I’m an executive coach with clients who are working to advance their careers across retail, finance, tech, and media. Whether they’re mid-career leaders or senior executives, many of my clients ask me some version of the same question: “What should I be doing right now so AI doesn’t make me irrelevant?”
People are watching AI tools do work that once took them hours. They’re seeing companies rethink head count, productivity, and the value of certain roles. They’re also hearing a lot of vague guidance about “embracing AI” without getting much practical direction about what that means. It makes sense why they’re concerned about job safety.
Here’s what I’m telling them to do within the next month.
Start by identifying the parts of your job that are most exposed
Don’t ask a broad question, such as, “Will AI take my job?” Get to more actionable answers by asking, “Which parts of my work are most likely to be automated, reduced, or happen faster?”
Start by looking at your calendar. List the tasks that are repetitive, rule-based, or require a first draft. That might include summarizing meetings, writing status updates, pulling together research, drafting emails, creating presentation outlines, or analyzing large amounts of information.
Second, list the work that relies on judgment, relationships, trade-offs, or influence. That might include aligning stakeholders, making a recommendation, coaching a team member, diagnosing why a project is stalled, or navigating internal politics.
Third, list the work where AI can be helpful, but where your expert, human perspective needs to determine whether AI’s output is truly useful. That third category is where most people should focus first because it allows you to complement your instincts and judgment with AI. It increases productivity and shows your manager you aren’t afraid of the technology.
Talk to your manager before the organization talks to you
If you’re concerned about AI and your role, don’t wait for a public announcement about how your organization is going to use AI. Have a practical conversation with your manager now. Don’t ask, “Is AI going to replace me?” That puts your manager in an awkward position and may not generate useful information.
Instead, ask smart and proactive business questions. You can say, “I’ve been thinking about where AI could help our team move faster. Are there specific areas where you want us to improve efficiency, quality, or turnaround time?”
These questions provide helpful context and position you as someone who thinks like a business owner. You aren’t panicking or simply worried about protecting your job; you’re paying attention to the future of the work and how you can improve it.
Move closer to revenue, customers, decisions, or risk
In every period of workplace change, some work becomes more vulnerable because it’s too far removed from business value and not seen as a priority. Look for ways to move closer to the parts of the business that are most important to leaders.
That doesn’t mean everyone needs to move into sales. It does mean you should understand how your work connects to revenue, customers, cost, speed, quality, risk, or employee performance.
If you’re in marketing, talk about pipeline, customer behavior, conversion, retention, or brand relevance — not just campaigns. If you’re in human resources, talk about manager effectiveness, retention trends, workforce capabilities, or time-to-productivity — not just programs. If you’re in operations, talk about cost, reliability, customer experience, or execution risk — not just process.
AI may change how work gets achieved, but companies will still need people who understand what matters, how to make decisions about trade-offs, and can explain the business impact of their recommendations.
The more clearly you can connect your work to outcomes, the harder it is to reduce your value to a list of tasks.
Build one visible example of adaptation
Over the next 30 days, create one practical example you can highlight as a way you’ve learned about AI and apply it to your work in a way that benefits others. You can access free guidance on platforms such as Reddit or subscribe to Coursiv and other apps that provide AI skill-building.
You might redesign a recurring report to focus less on activity and more on insights, improve the quality of a team process, create a better prep document for leadership meetings, help your team reduce time spent on manual updates, or develop a simple set of prompts that helps junior team members prepare stronger first drafts. All of this can be done with ChatGPT, which is a very easy place to start, as well as other accessible AI tools.
Once you’ve found your contribution, make it visible. Tell your manager what you tested, what improved, and what you learned. You might share, “I tested a new way to prepare for our weekly business review. AI helped me summarize the inputs faster, but the bigger improvement was having more time to identify the two risks we needed to discuss. I recommend we keep using that approach and see whether it helps us make the meeting more action-oriented.” If your manager is supportive, you may be able to share your experience with more senior leaders and get further credit.
That kind of update is much stronger than saying, “I’m playing around with AI,” or suggesting you’re fluent in AI because ChatGPT helped you plan your vacation. It shows you’re taking the initiative to experiment purposefully in ways that are valuable to your organization.
Don’t confuse anxiety with action
It’s understandable to be nervous about AI. Some jobs will change. Some tasks will disappear. Some companies will use AI in a nuanced way, and others will use it as a blunt cost-cutting tool.
In the next 30 days, you don’t need to become an AI expert, but you do need to understand where your work is exposed, demonstrate you can use AI in practical ways, have smarter conversations with your manager, and generally build evidence that you can adapt.
Start with one recurring task, one manager conversation, and one visible improvement. Then keep going.
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