245: Will AI Take Your Job? Reflecting on the 2024 Work Trend Index Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn

AI is changing the way we work and our jobs.  In this episode, I'll help you explore the transformative potential of generative AI, poised to reshape job skills by a staggering 68% by 2030, as revealed in Microsoft and LinkedIn's 2024 Work Trend Index.

Could AI replace your job? Delving deep, I'll dissect the fears and uncertainties that AI stirs in our professional lives while also highlighting the coexistence and collaboration between humans and AI. Drawing from personal experiences and industry insights, I'll give you a roadmap for confidently navigating the AI-infused career landscape. From mastering AI-influenced interviews to harnessing the unique human skills that remain irreplaceable, I'll equip you with the tools to not only keep pace with AI but thrive alongside it.

Are you ready to future-proof your career? Whether you're pondering the impact of AI on your current job or seeking strategies to increase your value in an AI-driven world, this episode offers practical tips and thought-provoking discussions to empower your professional journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Impact of AI on Job Skills
• 11:32 Navigating AI in the Workplace
• 20:08 Building Your Mid Career GPS

Transcript

John Neral: 0:00

Is AI going to take over your job? Earlier this month, Microsoft and LinkedIn released their twenty twenty four work trend index on the state of AI at work. According to their report, generative AI is projected to change job skills by sixty eight percent by two thousand and thirty. Come on. You think twenty twenty four going by quickly. Imagine how quickly two thousand and thirty is going to get here. Now, you might be wondering how will AI impact my current job or industry? And could AI actually replace my position? What would you do for work if AI is going to take over your job? Well, I'm going to help you break this question down and share a few of my best tips to help you increase your value at work rather than succumb to what AI is doing and will do. Plus, how would you answer any AI specific related question on your next job interview? I'm gonna share a few tips to help you answer that as well. Let's get started. Hello, my friends. This is the mid career GPS podcast, and I'm your host, John Neral. I help mid career professionals like you find a job they love or love the job they have using my proven or step formula. Before we get into this episode, I want to thank you for listening and I want to welcome any new listeners to the podcast. It would mean a lot to me. If you would share this podcast with people in your network that you know that you believe would benefit a lot from it, You can get a free copy of my mid-career job seekers checklist by visiting my website, https://johnneral. com or you can check the show notes. if you're currently looking for a job, I've got a free checklist to help you organize your activities because you find that job you're going to love. You can also check the featured section of my LinkedIn and download your free checklist today. So as you've been following the podcast, you know that there's been a few changes. So I took the podcast back to once a week because of my schedule. And that's been working out really well. And so today, it's just gonna be me as you and I spend a little bit of time together. And I wanted to give you a quick little up date on something that really had a profound impact on me. So here's the question. Why are people so darn great at their jobs? Well, it's because of the value they provide. Now admittedly not everybody is incredibly fantastic at their job, but there are certain people and you know who they are that are so freaking good at what they do. So here's where this came up for me. So recently, I had gone to the supermarket to pick up a few things. And because of my schedule and and how the day was playing out, I just I need to go in the middle of the afternoon, I thought, well, this is great. Gonna beat the lunch rush. Won't have to deal with the dinner rush. I'm gonna get in. I'm gonna get out. Everything's great. So I went to a smaller supermarket chain than I normally go to, because there were a few specific things I wanted to get. And and I'm walking around the store and I'm trying to find certain things because I don't go there a whole lot, and so I don't exactly know where everything is. And I make my way back to the other side of the store and I'm walking in the back of the store and I see about four or five people standing around. And there appears to be a woman on the ground with her legs up and there is this whole puddle of water around her. And I thought, oh my gosh, she's going into labor. Now, I was able to kind of figure that out in some way because I didn't see Like, there wasn't any kind of injury. Nobody was screaming and yelling, but there was this extremely calming presence about the whole thing. Right in front of the pork tenderloin. It'd be like like a ball places to go in the labor. I mean, when it happens, it happens, I guess. But, you know, I'm just like, other poor thing, like, of all places, like, right there in front of a call case, here's what's gonna happen. So I quickly, like, didn't wanna be a distraction. I didn't wanna, like, each drop or anything and and I just don't think I'm, like, particularly really great in a crisis situation like that. So I kind of pushed my card out of the way and I went on about my business and stuff and and got the couple of things that I needed, including a bottle of Prosecco. And went to the checkout line. Now by the time I get to the checkout line, there's like two fire trucks and an ambulance out in front of the store. So you don't hear anything. There is no, like, loud commotion. Nothing is coming out like people are taking care of what needs to be taken care Okay? So I say something to the cashier at the checkout counter and I said, wow, I hope the woman in the back of the store is gonna be okay. And she says, what happened? And I said, well, I don't know for certain. I said, but I think her water broke. I think she's going in a labor. She goes, oh my gosh, I haven't heard a thing. I gotta find out what's going on. I said, well, I didn't wanna be nosy and poking around because I'm not gonna be helpful in that situation, but I'm so thankful and impressed by first responders. That know how to show up and handle any situation with calmness and confidence. And I go, that goes the same thing for the leadership in your store that is just making sure this customer gets the proper care that they need. And she looks to me and she goes, wow, that's really nicely put. And I said, well, I mean it. I said, they have a skill set that I can't do. I'm not good at it. I said, so for a first responder to come in in a crisis situation and take care of things, I'm I'm extremely impressed by all of that. And it got me thinking how we go about our day and we interact with people in a variety of situations and we simply expect them to do the job they're tasked with doing. But how do we recognize excellence? And when we think about recognizing excellence, it brings me back to this focus of this episode which is, is AI going to take over your job? Now, I'm a huge good morning America follower. It's how I start my day every day. And Rebecca Jarvis, who is one of their is their chief technology and and finance reporter. She was interviewing the CEO of Microsoft and LinkedIn. And she asked this great question at the start of the interview. She said, what inning are we at in this ballgame? And both of them said, we're in, like, the second inning. And it put it in a perspective of how quickly AI has developed and where it has the potential to go. Check the show notes because I'll link up to Rebecca's report on GMA in the show notes as well. But here's what they both said. They both said that AI is a tool. Let me rephrase that again. AI is a tool. And Ryan Ryslansky, who is the CEO of LinkedIn said that the labor market is brimming with change right now. And that change is driven in part by how powerful AI is. So if you're a job seeker or get played around with any kind of generative AI tool, You're probably thinking to yourself, hey, look, can AI help me write my resume, my cover letter, my LinkedIn profile? It absolutely can. The sophistication of it may vary, but as a job seeker, should you let AI help you when it comes to writing your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile. My answer to you is, that depends. See, you can go to a number of various websites. There are some very helpful tools that are out there and you can upload your resume and upload your job posting and it will score or compare your resume to that job posting. And it will give you a score about how closely your resume matches to the job posting. This is an important piece of information because you as the job seeker, the job applicant, will never know how strict the company has set the match criteria to help filter out the applicant tracking system. So hire is usually always better when it comes to these matches. But if you're matching it like fifty percent, you wanna find where are the tweaks and recommendations to get a much better match to align your resume to the job posting. How you use AI in this case is all about how you are leveraging this powerful tool to help you. Let me rephrase that again. The tool is there to help you it is not there to do it completely for you. And I have had clients and people who inquire about coaching come to me, and they'll say, well, I just put a bunch of things into chat GPT and it spit out a cover letter and I sent it. And I have to say to them, look, in my opinion, that is a fatal flaw. And I told somebody recently, and I said, this cover letter looks like you had chat, GPT, write it for you, and you never changed a dang thing. And they went, well, yeah, because I'm supposed to use the tool and this is what it gave me. I go, but it doesn't sound like you. It's not helpful if it's not in your tone or your voice. So accepting that kind of byproduct of the generative AI as is essentially it's going to hurt you. So the question then becomes, how do you use the tool more effectively? Can you take certain words or phrasing or sentences from from what it gives you, let's say, for example, with a cover letter and insert that in your cover letter and use it exactly. Sure. If it sounds like you, if it aligns to the messenger trying to send in that cover letter. According to this work trend index, three in four people are using AI at work. And fifty two percent of them are reluctant to admit that they are using AI for their most important tasks. Think about that. Fifty two percent of them are reluctant to actually admit they know how to use the tool And part of what was discussed was it could be fear that, oh, if they're using the tool, they're gonna eliminate themselves out of a job, or the other part is their shame. Their shame and associated that you why I can't do it all by myself. In this job market right now, you need to be diverse and direct and enhanced in the things that you are doing on a day to day basis. How can you confidently and confidently talk about where you are using an AI tool to help you be better at the job you are doing. So I do occasionally use AI in my work. I don't use it with my clients. But things like I have used an AI tool in my podcasting platform to help me write my show notes. And sometimes it lands and sometimes it doesn't. I'm continuing to play with it and take what it gives me and play with some other things and chat GPT to help us in search engine optimization. But if it doesn't sound like me, I'm not gonna put it in there. So I continually experiment with using the tool differently to see if there's a way that it's ultimately going to save me some time. But I am a little bit older and I sometimes have the mindset that, look, I'm just gonna go ahead and do this myself and it'll be fine. But if I was in a corporate position, I would absolutely be trying to find ways for me to use AI that is going to enhance how I do my job better and more effectively on a day to day basis. So one of the interesting things that I picked up from the work trend report and and the GMA piece, and and we see this as how we play around and experiment with the tool is that AI does not operate like a search engine like Google. Google, you could just put in a few keywords and it will generate pages and pages and pages upon websites. AI doesn't do that. You need to put information into AI that is in a complete sentence. And somebody whom I follow has has actually recommended that you ask it a question like, do you understand Does this make sense to you? And it feels very weird for me to do that, but I do it. And I am impressed with what comes out. So you need to be using the tool on some level to see where it fits into your job. But when the fear or the worry is that AI is going to replace your job, we need to look very carefully at which tasks AI can automate. So if your entire job can be automated, you may be in trouble. I have heard from people that work in marketing or copyrighting that that AI is taking a little bit of a chunk out of some of their work, and companies are thinking that while we can just to decimate the department or scale it back a little bit, and we'll just use AI. And finding that maybe that works and maybe it doesn't. But if your entire job can be automated, you need to be thinking about where you're adding that value. If your job can be enhanced by using AI, I would offer that this is a golden opportunity for you to develop that skill of using AI and find ways to add more value to your work and how you're adding value at work. For example, if using an AI tool can save you time, What will you do with that extra time? Companies will wanna know that? And how are you integrating AI into part of your everyday workplace conversation. What are you learning because of your interaction with AI? If you're a job seeker and you're going for an interview, I will offer you that you should be prepared to answer some type of question about how you are using generative AI in your work or in your life. And being able to talk very confidently about how you use the tool and where it has helped you with your efficiency or saving time or helping you get certain phrasing or wording together. Can absolutely be beneficial. Hiring managers and companies will wanna know that you're not behind the curve when it comes to using AI, that you are familiar with it and more importantly not afraid of using it. And if your company is having very forward conversations about AI, I would offer you to listen very carefully to those. Listen to the conversations and think about what skills you need to develop where a skill gap may need to be closed and how that AI is either going to help you in your current job? Or it is something you need to be figuring out how to have a different conversation about where your job is going. But don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid of it in the sense of saying, okay, look if I don't talk about it, no one's gonna bring it up and that's gonna be fine. You need to be able to talk about it. You need to be able to have a very thoughtful, intentional, and intelligent conversation about where you see AI as a tool being a benefit for you and your job. And if you're in a leadership role or in strategy type position, where you see the vision of AI heading, and what that means for your industry or company. So a lot to think about here, but what we know is that AI is not gonna go away. And additionally, keep in mind that based on the generative AI that you are using, it is pulling information from a variety of sources and sometimes those sources are not factual. So if you are quoting something or you are referencing a specific type of information by all means. Make sure that if it's a data point or a fact you need to be absolutely certain of do a cross reference and double check that just to make sure you are speaking the truth on that. Okay. So to all of you out there that are doing incredible work on a day to day basis, keep that up, keep going, keep serving the industries and the clients and the people whom you work alongside of every day. If you are actively job seeking, whether you are currently employed or not, remember that there is somebody out there that is absolutely looking for your expertise and your skill set to bring that into the workplace. And if there is ever a time or a need where I can help you your career coach to help you build your mid career GPS to whatever is next, I would welcome the opportunity to have a conversation with you. If you are serious about hiring a career coach and you wanna see how specifically I can help you. Connect with me on LinkedIn, send me a message there, or you can directly email me, at jong at jong narrow dot com. But until next time, my friends remember this. You will build your mid career GPS one mile or one step at a time and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. Thank you for listening to the mid career GPS podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform. And if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit jong narrow dot com for more information about how I can help you build your mid career GPS, or how I can help you in your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at Vouching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters.