AI use is being vigorously mandated for employees across the board, finds Satyen K. Bordoloi, as he outlines strategies to survive this newest AIpocalypse.
Till recently, using AI to do your job could get you fired. If AI can do your job, why are you being paid: went the logic. Now, however, the reverse is happening, at least in the USA, as a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report recently found: employees are now being fired for not using AI. The phrase “AI is coming for your job” has thus undergone a makeover as companies realise that AI, on its own, creates slop, but in the hands of capable humans, can send the cash registers ringing.
I have been saying this for years
It is not AI that will replace you, but someone who uses AI tools better than you do who will. Those who prophesize how AI will end the world will be replaced by those who have learnt to make AI their collaborative partner. Hence, the new workplace ultimatum is simple yet obvious: embrace AI or risk becoming professionally obsolete.
The AI Haves And Have-Nots: A chasm grows in today’s workforce. It is not based on the old hierarchy of education, experience, or even talent, but on who is riding the AI wave and who’s not. The WSJ article gives an example of Accenture, which trained 70% of its workforce with a simple goal of “exiting” those who did not get the hang of using AI at work.
The irony is richer than a whole froth coffee: we spent years worrying about machines replacing humans, only to discover that the more immediate threat is that humans collaborating with machines will. For corporations, the choice is clear: they’ll no longer have employees struggle to start a fire with sticks while AI acts like a blowtorch in the hands of the efficient. Smart work with AI, rather than hard work without it, seems to be the mantra.
Why Companies Are All-Hands-On-Deck with AI
The moot question is: why have companies reversed their AI usage policy to go the other extreme? A July 2025 research report from America’s labour insight platform Lightcast titled “Beyond the Buzz: Developing the AI Skills Employers Actually Need” has some answers. They found that job postings mentioning AI skills offer salaries 28% higher on average than those that don’t, i.e. roughly $18,000 more per year. For roles that require at least two AI skills, the premium jumps to a whopping 43% higher.
Surprisingly, the report highlights unexpected sectors, such as customer support, sales, and manufacturing, as major beneficiaries. This isn’t companies paying a premium out of technological fascination. Instead, the jobs they’re paying the most premium for are proof that they are investing in measurable returns. Another finding in that report: since ChatGPT’s 2022 launch, mentions of generative AI skills in non-tech job postings have surged by 800%.
The message is simple: AI skills equal dollar signs, both for employees and employers. And it is not just specific roles like software development and data science; employees across all sectors are benefiting from acquiring AI skills.
The Corporate Carrot-and-Stick Policy
This trend began when companies gently encouraged people to learn AI skills. Now it’s transformed into a mandate, a sort of AI enforcement. The approaches of different companies vary, but the message is consistent: adapt or face consequences.
Take the enterprise software company IgniteTech, which the WSJ article profiled. Heads in the company asked staff to spend 20% of their work time experimenting with AI. And this was not optional: employees had to share on Slack and X what they were learning, and were even asked to self-assess their AI use with ChatGPT. The lowest-scoring performers were culled from the company, including some ancient hands in the company.
This is brutal. But the company sees AI as an existential threat: not the existence of AI, but employees’ inability to use it efficiently. One could also read between the lines. Companies are all about profits. So, if they find that AI can drive profit, they would go all in on that. But as I have often said, and which the companies are perhaps finding out, that AI in itself can’t drive profit and humans in the loop isn’t optional, it’s vital. So, a middle ground has been found: human-AI collaboration. The humans who work best with AI will be kept.
The result is companies weaving AI directly into their performance fabric, including established ones like McKinsey, KPMG, and PwC, and newer entrants like Multiverse, which is quoted in the WSJ article as saying, “We have to hire for AI will, not just skill.”
All That AI Can Do, And Can’t
There is not a field in the corporate landscape that AI can’t assist with. Analyse customer behaviour and predict preferences to customise experiences? Done. Creating content like blog posts, marketing or ad copy, images and videos? Tick that. Helping to develop new ideas in science and research. Child’s play. Taking doctors’ notes to remove much of the tedium of the work? Absolutely. AI is calling the shots everywhere, so why wouldn’t companies want it in their workflow?
Why are humans needed at all, one could ask, especially in the age of agentic AI, where you can churn out AI agents to do tasks in minutes that humans would take hours or days. To mangle an old metaphor: AI’s abilities are like a bikini – it can do a lot, but not the most vital. Most AI systems are mere statistical models that, based on pattern recognition, know which word or coloured pixel must come after the previous one. This ability might seem significant, but it is superficial. It requires a human with a deeper understanding of the human condition and the world to make sense of it and turn it into profit.
Your AI Survival Guide
It should be clear by now that AI, riding the coattails of a colleague enthusiastic about the tech, is coming for your job. So what should you do to survive this AIpocalypse? First and foremost, remove AI resistance from your head. Don’t fight the inevitable. Think of AI as what it is: an extremely powerful, indeed, the most efficient tool humans have created so far.
Once the cobwebs in your head have cleared, start with the lowest-hanging fruit. Identify the repetitive, time-consuming tasks in your workflow that could be automated, or augmented with AI. These could be email drafting, data analysis, content creation and research, etc. Next, develop the ability to understand AI capabilities and limitations. You don’t need to be a software engineer to use AI. It operates on everyday human language. So, figure out your AI ignorance, and thus your path to AI literacy.
Next, I want you to know that the best use of AI is not in an autopilot mode but as a co-pilot. AI is just a glorified calculator. It can handle your data crunching and ideation, but giving it context and meaning based on requirements is still entirely a human job. That brings us to the next point: understand your advantage over AI. AI struggles with context, emotional intelligence, and true creativity. Double down on these inherently human capabilities while outsourcing procedural work to AI.
Yet, the mindset you must develop most is this
Retrain your mind to constantly evolve and learn. Because the truth about AI is this: those tools that are making waves today, that you totally enjoy using now, will most definitely go obsolete in the coming months or years. Hence, what matters isn’t the mastery of a single platform or tool but a comfort with learning a broader category of AI tools as they emerge.
The WSJ article quotes an employee who was fired for not using AI: “AI is coming whether we like it or not. You either get on board, or you get left behind.” The response to this isn’t fear, but preparation. Like Elena Magrini, head of global research at Lightcast, told CNBC last year, “AI is coming, but we don’t need to be scared. We need to be prepared.”
And prepare you must. Your career may depend on it.
In case you missed:
- After Years of Job Slashes, Companies Use AI to Boost People, Not Replace Them
- 95% Companies Failing with AI? An MIT NANDA Report Misread by All
- The Default Bias: Why Women’s Underrepresentation in AI is Turning the World Crooked
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- Why the Alleged, Upcoming AI Crash Is Never Going To Happen
- Don’t Mind Your Language with AI: LLMs work best when mistreated?
- Black Mirror: Is AI Sexually abusing people, including minors? What’s the Truth
- Manufacturing Consent In The Age of AI: Simple Bots Play
- PhD Students, Pack Your Bags: AI Just Beat You at Your Own Game, & Without Needing Coffee
- Google’s “Learn Your Way” is Set to Redefine Education and Challenge the AI “Dumbing Down” Narrative
