Photo by Microsoft Copilot on Unsplash
AI has disrupted the world of work. Whether that’s good or bad depends on how you view it.
Many knowledge workers welcome the technology and how it empowers them to be more efficient, wear multiple hats, and get more done. Others take seriously the predictions that AI will take a scary number of jobs, even though some of those predictions have been scaled back over the past few months.
Older workers, especially those looking for jobs, are struggling to adapt. They’re faced with a difficult question: What do I do now?
While companies are using AI to hire people in ways both novel and unsettling, from scanning résumés to having AI agents conduct interviews, aspiring candidates are left wondering what they need to do to remain competitive in a challenging employment market.
They basically face the following three options.
Ignore AI altogether
One option is to pretend AI doesn’t exist and to conduct your job search just as you have in the past. There’s some merit to this, especially as real, live networking—which AI can never replace—remains the best way to uncover opportunities and shorten the length of a job search.
Having AI write cover letters, thank-you emails, and other communication that should be personalized can also be a bad move. We’ve all been offended when a company we interviewed with sent us a form rejection letter. Why commit that same offense as a candidate?
AI has its place in a job search, of course. It can help you organize your thoughts, beef up your résumé or LinkedIn profile, or prepare by having the AI tool ask you potential interview questions.
Just don’t think AI can or should do all the work for you.
And in an interview, if you’re asked about AI, if you’re staunchly anti-AI, avoid saying so, lest you risk sounding out of touch or unwilling to adapt to change.
“Get good at AI” or, learn what it really can and can’t do
Of all the advice floating around about succeeding in the AI age, the most frustrating is to “learn AI and get good at it.”
What does this even mean?
The problem with this advice is that it lacks context. You don’t need to get good at AI. You instead need to learn how to use it to do what you already do, but better and more effectively.
For instance, if your job (or the job you aspire to) entails reporting, figure out how you can use an AI tool to help you create reports faster and to present the information so that it’s attractive and professional-looking.
If your job requires you to build slide decks, learn how AI can help you create them more quickly.
If you analyze data, determine how AI can help you spot trends or anomalies and create user-friendly deliverables.
If you’re a writer, like me, you can use AI to help you come up with story ideas or draft outlines or conduct research by locating specific information on websites. (I don’t use AI to write.)
Ultimately, how much AI can help you with your work will be defined by your own experience and judgment—the value humans continue to bring to the table.
And remember, all the AI caveats still apply. Use AI as an assistant or partner rather than having it do all the work for you. Always carefully review AI outputs for errors. Don’t pass off AI’s work as your own. And so forth.
Gain experience with AI tools
Many people don’t buy electric vehicles because they fear a scenario where the vehicle’s battery dies far away from the nearest charging station. Once they buy an EV, however, this fear dissipates as they get more comfortable with trip planning and more familiar with where they can locate a charging station.
The same applies to AI tools. People worry about AI potentially displacing them until they start using AI regularly and get to know what the technology currently is and isn’t good at.
“Expert” opinions are all over the place about what the best tool is. Don’t worry about choosing the best one to explore. Just pick one and dive in. Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, or the free version of ChatGPT or Claude, are great places to start. Better yet, test-drive multiple tools.
If you need guidance, there are countless tutorials available on YouTube or LinkedIn Learning to get you on your way
Certainty in uncertain times
The reality is that we don’t know how much or in what ways AI will change knowledge work. There’s just too much uncertainty.
Will AI ultimately prove more expensive than humans?
Will the required (and controversial) data center infrastructure be built out?
Will AI become a commodity as cheaper Chinese models infiltrate the U.S. market?
No one knows the answers.
But we need to accept this fact: AI is here, and try as we might, we can’t avoid it.
