used in both white-collar and blue-collar contexts are going to be handled by AI for literal pennies over the next two decades. Administrative work, basic data entry, customer support, and even elements of legal and medical tasks can already be processed by AI at negligible costs.
Imagine what is coming next…
Make no mistake: when it’s all said and done, no one will pay for skills that machines can do, even if machines couldn’t do it faster or cheaper, just as it happened with outsourcing.
And just to rub salt… In many cases, machines are already doing it faster and cheaper! For instance, generative script writers or AI-based legal document analysis tools already outperform on tasks that were once handled by highly paid professionals.
This is race to the bottom, on hyperdrive!
The Importance of High-Value Skills
Due to all these changes and the reduction, as well as elimination of value in many skills…
The only skills truly worth investing in are high-value skills – those that are difficult, if not impossible, for AI to replicate. These can be both technical and soft skills, but what sets them apart is that they are human-centric and hard to automate.
While not the only set of high-value skills, the Five Core Skills and Seven High Value Disciplines are the set of high-value skills that are applicable in every corporate environment; giving them greater transfer-ability and market power.
Interestingly enough, these skills were already gaining prominence over the last decade (possibly due to their difficulty in outsourcing), but now they command a premium for two additional reasons:
- AI can’t easily replicate them
- Barriers to entry keep supply low
The second one is especially interesting, forming a moat around professionals who possess these skills, creating exclusivity and maintaining high wages as well as job security.
To build a future-proof career, we highly recommend focusing on high-value skills. If you don’t know where to start, start with the Five Core Skills and Seven High Value Disciplines. Yes, there are other high-value skills. But the ones we list in the 5-7 are the most transferable and secure.
Language of Value
Of course, having these high-value skills isn’t enough on its own.
You need to also be able to communicate that you possess these skills effectively, in an increasingly noisy job market. This is where mastering the Language of Value comes in…
Being able to credibly showcase your skills to employers and clients is key to commanding higher pay and staying relevant.
If you want a future proof career, you need both. You need the hard-skills. And you need to learn how to articulate your value in a way that makes your unique skills undeniable, and sets you apart from both AI and human competitors.
3. Personal Brand Hacks Against AI Disruption
In a world where AI can automate many tasks, what sets you apart is not just what you do (high-value skills) but who you are (your reputation, network, and unique value proposition).
Here’s how to build an unshakeable personal brand that AI can’t touch. Start with what we call “the big realization”:
You Get Paid for Who You Are, Not Just What You Do
Remember: AI can replicate tasks, but it can’t replicate you.
Your personality, creativity, leadership, and reputation… The specific traits of your professional persona… That’s where personal branding comes in.
This is a massive subject we touch in our networking series (which you should read), but here’s the cliff-notes:
- Position yourself as a thought leader: Becoming the go-to person in your field, creates value that AI can’t. The value of your perspective and ability to influence others becomes a key differentiator.
- Pick a unique “lead skill”: Identify what you bring to the table that AI can’t – whether it’s your creative thinking, strategic decision-making, or emotional intelligence. Make sure you pick your unique “lead skill” from the 5 Core Skills and 7 High-Value Disciplines. Then make sure your personal brand reflects it through public projects, testimonials, and visible work history.
- Be indispensable to human relationships: Clients and employers will often choose to work with people they trust and know. Building a reputation as reliable, creative, or innovative makes you irreplaceable.
- Always be building your network: (This is just like the saying “Always be closing”). Your network can be the difference between a steady career and getting replaced by AI. Also remember: Your network is your safety net. In times of disruption, your professional contacts can help you pivot quickly.
Conclusion: Make The Future Yours
The age of AI-driven automation isn’t a distant threat – it’s here, now, and happening.
Sometimes it feels like we’re already living Cyberpunk 2077.
To stay ahead, future-proof your career by focusing on what AI can’t replace:
- Move from a job to a career mindset
- Identify and develop your high-value skills
- Build your personal brand, human-centric skills, and strong networks
A lot of people will struggle. Many will even become destitute.
Ultimately, when it’s all said and done, however, the future will belong to those who can combine technical expertise with uniquely human capabilities.
The future can belong to you, if you act ready for that future…