Much of the world’s AI conversations focus on tools.
- Who has the best one?
- Which model is better than which?
- How fast can it do ‘x’?
While AI bros care about this, the general population (mostly) doesn’t. We just want to know – what’s useful, how can I use it and what results can I expect. I know it doesn’t sound like much to ask for, but it’s damn hard to get a straight answer on it.
We’ve talked a lot about those topics already.
As we have with preparing yourself for adoption with the right mindset, behaviours and even unbundling yourself from existing (or now historic) frameworks.
Despite all this coverage, we’ve not touched upon one area that I feel is incredibly important – how will you actually work, live and progress in this AI era?
I assume this doesn’t come up in many conversations.
However, if you really want to get serious about “What does the future of work look like?”, you have to be clear on how you will use, co-exist and stand out in a career marketplace disrupted by AI.
The Career Advantage for 2026
I’m going to frame this part as ‘building your advantage in the AI era’.
We’ve talked so much about AI fluency in L&D, and the importance of human skills alongside it but there’s a 3rd piece missing from our stack (if i can call it that), and that’s instincts.
I’m not sure “instincts” is quite the right framing for this, but it’s the best I can think of as I type these words (got a better one? Tell me). It’s a collection of stuff that doesn’t fall into the common categories of skills, capabilities and behaviours that we often use.
These are the things that I feel have increased in value in the AI era.
I mean they were valued before, but they’ve become like a stock that’s tripled overnight.
I believe that having AI Fluency + Human skills + Instincts is your winning combo as we navigate this Godzilla sized tsunami of uncertainty and disruption caused by AI.
What has value in the AI age?
Big question and no one simple answer.
With ‘AI bros’ and false prophets everywhere, we need to have smart instincts.
Here’s my two cents: Taste, context, curation, expertise and a unique point of view are what’s most valuable in a sea of AI-slop.
I’ve bundled these under the label “Instincts”.
I think these, along with strong human skills and understanding how to wield AI meaningfully, is what will set you apart in the years to come.
So, my “simple answer” is to cultivate these alongside your use of AI.
Let’s unpack those instincts in a bit more detail:
- Taste: Knowing what is “good,” not just what is “trendy”.
- Context: Knowing why this solution works for this specific situation.
- Curation: The ability to sift through the AI-generated noise and pick the “signals” that matter.
- Expertise: Having the prior real-life experience that backs up the credibility of the above, because if you haven’t actually done ‘the thing’, why would people listen to you?
- Unique Point of View: Some would call this “your voice”, I, on the other hand, just call it “something worth saying”. Anyone can repost an idea, but only the critical thinkers find a new way of looking at them. A UPV only comes from people with experience.
While these instincts complete the magical 3 part combo to stay sharp in the AI era, we need to cover how to keep yourself accountable so you’re making the right decisions.
That leads me to our next point…
Craft a philosophy + guiding principles with AI
If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.
Not sure who originally said that but it feels right for this next bit. Over the past few weeks I’ve emphasised that the conversation is no longer about “who is using AI” because that’s over.
Everyone is using AI.
The question now becomes “How are you choosing to use AI?”
Not using AI is stupid. Don’t fall into that trap because it is a fundamental element of how we now live and work. You know I’m not the type that endorses the blind use of AI, which is why you need a philosophy + guiding principles to work well with it.
If our combo of AI Fluency + Human Skills + Instincts = keeping your mind sharp, your skills at the cutting edge and standing out in a workplace that AI is quickly eating up, then our personal philosophy and principles are what help us make the right decisions with those capabilities.
Oh, and don’t leave this to be imposed on you by the ‘tech/AI bros’.
WTF is a philosophy + principles
Let’s keep this simple
- Philosophy = how you work with AI
- Principles = how you make decisions with AI against your philosophy.
Defining these makes sure you make the best choices in how you work with AI.
The kind of choices that keep your skills sharp, your mind firing on all cylinders and a career you have control over.
Here’s my philosophy + principles for working with AI
Every L&D team I’ve been a part of had a clear philosophy.
It’s what we stood for, believed in and how we did business with one another and our customers.
For it to work, everyone needed to buy into it, and to keep it healthy. Each member needed to use a set of principles built from it so we could apply it daily.
While the word ‘philosophy’ can sound fancy, academic and a tad mysterious, it doesn’t have to be.
A philosophy is setting out how you do ‘x’.
In the case of my L&D teams, it was “this is how we work and why we do it”. The same goes for working with AI. We need to define our philosophy of “This is how I work with AI and why I do it this way”.
For the L&D teams, our philosophy was simple but not always easy to constantly maintain in a corporate world. Yet, being hard doesn’t mean it wasn’t worthwhile or the right thing to do.
Here’s an example of one:
“We believe in crafting experiences and solutions that positively impact performance by asking the hard questions to uncover the real problems our organisation faces. We do this through building credible, consultative and helpful partnerships to equip our people with the right skills to navigate the modern workplace.”
I get it might sound a bit corporate, but it’s a simple light to keep coming back to.
This is what we do, how we do it and why we do it. And…if we’re not doing that, then we’ve F^$ked up.
We want to do the same thing for working and living with AI in all its forms. You only get the outcomes you want if you know the what, why and how.
Here’s my ever-evolving philosophy for working with AI:
“I work with AI as a collaborative partner to analyse, identify and improve upon ideas by selecting the best tasks to augment and not outsource my human thinking and creativity. My use of AI is to always amplify human skills and not automate them, which I do by staying adaptable with learning and refining what I know with the latest innovations.”
Moi
It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
My main goal is to make smart use of AI to remain relevant in my career, yet keep my human skills sharp so I have a USP which (as of now) AI technologies will find hard to replicate or replace fully. That’s my play, anyway.
By having this written down and top of mind, I keep myself on a path which I’m confident will keep me employable, happy and hopefully, a good human being.
To make sure I keep on that path, I need principles that help me apply and reinforce this approach daily.
They’re actually pretty simple:
- Don’t outsource my thinking, go to the brain first (the original OS)
- Do outsource tasks that don’t require my unique human capabilities and will give me more time to use those capabilities
- Keep doing the tasks that give me joy and exercise the skills that give me an advantage over the market. An example of this is writing.
There’s more, but you get the picture.
Final Thoughts
Ok, friend.
Shaping the future of work means being ready to meet it, and you can only do that if you do what we in our industry do best.
Prepare yourself to survive and thrive in it by bringing a great combo of skills, wisdom and instincts.
That’s how you invest in your career and support your business/teams.
We might not be able to plan for the next 5 years but we can certainly tackle the next 6 – 12 months (unless the robots come, then we’re all f**ked).
TL;DR
- Build a combo of AI fluency, Human skills + Instincts to thrive over the next 2-3 years
- Have a clear philosophy and set of principles in place to work with AI that will keep you smart, human powered and employable.
Before you go… 👋
If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.
You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.
