The 3 Best Methods To Insulate Your Job From Being Replaced By AI
Most people online seem to be terrified that AI is out to replace them and they'll be downsized any week.
The biggest fear people seem to have is that executives will realize that they can replace an entire department with an AI agent they run themselves. However, anyone who has ever worked with an executive knows they couldn't run AI agents to save their lives. Companies and executives will always need people executing their vision, whether it's humans only or combinations of humans and AI.
So instead of giving into fears of being replaced by AI, here are the 3 best methods to insulate your job from downsizing due to AI.
Method 1: Become Your Company's AI Expert
Every large company is publicly saying they are embracing AI and investing capital dollars into integrating it into their infrastructure.
However, the job market is full of postings looking for AI experts, which means most real experts have already been snatched up by AI companies themselves or consulting firms. Many companies' best AI gurus are still using ChatGPT (or Copilot if their IT blocks good AI models) to perform basic transcription and article summaries and not leveraging AI as anything more than an advanced Google. By becoming the go-to AI expert at your company, you'll shield yourself from any potential downsizing that could occur in the coming months and years.
As an added bonus, experts get to be in the room when major decisions are made about the future of AI at a company and you would get to help guide in the right direction and avoid the IT fear mongering.
Method 2: Deliver Solutions, Not Project Results
Competent employees deliver project results on time, but irreplaceable people deliver solutions to problems.
They might sound the same on the surface, but it's all about who is leading the direction to the result. Someone who only does the work given to them or their group focuses on each project on their plate. However, indispensable people don't stop at identifying problems, but present potential solutions to them proactively.
When upper management is establishing who they can't live without, it's the people who can both identify problems as well as solve them without much management oversight.
Method 3: Proactively Seek Automation
One of the best pieces of advice I received early in my career was to constantly be working myself out of a job.
Again, it sounds counterintuitive to attempt to make myself replaceable by automating my workload. However, every group I've ever worked for or with has countless spreadsheets and documents that take hours to even get to the point where someone can analyze results. By constantly working to streamline and automate these files and systems, I've been able to leverage that ability in more and more groups with no end in sight.
Whether it's through AI or Excel prowess, every group wants to lessen their busywork so people can focus on the real analysis.
