As the world realizes the power of AI and grapples with its usefulness and relevance, many of you are questioning your own value at work. If AI can do your work for you, why are you still there?

The good news is that you can now graduate from having to do the same work in the same way to evolving your scope of work and value-add.

Here are 3 ways to stay relevant:

Know how to use AI to drive faster, more impactful results and outcomes

If you’re still doing things the old-fashioned way, you’re wasting time and resources.

Start using and get familiar with different AI tools. Check out Microsoft’s AI learning hub to start your learning journey and build practical AI skills that you can use right away.

Companies are using a mix of different tools so it can be helpful to play around and see which ones you like best. Check out The Top 100 AI Tools – Ultimate AI tools list to learn about the different tools out there that you can start trying out.

As you become more familiar with AI, figure out how to craft effective prompts. This means improving your communication skills and learning how to give clear instructions. Think of your AI tool as an eager intern who lacks context and needs a lot of guidance. The better your instructions, the better your output. If you get really good at this, you could even pursue the career path of a Prompt Engineer!

Bring this innovation to your team because it has to start somewhere. As you learn more about how to use AI in a way that’s helpful to your work and team, share your tips and best practices. This helps position you as an innovative thought leader and helpful team member who can offer guidance in this space as more people “hop on the bandwagon”.

Developing unique insights by coupling your work with business context

The future of careers is knowing how things work end-to-end. This is where you need to look at the bigger picture and connect the dots.

It’s still important to understand your business and how it operates. You still have a lot of context that an AI tool doesn’t. Keep learning about your business and industry. Ask questions about why things are done a certain way. Research what competitors are doing. Network with peers in and outside of your team and company to learn about different approaches and perspectives.

Once you’ve done your research, find a way to summarize your learnings into a meaningful analysis. What are the gaps you see in the business? Where are we falling behind? What trends and patterns do you notice? Then determine the potential risks if you don’t address these gaps and challenges (e.g. loss of market share, poor customer experience).

Your senior executives and leaders may be too disconnected from what’s happening in your part of the business. Find a way to connect your work with your leadership’s priorities. If you can’t find a clear connection, then it could signal that this piece of work could be made redundant or replaced with another higher value-add activity in the future.

Making strategic recommendations to evolve your team and business.

How are you pushing things forward or challenging the status quo?

After analyzing our current state and identifying a problem statement, map out some recommendations. How should your team or business change its practices to evolve and better achieve its goals? Leverage the insights from your analysis and come up with potential next steps.

Position these ideas to your manager or leader in your next team meeting or 1on1. Sometimes, it may be too early to implement your recommendations, but it can still be helpful to get the conversation started. Over time, your insights and recommendations can be sought after as your team starts to see new opportunities or challenges. In these instances, you could become a thought leader and strategic business partner.

Approach AI with curiosity

Change isn’t easy for everyone, but it’s happening faster than many of us expect. If you resist it, you risk falling behind.

The good news is that there is so much knowledge, tools, and resources out there. You can easily ask ChatGPT or Copilot to help you create a plan for learning about AI and applying it to your field of work.

Remember that AI is not perfect. Don’t believe and follow everything that it says. AI gives you more access to data, perspectives, and insights. But at the end of the day, you still need to apply critical thinking and good judgement.

As you navigate this everchanging era of AI—approach it from the practice of a generalist—you need to be able to pivot and adapt to new and different tools, systems, and contexts with ease. If you prefer to specialize in a particular field or discipline, then you need to practice being the best in it.

Thank you for reading!

My personal philosophy is growing 1% everyday through finding inspiration to share with the world. Please subscribe to my free monthly newsletter if you’re interested in new content and resources. Check out #WIPWednesdays and Resume Rescue if you’re looking for job hunting and career support.

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