How do I make sure
I’m not replaced by AI?
TL;DR: Use AI in your work now, and make sure people can see how you use it. Understand which parts of your role are changing and where human judgment, relationships, responsibility, or hands-on work still matter. Keep up with AI developments in your profession, strengthen the skills that complement AI, stay in control of the tools, and consider building a second source of income as a backup.
There’s no way to guarantee that AI won’t change your role or affect your job. But you can take practical steps to understand what’s changing and make yourself more adaptable.
1. Start using AI in your work now
Don’t wait for your company to tell you to use AI. Look for a task where it could help you work faster, explore an idea, or improve a result. Start small, check the output, and keep track of what actually helped.
But using AI is only part of it. Make sure people know what you’re doing. Share useful examples with your manager or team. Talk about what you’ve learned and where AI has helped you improve your work.
Keep a record of the results. If it helped you prepare a report more quickly, analyse information, or improve a process, write that down. You can use those examples in conversations at work and, where appropriate, describe them on your LinkedIn profile and CV.
It’s not about adding “AI” to your profile because it sounds impressive. It’s about being able to show how you used it and what changed as a result.
2. Look at your role task by task
Instead of asking, “Can AI do my job?”, break your role into the tasks that make up your week.
Which tasks are repetitive? Which involve making decisions with incomplete information? Where do you need to understand a customer, build trust, negotiate, take responsibility, or deal with a situation that doesn’t fit the usual process?
AI capabilities keep changing, so be careful about assuming that a task will never be automated. The useful question is: What parts of my role are already being changed by AI, and where do I bring judgment or context that the tool doesn’t have on its own?
If you’re not sure how to assess your role, try this prompt:
I work as a [job title] in the [industry] industry. Here are the main tasks I do:
Help me assess how AI could affect each task over the next few years. Put them into three groups:
1. Tasks AI tools can already help automate or speed up.
2. Tasks where AI may help, but a person still needs to provide judgment, context, relationships, or accountability.
3. Tasks that currently depend strongly on human interaction, physical presence, trust, or responsibility.
For each task, explain your reasoning and how confident you are. Don’t claim that any task is permanently impossible to automate. Then suggest three practical ways I could adapt my role or build on my strengths.
Use the answer as a starting point for your own thinking. AI can help you examine your work, but it can’t know every detail about your company, your customers, or how your role might change.
3. Keep up with AI in your profession
AI is developing quickly, but you don’t need to follow every announcement or try every new tool. Focus on what’s happening in your own profession.
Notice which tools people in your field are adopting, which tasks are changing, and what employers are beginning to expect. Read industry updates, talk to colleagues, and experiment with relevant tools when you can.
The goal is to avoid being surprised by changes that have already started affecting your work. You don’t have to become an AI researcher. You do need to understand enough to ask good questions and make informed decisions in your field.
4. Build the skills that work well alongside AI
Once you have a clearer picture of how your work is changing, decide which skills to strengthen. That might mean getting better at evaluating AI output, explaining complex ideas, understanding customers, making decisions, or connecting information across different parts of the business.
The right skills depend on your role. “Human skills” aren’t automatically safe from automation, and technical skills aren’t automatically at risk. Look at what your work actually requires and where you can add value alongside AI.
5. Stay in the driver’s seat
AI can suggest, summarise, and generate. You’re still responsible for deciding what to use, what to check, and what to reject.
Don’t let a confident answer replace your own judgment. Check important information, protect confidential data, and make sure you understand the work you’re handing over. Using AI well means directing it and reviewing the results, not blindly accepting whatever it gives you.
6. Consider a second source of income
This won’t prevent your role from changing, and it may not be realistic for everyone. But if you can, consider developing another source of income alongside your job.
It could be freelance work, a small service, teaching, or another activity that builds on skills you already have. Start by exploring what people might pay you for and what you could manage with the time you have. It doesn’t have to become a second full-time job. Even a modest additional income stream could give you more options if your circumstances change.
You can’t control every decision a company makes or predict exactly how AI will affect your profession. You can keep learning, make your work visible, understand how your role is changing, and build options before you urgently need them.
I wish you to always stay relevant no matter what!