AI and the Media Coverage
The media coverage about AI ranges from exhilarating to exhausting to excruciating. The promise it holds for accelerated medical research is one of the more positive stories. And I can see how it has benefited me and my clients who lead teams across sectors. There is much discussion on the growth of the sector and debate on whether AI investors are heading to a gold mine or if the bubble will burst soon.
However, there is a very, very dark side to this tech, which we all need to pay attention to. Its long-term impact on jobs and the lives of everyday workers is terrifying, especially in times when our government is taking away safety nets for the most vulnerable here and abroad. The recent tragic story in the New York Times of how a 16-year-old befriended ChatGPT and then how the tech assisted him in making the choice to take his own life is haunting and real. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported an uptick in the sale of blue books as a safeguard in testing to avoid students using AI for cheating. How do we educate students properly when they can find all their answers in AI?
Acceptance of AI, with Caution
AI is not going away, and we all need to navigate its promise while being aware of its pitfalls. My team and I use it every day. As a matter of fact, the app Grammarly is helping me edit this post in real time as I write it. It is one big experiment that takes ongoing intentional learning, experimentation, and honing. For example, we recently used AI to help us translate a solution for a customized culture change intervention for a client, and we had to start from scratch because it took us too far afield from how to clearly address the human problems we were trying to solve. In the end, we had to ditch the robot and use humans to create the approach.
Using AI for Career Advice
The truth is, we are all on a journey to figure out how to use AI for good, while avoiding overuse, which brings me to my latest AI experiment. As a leadership and career consultant/coach, my clients include executives, educators, parents, students, and others who ask me: How do I know whether or not my job or career is AI-proof? The short answer is you will never know for sure, but it is smart to explore that BEFORE you invest in an expensive education, plan a career pivot, or start a business.
Here is an example of a question you may want to pose to ChatGPT or another AI Platform:
Question: I am a leadership strategy and career coach. Is my job in jeopardy from AI?
ChatGPT’s Answer:
“Here’s why your job is not in jeopardy but will evolve:
What AI can do in leadership & career strategy
- Provide frameworks (e.g., SWOT, OKRs, leadership styles).
- Summarize research on leadership best practices
- Generate drafts of communications, development plans, or role-play scenarios.
- Surface market and talent trends for strategy discussions.
What AI cannot do well — where you’re irreplaceable
- Presence & trust: Leaders rarely open up about fears, blind spots, or difficult decisions to a machine.
- Contextual judgment: AI doesn’t understand organizational politics, interpersonal dynamics, or subtle cultural signals the way you do.
- Transformational growth: Leadership coaching often involves deep identity work, personal values alignment, and mindset shifts — things that require empathy and nuanced guidance.
- Accountability & influence: Leaders need a trusted partner to challenge them, stretch their thinking, and hold them accountable — AI cannot do that credibly.
- Strategic storytelling: Aligning personal leadership narratives with organizational goals is an art, not a formula.
How your role will evolve (AI as an ally)
- You’ll use AI to accelerate prep work: leadership 360 summaries, communication drafts, and industry scans.
- You’ll be expected to guide leaders on using AI themselves responsibly in their roles.
- Your differentiation will lie in the human qualities that AI lacks: presence, intuition, and the ability to co-create new leadership paradigms in a disrupted world.
📌 Big picture: AI will increase demand for leadership and career coaching, because rapid workplace change creates more uncertainty, more ethical challenges, and more identity questions for leaders. People will want human guides to navigate it.”
If you decide to ask a similar question, related to your job, keep in mind that the coders who program AI are trying to design a platform that makes you trust it implicitly. It will be up to YOU to decide what is helpful and what is not. And as you consider what AI offers, trust your own experience and explore what human experts have to offer as well. As I reflect on the AI advice, one thing that stood out is that I have spent over 25 years researching and developing my own frameworks for change that are not in the public domain, so I will not rely on AI for that.
I have to admit, the answer it offers to the question was better than I expected… or was that the algorithm just trying to butter me up? As a experiment, I did ask about another profession, sports analytics, and it included this: AI is changing sports data analysis, but it’s not positioned to replace skilled analysts—it’s more likely to change what your job looks like. So it may be programmed to be pro AI.
However, do not rely on AI to predict your future career. You need to consider other factors, such as your relationships, geography, history, health, financial needs, passions, purpose, talents, and how work can contribute to a happier life.
If you’d like to explore this further with humans, find resources here.