AI is definitely coming for our jobs, what to do next

Every few years, technology shifts the way we work. The industrial revolution replaced muscle with machines, the internet replaced paper with pixels.

As a millennial, I’ve watched computers, cell phones, iPhones, and social media take over the world, each wave transforming how we live and think. A few years ago, my friends and I wondered what the next big shift would be. Things felt quiet for a while... until two years ago.

AI has arrived, and this time, it’s not replacing labor or tools.

It’s replacing thinking with automation.

It’s natural to feel uneasy. You open LinkedIn and see tools writing blog posts, generating images, editing videos, and coding apps. Even now I'm just dumping my ideas to get the perfect grammer from AI as a non-native English speaker. It’s easy to wonder; where do I fit in this new world?

The short answer: somewhere between adaptation and rediscovery.

The inevitable shift

Let’s face it, AI will change jobs. Not in a distant future, but now, in small and steady steps. Industries built on repetition, optimization, and prediction are already transforming.

• Customer support is moving from human operators to AI chatbots.
• Design is shifting toward AI-assisted tools that generate layouts, ads, and variations instantly.
• Marketing and writing are evolving into prompt-crafting and editing instead of starting from scratch.
• Programming itself is changing, as AI becomes a coding companion.

These are not stories of extinction, but evolution. AI replaces tasks, not roles. The ones who learn to use it, direct it, and interpret its output will stay ahead.

The rest risk being left behind not because AI took their job, but because they didn’t adapt their mindset.

What AI still cannot do

Despite how impressive it is, AI still lacks something deeply human: context, taste, and emotion. It doesn’t understand beauty, curiosity, or fear. It doesn’t feel frustration or excitement when solving a problem. It doesn’t wake up in the morning with a reason to build.

That’s why the most resilient skills ahead aren’t technical — they’re emotional, creative, and connective.

• Empathy → understanding people’s real needs beyond data
• Taste → deciding what feels right when everything looks possible
• Curiosity → asking the question AI doesn’t know to ask
• Judgment → balancing intuition with insight

AI can write, design, code, analyze, but it doesn’t care. And caring might be the last competitive advantage.

How we can adapt

I’ve been thinking a lot about this shift through my own work. When I built oneweek.dev, it started as a space to log creative progress: small updates, side ideas, and experiments. It sat idle for months because I kept waiting for the “perfect moment.” Eventually, I realized that moment would never come. So I just started showing up each day, even for an hour, building something small.

It’s been over two weeks now, and I still look forward to it every evening. That’s what I call momentum. The quiet kind of motivation AI can’t give you.

If you apply that to your career, it’s the same logic: don’t wait to be replaced or secured.

Start experimenting. Use AI tools. Play with them. Break them.

See how they can help you do more of what you love and less of what drains you. That’s how you stay relevant: not by fearing the shift, but by co-creating with it.

Do not freeze

AI is changing everything around us faster than we can process. And while it’s easy to get lost in fear or fascination, the most grounded response might be the simplest one: keep building.

If you’ve ever thought of starting something on the side; a product, a tool, a small creative project, this is your sign. Because building teaches adaptability. It keeps your hands close to the tools, your curiosity alive, and your creativity in motion. Even if the world changes, you’ll have already learned how to move with it.

We’ve entered a time where ideas don’t need permission. A single person with AI tools can now do what once required a whole team: design, write, code, market. That’s both empowering and humbling. It means there’s no excuse not to start, and no guarantee you’ll stay relevant unless you do.

How to leverage AI as a builder

There’s no single right way to use AI, but there are a few creative paths that are already reshaping what “side projects” can mean:

• Build tools that solve personal problems. That’s how most great products begin. Use AI to generate ideas, summarize insights, or automate the repetitive parts of what you already do.
• Create digital products faster. Writers, designers, and developers can now iterate ideas in hours instead of weeks, from mockups to micro-SaaS tools.
• Experiment with storytelling formats. From AI-narrated audiobooks to personalized learning experiences, creators can now test ideas with almost no upfront cost.
• Learn AI-native skills. Prompt design, automation with no-code, data interpretation, and creative direction are quickly becoming the new literacy.

The more you experiment, the more you build creative muscle memory. When the next shift comes, and it will, you’ll already know how to adapt.

Learn something human on the side

The irony of the AI era is that the more digital things become, the more value we place on what feels real. There’s a quiet revival happening in the small, tangible things that machines can’t replicate.

• Learn how to grow your own herbs on a balcony
• Start a small e-commerce shop selling handmade goods.
• Write postcards
• Restore furniture
• Bake
• Design and print notebooks
• Create physical prints...

These things may seem simple, but they reconnect you to texture, patience, and presence, the qualities missing in the speed of automation.

Not every skill has to be future-proof. Some just need to keep you human.

And you never know, sometimes a slow craft can lead to your next business idea. That’s how timeless and modern worlds meet halfway.

Do not compete with it

Instead of seeing AI as the enemy, make it your amplifier. Use it to automate what slows you down, prototype ideas faster, and bring creative thoughts to life with less friction. AI can be your first teammate, one that doesn’t sleep, doesn’t judge, and doesn’t cost a salary yet.

The best builders of tomorrow will be AI-native creators: people who use it as an extension of their craft, not a replacement for it.

So learn how to prompt, automate, connect APIs, design flows, or even just brainstorm with it. Treat AI as your co-pilot, not your competitor.

Everything is storytelling

Whether it’s a side project, a brand, or a new experiment, what connects people to what you create isn’t the output. It’s the story behind it. AI can generate, but you can make people care. And that’s a power no model can replicate.

Every product is a story. Every decision says something about what you value. The best thing you can do now is to tell your story, your way, in how you build, how you show up, and what you choose to share.

Be authentic, be consistent, and keep learning. That’s how you stay irreplaceable in an age of infinite replication.

Reflection

AI is here to stay. But it’s not the end of human work; it’s the end of mindless work. The people who thrive will be the ones who combine creativity with clarity, who know when to let AI assist and when to take the lead.

The future might look different; smaller teams, faster projects, more automation but behind each of those tools will still be someone deciding what’s meaningful, what’s worth building, and what feels right.

So yes, AI might come for our jobs. But our work, the part that carries our taste, our story, and our care, that’s still ours.

Maybe the real question isn’t “Is AI coming for our jobs?”, because I think it surely comes for up to a point, but a better question is;

“What will we finally have time to create once it does?”