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AI – yes, but for what?

How many times have you, like me, been amazed at what a new AI tool can do and at the same time asked your­self: ​“But what can I do with it?” That is when we need con­crete exam­ples of tasks we could try let­ting the AI do for us.

What is not prompt­ed is not yours

I, too, have, from time to time, felt a bit uneasy and asked myself how I will earn my liv­ing when an AI can, more or less accu­rate­ly, deliv­er answers to all kinds of struc­tur­al ques­tions light­ning-fast, around the clock. The tasks you and I do, where it is not cru­cial that we are the ones doing them, are tasks we must assume will be tak­en over by AI soon­er or lat­er. That is my guess.

It is wise to already form an idea of which tasks these are. Then you can focus your ener­gy on devel­op­ing your exper­tise in the tasks that depend on you per­form­ing them.

That is why I am col­lect­ing tasks that I do that an AI could just as well do. I sug­gest you do the same.

Do this

1. If you have not already done so, cre­ate a new list in an app, on a piece of paper, or in a text doc­u­ment some­where. Call the list ​“Tasks I do that an AI could do instead” or some­thing similar.
2. Dur­ing your work­days, as soon as you do a task or car­ry out a step where it is not cru­cial that you are the one doing it, note it as pre­cise­ly as you can in the new list.
3. When you gain access to a new AI ser­vice or hear some­one rec­om­mend a new AI tool to try, take a look at the list to find a task you can test with it. In the list, you will find many tasks that no AI in the world can yet solve for you, but just wait; one day, it will be possible.
4. As you list tasks that are not depen­dent on you, it becomes increas­ing­ly clear which tasks are the oth­ers. Being skilled at these is an advan­tage in com­pet­ing with AI robots. There­fore, reflect on how you could let the task be even more char­ac­ter­ized by you and by what ​“is you.”

Get more of what ​“is you”

If you make it clear to your­self which tasks you can now or soon del­e­gate to an AI, or that you risk being tak­en over by AI, you will be one step ahead in the trans­for­ma­tion of work we seem to be fac­ing. As you del­e­gate the tasks that are not depen­dent on you, you gain more time for where your com­pe­tence and your unique­ness are best uti­lized. Sure­ly there is a pos­i­tive promise in this?

How do you do it?

What is the most recent task that you now let an AI do? Please tell me, inspire me to do the same!

(A tip once you’ve got­ten start­ed is to save your best AI prompts; too!)