I resisted change and then...

Let me tell you what was going on in my mind before I started the “People & AI” Newsletter.

I was afraid, the fear was real - AI taking over my job.

Years ago I poured everything into becoming an SAP Consultant. I sacrificed my personal time, weekends, and movies. Heck, I even cut my hair short because I didn’t want to waste too much time maintaining my hair. LOL!

It took immense effort—learning complex systems, mastering configurations, and proving myself in a highly competitive field.

Then, I got a great job! I felt deeply attached to my role because I had invested so much time and energy into it. It was my “Identity”.

But then, in few years, things changed. New technologies emerged, and suddenly SAP wasn’t the only game in town and “Cloud solutions” were taking over.

I resisted at first, clinging to what I knew, hoping the changes wouldn’t affect me. But they did.

I faced a tough reality: I had to re-learn, re-invest, and adapt. The process wasn’t easy.

It felt like starting over from scratch. If you've ever played Snakes and Ladders, you know that sinking feeling when a snake bites, sending you tumbling back to the beginning—especially that dreaded longest snake lying waiting for its prey at 99!

So yes, my fear was valid.

It's natural to want to protect what we've built, and the thought of it all collapsing is human and natural!

Attachment and Clinging:

Now, AI is bringing yet another shift. I’m learning, adapting, and embracing what comes next. Trying to change the narrative in my mind - AI isn’t here to erase everything we’ve built; it’s here to expand what’s possible.

But first, we must be willing to detach from the past and open ourselves up to new possibilities.

The Power of Detachment:

At social gatherings, people usually start a conversation by asking - So what do you do? They usually mean “work”.

And we start by describing our work and our role!

That is our identity! Let’s face it, it is.

Now, here’s a radical thought: What if we detach ourselves from the specific roles we’ve been performing for so long?

What if, instead of holding on tightly to what we’ve built, we embrace the idea that new opportunities—ones we haven’t even imagined—are on the horizon?

Let’s think about this for a second—when the internet first became mainstream, did people immediately know that “social media manager” would be a career? Did anyone predict that YouTube would birth a whole industry of content creators? The same thing is happening again, just faster.

But, detaching is difficult, it is!

Rethinking How We Learn

Let’s also take a step back and think about how we learned much of what we build our careers around. I don’t feel shy telling you that I attended “In-Person classroom Sessions” to learn SAP.

Learning was time-consuming and expensive, I worked as a Trainee consultant (with no salary) then a Junior consultant for years under experienced professionals then a Senior Consultant!

So my mind tends to assume that acquiring a new skill now will be just as hard as it was when I started my career.

I am trying to convince my mind, that today, things are easier than what they used to be with “YouTube” and with “AI”.

You no longer need to wait for someone to create a course or tutorial. You can simply ask AI, and it will guide you in real-time. The only barrier? Your own curiosity.

A Shift in Mindset

Detach from the idea of your current job title.

Because AI can create new roles we haven’t even imagined and we can’t imagine!

So, what next?

We start with small steps. No need to reinvent your career overnight. Here’s what you can do today:

1. Automate the tasks you hate. Pick one repetitive task in your job and see if AI can help. This frees up time for what truly excites you.

2. Pay attention to the signs. If you think you're lazy or prone to procrastination, you might actually be onto something big!

   Watch this video by Gary Vee. Maybe the time and effort you have saved by automating some of your tasks with AI can be invested in exploring new pathways.

3. Talk to people in different departments. The best career shifts happen when you start understanding how your skills can be valuable in unexpected places.

4. Stay open. Don’t lock yourself into one path. Just like when you started your career, uncertainty was part of the process. Trust that you’ll figure it out along the way (I am training my mind to do this, seriously)

You’ve done hard things before. You can do this too!!

And, I almost forgot to tell you.

I don’t cling to the technologies I knew, anymore. I am trying to stay ahead of the curve, learning new tools to build “Bots” and REAL automation. If you are interested in learning what I am doing (because hopefully by now you know me well, I’m always excited to share my thoughts and what I learn about AI) let's get in touch and talk!