The One Thing AI Cannot Replace

"AI could have done this better."

That's the angst I have when doing my work in the age of AI. I sometimes find myself flirting with the idea that I am fully replaceable in what I do to earn a living. I confess that, at times, it causes me worry.

But then a thought comes up:

"So, if AI could do it better, why hasn't it done it for me yet?

An answer comes up: Because someone still needs to think about how to make things better with the tools available. I can choose to be that person, or I can wait for the people who made that choice to replace me in doing what I do, because they do it better.

If AI truly can help do this better, what an amazing opportunity I have to learn how AI would replace this work and, instead of selling my ability to do that work alone, sell myself and AI as a complete package. Together, we can produce far more than I ever could before, do things that once seemed unimaginable, have fun, and get rich."

This thought comes up because AI cannot replace one thing: me as the decision-maker of what to do to make my life better. That can only be done by me.

So there is a choice that has always existed: work to produce more and improve my life, or wait for others to do it for me.

Depending on that choice, I can be someone who waits miserably for the worst, or I can dream big, embrace what comes next, and, if I do it right, become excited by the prospect of great results.

But to make that choice, I need to genuinely want a great life and trust myself to be the person who makes it happen. In the end, life will simply give me what I earn.

I think what is really making people scared is that this new world demands this choice from them—more than ever before.

But life as a human being has always been like this; they just didn't notice.