AI-Proof your career: Four steps

You can AI-proof your career.

Haters will say it’s impossible. (Go back to vaping, haters.)

I’m going to show you how to do it - not by keeping generative AI out - but instead by going all in.

But you have to understand something:

AI-proofing your career requires more than just mastering generative AI.

AI-proofing means you have to visibly improve workflows at your company, in a way that measurably impacts productivity.

In other words… You have to make your boss look good.

Nobody gets rid of that person. That person gets promoted.

Don’t believe me?

I train a ton of companies. Senior leaders are constantly asking me this:

How do we identify the people in our company who will increase productivity and set us apart?

They need these people, because generative AI isn’t a digital product. Generative AI requires behavioral change. The C-Suite needs evangelists and implementers who understand how it can change their specific organization.

That lane is still wide open, friends. Even a year after ChatGPT came out. And you are going to be that person.

Ready to pour rocket fuel on your career?

The Four Steps to AI-Proofing Your Career:

Embrace - Personify - Customize - Share.

(Warning: These steps might seem weird at first. Trust me - they work.)

STEP ONE: Embrace

You must first embrace two absolute genAI truths:

First truth.

You already have all the skills you need to master ChatGPT, because it requires zero technical ability.

Even OpenAI tells us that.

Ignore fancy terms like prompt engineering.

Getting the best out of ChatGPT and other LLMs requires clear, effective communication. If you know how to instruct a new employee - giving examples, offering instant feedback, etc. - then you will be a genAI ninja.

Second truth.

You are not behind.

Statistics show that “everyone is using generative AI.” But here’s the reality:

Most have tried it a few times. Or they use it for emails. I’ve polled thousands of people over dozens of keynotes. Very few super users.

Moreover, you know how many senior management teams I talk to that feel like they’re behind? (Hint: ALL OF THEM.)

There is an open lane for you here. Take it.

STEP TWO: Personify

I have a short cut to mastering ChatGPT.

A lot of people won’t like it. But it works.

The reason people haven’t mastered generative AI is because of our own brains.

When our brain sees ChatGPT, our brain tells us, subconsciously, that this is basically Google. That’s because our brain uses visual cues to make quick decisions and then automates that knowledge.

That means that even if you know, intellectually, that you should “just talk to ChatGPT like a human!” your neural pathways are so entrenched that it is difficult to do. Just like it’s hard to talk to a baby like a college professor.

So instead of talking to ChatGPT in a conversational, iterative way, our brain subconsciously forces us back into this Google-like command/response approach.

Here’s where the Personify step comes in.

We need to alter how our brain sees this thing. And since our brains have a cognitive bias towards 1.) visual stuff and 2.) things that are right in front of us, we are going to use that to our advantage.

So I encourage you to do two things:

1. Personify ChatGPT

I sometimes tell people to literally put a little image of Jarvis (Iron Man) or C3PO (Star Wars) Hal (2001) or Data (Star Trek) or TARS (Interstellar) or Ava (Ex Machina) right there on their desk.

Why?

Because - murderous tendencies aside - these are AI entities that our brains will happily chat with. Our brains can easily imagine asking these entities for help with just about anything.

(I already hear some of you. Don’t anthropomorphize it! That’s dangerous! Dude, you have entire conversations with your cat. You’re fine.)

2. Use Post-It Notes

Nudges are a proven habit former. Find a way to poke your brain into action. I put a yellow Post-It note on my desk that says “Did you Ask ChatGPT?”

Not for some things. For everything. Every task. See where it works best.

You should be testing LLMs in every aspect of your workflow. The problem is that it’s really easy to forget, because we aren’t used to it. You need to nudge your brain.

STEP 3: Customize

Now that you’re forming good generative AI habits, you’re going to start building your own use cases.

Note that I am NOT giving you use cases. That is intentional.

It’s critical that you discover your own.

It’s similar to executive coaching - a good coach helps their client to find their own path forward, because it’s stickier and more relevant to them.

There are two big problems with learning from others’ use cases:

You tend to forget those long, specific prompts long before you ever get to actually use them.
Use cases are too broad. It’s like electricity - if somebody who didn’t know what that was asked how to use it…where would you even begin? You could give a thousand uses without hitting on what they need.

When you develop your own uses cases, you can use them immediately with your team to speed up productivity and quality of work.

STEP 4: Share

This is where the magic happens to AI-proof your career.

The first three steps were to get you deeply understanding and using generative AI.

But merely improving your own quality and productivity doesn’t always get you noticed. (It should, but it doesn’t always.)

Here’s the secret sauce:

You need to use ChatGPT to make your leaders look good.

It’s time to Share and Shine.

Bring demos to your team leaders. Show them how your team can radically increase the quality and speed of work. How they can minimize the non-value add tasks that slow everyone down.

Nervous about presenting? Ask ChatGPT to help you build a framework. Have it create a table, a full deck with images, an entire script.

Make it so good that your team leader can’t wait to share it all with senior leadership. Make sure your name is on every slide. Give it an acronym that you came up with.

You see what’s happening?

Do this right, and you’ll be the person that every C-Suite leader wants to hear from. You’re the one they’ve been waiting for. Trust me, I hear it all the time.

Help your team and leadership adopt AI, you become an invaluable asset.

That’s how you AI-proof your career, friends.

AI NEWS OF THE WEEK

OpenAI Drops Video Bomb
How else would you describe Sora, the text to video generator that’s blown up the internet? The videos are amazing - but more interesting is how transparent OpenAI is about safety and limitations. Love that.
Groq is Grokking better than Grok
Try the new blazing fast Groq LLM - not to be confused with Elon’s Grok. Instead of GPUs it actually uses LPUs (language, not graphics) that are optimized for LLMs. Lotta use cases going to come out of this.
Reddit Goes Big Instead of Going Home
Reddit is licensing its data for $60m per year. Not sure how Reddit users are going to feel about this, or the privacy implications. But LLMs need actual user conversations, and Reddit is a gold mine.

GENERATIVE AI TIPS

I use ChatGPT for writing all the time. But as a writer, I’m picky about how to use it.

Here’s my mantra:

If you aren’t good at something, have ChatGPT do the first draft. It’s a great way to get started.
If you are good at something, you do the first draft and have ChatGPT edit you.

If you like what you’ve written and you don’t want ChatGPT making it all AI-sounding I tell it “I’m looking to make this more readable. Don’t change anything, but just give me suggestions about how to change is. And make sure you check for any grammar mistakes.”

Works like magic.

That’s all for today!

Curious to hear your thoughts

Send this to folks who might find it useful, knock on doors to demand people subscribe, whatever you need to do. We gotta level up together, friends!

See you next time!