“We should always be in constant evolution and adapt to the new without ever losing our essence or our integrity” – Pedro Capo
I came across this quote while I was looking for something on ‘evolution’. And there’s a reason why I did that.
You see, we’re living in an evolutionary period, never before seen since the advent of the Internet. If the Internet changed the way of business and consumerism like never before, the next big evolution is changing or at worst, replacing the way we work. This next big evolution that I’m referring to is, of course, ‘Artificial Intelligence’.
In this very first logbook, I’ll be pouring out my thoughts on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting business, entrepreneurship, and most importantly, the future of work.
A New Breed of Entrepreneurs
The Internet brought us tech-savvy Entrepreneurs that we had never seen before. For so long, society imagined business-men as those ‘serious dude’ wearing black formal suits, and carrying them gracefully, with purpose, directing board meetings, and impacting the world behind closed doors.
The advent of the Internet democratized Entrepreneurship and we started seeing everyday (your ‘average joe’) suddenly become millionaires and go beyond. These entrepreneurs were very different from our existing beliefs.
They weren’t wearing any black suits or ties, they weren’t rolling around in Mercedes Benz with tinted roofs, nor were they hanging around in 5-Star Hotels & Chic Restaurants around the country.
From Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg to Peter Thiel, all were everyday people and were living life just like those we thought were ordinary. The only difference? They had a vision and a purpose to make a change. And the biggest outlier? They leveraged the biggest evolutionary moment in centuries to springboard themselves toward success.
Google, Apple, PayPal, Microsoft weren’t built in big offices, behind closed doors. They were built outside in the real-world, with testing and experimentation that happened on the Internet – The #1 BIGGEST Playground that had ever existed.
If we thought businesses required a large sum of capital (it sure did and still does) and a highly-qualified team, these entrepreneurs flipped that entire script and since their inception, have gone to define the way the world works.
- PayPal pioneered the Cashless Currency and was the reason people trusted online payment gateways and for the first time in decades, trusted a 3rd-party platform to hold their money instead of their banks
- Apple redefined how computers worked and directly challenged the bureaucracy leading the way for democratization in the space
- Google allowed billions of people to find ANYTHING they wanted from ANYWHERE in the world overnight
And now, a new breed of entrepreneurs is slowly emerging. This breed is undergoing the same evolution that world-changers like Steve Jobs & Zuckerberg did. The playbook will almost entirely stay the same too. However, the way towards success is now changing. The field will become more level for everyone but only the resilient will survive.
While Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak & Larry Page had Sergey Brin, the new breed of entrepreneurs will only have their own creativity and resilience; their co-founders will be non-existent bots that we now recognize as ‘AI’.
How AI is changing Business & Entrepreneurship?
By now, almost every one and their Mom N’ Pop know about ChatGPT (& other AI Tools) and use it in daily life; from finding recipes for Apple Pie to fixing a leak, information is now being democratized on an even bigger scale. Artificial Intelligence is the ‘second brain’ that humanity has yearned for, for so long. And now that it’s here, everybody is suddenly buzzed up and is using it.
However, the ones that are paving the way for evolution and will find success, are the ones who are testing and experimenting, and going deeper into these tools than just putting in a bunch of prompts.
Here’s a simple analogy:
Planting a garden can be as simple as scattering seeds and hoping for the best—a method that may yield a bloom here and there. However, a truly stunning garden is cultivated through deliberate planning, careful bed preparation, the right fertilizers, and consistent watering. It’s this thoughtful nurturing that turns a mere patch of potential into a flourishing spectacle of nature.
With AI, you now have everything on the Internet, just a single prompt away. You can ask Artificial Tools like ChatGPT & Google Gemini to:
- Create entire business plans
- Write advertising copy for your ads
- Act as an accountant and audit your financial statements
- Give you legal advise (NOT RECOMMENDED) – AI can only give you beginner advice
- Act as everything from a project manager to a CEO to a Data Analyst
It’s crazy, right? And this change is happening right before our eyes. The Sad Part? – Almost the entirety of the people currently on the ‘AI Bandwagon’ are using it purely for leisure.
So, if you’re an entrepreneur, and you take the time to understand AI from not just a practical point-of-view but also a ‘technical pov’, you already are 5 Years ahead of your peers.
- As an Entrepreneur, you no longer need a ‘Business Development Officer’; you can get ChatGPT to do that for you.
- As an Entrepreneur, you no longer need to have multiple media buyers to advise you on your Meta Ads; there are tools that will LITERALLY create ads, from design to testing, and to analytics & reporting as well.
- As an Entrepreneur in the ‘Age of AI’, the only thing you need to do is learn the technical aspects of what makes the technology work, and how to leverage it for your own vision and purpose.
The Future of Work in the Age of AI
Check This!
56% of businesses today are using AI to improve and perfect business operations, while 47% use AI as ‘digital personal assistants’. The first job that already is dying down is that of ‘virtual assistants’ and ‘executive assistants’. ChatGPT and other LLMs like Gemini & Bard can very much act as your own ‘Digital Assistant’ and organizations are already on top of this.
If the Internet democratized information and allowed people from all over the world to have a level playing field towards success, Artificial Intelligence is here to quite literally replace us and throw us off our ‘superficial ego-filled pedestals’.
From my observation, apart from all its goods, the Internet did one very bad thing – “It made all of us LAZY & dependent on its function”.
This dependence took away our Critical Thinking and Judgement. Now, we’re in a time when we need both of those traits to be functioning at full speed.
To put it simply, AI is not something to underestimate. It will:
- Take away our jobs if we don’t take the time to learn about it
- Destroy our critical thinking if we depend too much on it
As per studies, AI is expected to replace 85 Million Jobs by 2025. The biggest roles at threat are those that don’t require constant upskilling and critical thinking. Jobs related to Customer Service, Administration, Data Entry will be the first ones to erode.
And it will not stop there. There are now AI tools that can generative Advertising Copy & Designs in a matter of seconds. There’s even a startup that acts as a ‘digital software engineer’ and it works on the same tech that runs AI — “This so-called startup did get some fiery reviews and apparently the AI is not ready to replace engineers yet”.
The thing is – If AI will not replace your job in 5 Years, it most likely will do in 10 or 15 years. Gen Z is at greatest risk and if they do not act now, they will find themselves struggling to make ends meet in 10-15 years.
You can check out Business Insider’s list on the job roles that are at greatest risk.
For more eye-opening stats like this, check out CompTIA’s website.
The Way Forward for Humanity
The biggest opportunity, at least for me, is educating human beings about the rise of AI and how to ride the wave towards success. As daunting as the technology is, the best people can do is take a collective stance and start sharing knowledge.
The end-game — If this collective camaraderie towards AI-proofing (I made this term lol) turns out to be successful, we will succeed in having a stable livelihood by the time AI becomes good enough to replace us.
I’m already doing this by sharing educational content on LinkedIn, and the same is the goal with these blog posts.
The direction of my content, going forward, will largely comprise of content focused towards teaching how to use AI practically. In addition, I will also create content focused towards bringing back our Critical Thinking, and towards refining innate traits like Creativity & Resilience. Because, it’s people with these traits that will take away your jobs before AI does.
I’ll end with this quote here:
AI will not take away Your job, but the person using AI will…