If you have distinct skills but don’t use AI, someone with the same skills who does will overtake you. Be quick or die.

Every beginning is hard. Whenever I take on a new role or a new project, I usually dive right in, trying to get an overview as quickly as possible. That’s intense work, and I’m usually dead tired in the evenings.

Getting an overview quickly has been one of my strengths for a long time, but the time to reach the overview has shortened dramatically recently. Why? Because of Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence itself does not spare you from getting up to speed with your new role or project, but it is an excellent assistant. Let’s look at two specific examples.

Taking on chaotic projects

I have the knack of being asked to take on chaotic projects (some people call them suicide missions…) now and then: Unorganized associations, teams that were leaderless for a few years, or organizations in trouble.

I guess people ask me to take on these chaotic projects because getting an overview quickly is one of my strengths. That was already the case well before Artificial Intelligence was widely available.

How exactly does Artificial Intelligence help in dealing with chaotic projects? Thinking back before the age of AI, I would spend countless hours structuring bits of information relevant to a project: Sorting files, creating Excel lists with overviews and statuses, stuff like that. I still sort files and create lists today, but AI does the heavy lifting for me. AI is an excellent tool to give unstructured information a structure, provided you tell it exactly how you like the structure to be set up. So my ability to quickly get an overview is still relevant in the age of AI.

Working on unfamiliar tasks

Change of scene. Recently, one of our customers at Yonder, the B2B SaaS company I co-founded, requested an integration of our cloud logs into their Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system. After months of back-and-forth, the task suddenly became urgent, and I found myself on a call to discuss requirements. It quickly became clear why the topic went back and forth for months: There were no written requirements for what the customer wanted, so we couldn’t give a definitive answer on how to fulfill their requirements.

In that call, I asked whether it would be too much to receive written requirements within the next three days. The customer hesitated, saying that three days was a very tight timeline. Nevertheless, I received their requirements the same evening.

Now it was our turn to accelerate the project. I sent the customer’s requirements to our DevOps team. Within 12 hours, I received a detailed report on how to implement our customer’s requirements – clearly written with AI. Of course, we didn’t send the AI-generated plan directly to our customer. We used the plan to discuss the way forward before answering the customer’s requirements. Within 24 hours of receiving the customer’s requirements, we provided our detailed proposal. That’s AI speed.

Conclusion

AI is no wonder tool, and AI does not replace humans per se. It strengthens humans with distinct skills. And if you have distinct skills but don’t use AI, other people with distinct skills who use AI will overtake you.

Be quick or die. What are you waiting for?