If you haven't read the first part of this two-parter, you might want to check it out first.

Our bionic future 

Look at what’s happening with the canaries in the AI coal mine: developers. The hype spinners would have you believe that all code will be written by AI in 5 years. But that’s not what we’re seeing. AI is really good at solving problems that we’ve already solved, but it’s terrible at tackling new ones. So now, armed with AI, our best coders are basically super-coders. They don’t have to spend time on the boilerplate coding tasks that come with every project. This gives them more time to spend on solving core problems and makes them more productive overall. 

If you’re not a developer, then here’s an analogy that might bring it home: Coding is like cooking. Let’s say you’re going to have a dinner party. You’ve hosted many dinner parties. You know that when people go home at the end of the night they’ll be talking about the great conversations they had and the perfectly prepared gnocchi with a delicate yet savory chantarelle and sage sauce. 

That dish was a masterpiece demonstrating the experience and technique you’ve been cultivating for decades over your career. But to make it happen, you had to wash the dishes, set the table, clean the countertop, chop untold ingredients, and perform a slew of tasks that are critical but don’t require your creativity, imagination, or even much technical skill. 

It was delicately browning the butter, knowing just when to incorporate the mushrooms, and kneading (but not over-kneading) the potato-flour dough to that light yet firm texture that led to those transcendent first bites your guests relished and will forever remember. 

Wait… what was I talking about? Oh yeah, AI. 

The point is, software development (and most other disciplines) are like that dinner party. Value is unevenly created across the process. Every step is critical, but not every step is inspired. I can’t overstate this. Every job is important. Every task is critical. But not every task requires the careful and creative attention of a human being. It’s why we don’t wash our clothes by hand anymore. 

Not everyone is #winning

The Washington Post data team recently analyzed the reported loss of programmer jobs over the last twenty years. It's an excellent article that would seem to validate the theory that all devs will be replaced by AI in the next few years. But when they dug into the data they found that "programmer" is differentiated from "developer." According the labor bureau, a programmer is a low-level coder, executing on specifications, whereas a developer is a higher level planner and architect of code. So a programmer is a dishwasher and a developer is a chef. In truth, many of these types of jobs have moved offshore or are reserved for very junior developers.

The programmer tasks are going to be given to AI. And developers will be able to maximize their value by having an AI assistant that can do the drudge work for them. They become super-coders.

Embracing AI FTW

AI gives us the chance to hand off the table-setting and dish-washing to a machine. It gives the developer more time to plan, experiment, and hone the final dish, er… app. It turns a good coder into a super-coder. 

If you had an important project that needed to get done quickly, would you pick your regular coder or your super-coder? That’s a no-brainer. But you’re not going to hire AI to do everything by itself. Not for a long time. 

We’ve identified issue number one: The AI Gap. 

The world is already getting divided into those who can effectively use AI and those who cannot. The only people companies will want to hire are high-value people powered by AI—the ones that live on the right side of the value chart. 

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Adjusting to a new level of productivity

Let’s say you’ve encouraged your dev team to embrace AI. Now they’re moving at lightning speed. You could cut costs and fire a third of them. But why would you do that? You now have a dream team. And do you think the competition is sitting on their hands ignoring this new capability? No, the tide has risen for everyone. 

We’ve identified issue number two: The Productivity Gyre.

Productivity is a moving target. As AI makes us more productive our dear leaders will push the goal post farther afield. Since everyone has access to AI, there won’t be a competitive advantage, and we’ll end up right back where we started. In other words, just because your workforce is twice as productive doesn’t mean you can fire half of them—you’ll just be shooting yourself in the foot for the long term. 

Where is the next-gen talent?

Your team is cooking. You’re killing it in the market and ready to grow. Time to hire new talent. But there is a dearth of young, capable coders. Your current dev team spent years in the trenches coding by hand before AI arrived. They are journeymen with millions of lines of code under their belts. The kids just coming out of school have barely written a line of code because AI has done most of their work for them. They themselves are a thin layer on top of Claude 3.7 Sonnet. 

We’ve identified issue number three: The Mastery Canyon

How will workers learn their craft if AI does all the basic stuff for them? This isn’t a theoretical problem. It’s already affecting law firms, financial analysts, marketing teams, consultants, and other occupations where you climb the ladder by doing the scut work and learning from it. The big question is: Who will have the patience to teach the noobs how to do their job? My guess? AI will. After transferring basic expertise to AI, we’ll then lean on that AI to teach our new hires. This is already happening organically as millions of students realize that they can learn just about anything from ChatGPT. 

What this means for you

How do you ensure your own evergreen employability?

Learn how to squeeze juice out of AI

If everyone will be choosing super-employees over regular employees, then you’re going to want to be one of the supers. It’s pretty easy to achieve super status today because this AI thing is so new. In fact, according to surveys from Section, an online AI school, most people haven’t reached competency level yet and hardly anyone is an expert.

AI readiness

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If you haven’t already, get yourself a paid version of ChatGPT or Claude and have it teach you how to prompt. Or for an even gentler immersion, sign up for a class at Section. 

Start actively seeking projects at work that you can streamline or automate with AI. There are a TON of free and paid resources out there that can give you ideas. Just take a quick tour of what’s available on Youtube for inspiration. Show your boss that you used AI to automate some time-consuming task (following your company’s AI policies of course) and you’ll be a superstar. 

Move up the value chain

If AI can do some or most of your tasks, you should be doing something more creative or strategic. Start pushing ahead of your normal responsibilities by engaging your brain on things you usually don’t have time to do. If you don’t know how to do higher level tasks, ask ChatGPT to teach you how. 

AI might not be able to perform high level tasks very well by itself, but that doesn’t mean you have to think about them on your own. AI can be a great thought partner to bounce ideas off of, critique the work you're doing, or even role play an upcoming meeting or presentation to work out the kinks.

The point is, don’t just be an AI manager where you sit and watch it do all the work. Up-level your own skills and relative value to the business at the same time. This puts you in a great position when your company enlists in AI transformation and starts looking around for its internal AI experts. 

Lean into your humanity

It might sound strange, but one amazing talent you might not realize you have is something you probably take for granted: your humanity. Your charisma, empathy, creativity, and humor are things that AI sorely lacks and are incredibly important to work (and life in general of course). 

Being the kind of person that is great to work with, comes up with out-of-the-box ideas, and helps others succeed demonstrates soft skills that will be doubly important in an AI-powered world. For all the talk of AI automation, imagine sales without salespeople or research without researchers. The person-to-person exchanges that move business along are vastly underappreciated in this rush to automate everything. 

A Shift, Not a Collapse: The Future of Work

It's understandable to feel uneasy about technological disruption—anyone who denies this is delusional, as these changes will inevitably affect people's lives. However, what we're experiencing isn't the collapse of work, but rather its transformation. AI isn't eliminating entire jobs; it's automating the tedious, repetitive aspects that were always prime candidates for technological replacement. This automation creates an opportunity to redefine what meaningful work looks like.

The dividing line between those who struggle and those who thrive won't simply be acceptance versus resistance—it will be about how effectively people integrate AI into their professional lives. The most successful individuals won't necessarily possess the most technical skills; they'll be those who develop a complementary relationship with AI—using technology to handle routine tasks while applying distinctly human capabilities like judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking to add unique value.

As we move from the first wave of AI (basic automation) to the next (enhanced capabilities), the standard for professional excellence is rising. The ultimate difference between success and mediocrity in this new landscape won't be about whether you use AI, but how masterfully you leverage it to augment your work. By embracing this technology thoughtfully, we can create more fulfilling roles and elevate the quality of our work beyond what was previously possible in a given time frame.

Competitive advantage opportunities are abundant. 

The question isn’t really about if AI will take jobs. It’s about how the landscape of work will be transformed and which entirely new jobs will spring up. 

The first article discussed how AI removes repetitive, low-value work and reshapes work. It’s a time of transformation, but not everyone transforms simultaneously or linearly. There is so much opportunity to find competitive advantages, both temporary and permanent. It’s an exciting time. 

If you and your employees want to bridge the AI gap, seize the opportunities and find that competitive advantage, get in touch.