I’m so annoyed by the whole fear mongering thing that AI = the replacement of humans. Are you?
According to a recent article in Fortune, AI is replacing entry-level jobs – and Gen Z is in the firing line. Drawing on LinkedIn data, the article paints a sobering picture: young professionals are struggling to find work as businesses turn to AI for administrative and creative tasks once handled by humans.
It’s the kind of headline designed to stir panic. And sadly, it’s working.
This extremely frustrates me. Because are we really at the edge of human obsolescence – or just a much-needed shift in how we work?
If you’re building a future where the first instinct is to replace your people rather than retrain them, you’re not leading innovation. You’re outsourcing your responsibility.
I recently spoke with Mark Cameron, CEO of Alyve, who offered a refreshing perspective. He believes AI opens the door to expand our teams – not shrink them. It’s not about doing more with less. It’s about doing better with AI support. Finding growth opportunities, rather than ways to cut costs.
This is the conversation we need to be having right now.
If you’re serious about future-proofing your business, the goal shouldn’t be replacing humans. It should be reimagining their potential.
Why ‘replace’ is the wrong R word
The idea that AI is coming for our jobs has been around for decades now – but it’s gaining momentum in all the wrong ways. And when headlines scream about workforce collapse or massive redundancies, people start to listen… and freak out.
But the word ‘replace’ is the wrong R word. If you’re serious about leading in the age of AI, the real word you need to focus on is ‘retrain’.
Because when you retrain your team, you unlock capability, loyalty, and long-term growth. On the other hand, when you replace them with AI tools, you lose more than just headcount – you lose experience, culture, and trust. You also introduce a LOT of risk.
We’ve seen this story before. Technology changes and roles shift. But the doom-and-gloom narrative rarely plays out as predicted.
- We still have accountants, despite the rise of QuickBooks and Xero.
- We still have designers, even with Canva. (I turned to my human graphic designer, Elise Maunder just last week actually!)
- We still have customer service teams, even though chatbots and AI phone agents are on the rise – because people still want to speak to people.
And the data backs it up.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report, AI will create 69 million jobs while 83 million roles may be transformed. Not eliminated – transformed.
The International Labour Organization echoes this, reporting that one in four jobs are at risk of being transformed by Generative AI – with administrative roles, largely held by women, most exposed to change.
So let’s stop feeding the fear.
AI isn’t your signal to scale down. It’s your invitation to skill up.
The smartest move you can make right now isn’t replacing your people – it’s reimagining what they’re capable of with the right tools and training behind them.
Efficiency shouldn’t cost you your people
There’s this underlying belief floating around right now that replacing staff is somehow a badge of honour.
Look at us! We replaced three people with a subscription to ChatGPT!
We’re leaner, faster, smarter – right?
Wrong.
Replacing people with tools doesn’t make your business more efficient. It makes it more fragile. Because when you remove the humans, you also remove context, care, and critical thinking.
Sure, AI can generate a report, summarise a meeting, or whip up a LinkedIn caption in 30 seconds flat. But it can’t read the room. It can’t manage nuance. It doesn’t understand internal politics, stakeholder relationships, or the understanding that when Jenny from marketing asks for “just a light tweak” she actually means a full rebrand.
When leaders chase cost-cutting at the expense of capability, they risk building teams that look productive on paper – but fall apart under pressure.
Think about it this way: AI doesn’t coach. It doesn’t challenge assumptions. It doesn’t mentor, ideate, or celebrate small wins with the team on a Friday afternoon. (And ChatGPT doesn’t bring chocolate cake to staff birthday gatherings either…)
The businesses that win with AI aren’t the ones cutting headcount. They’re the ones building confidence.
And that starts by empowering your people to work with AI, not in fear of it.
What empowered teams look like in the age of AI
Let’s flip the narrative.
Instead of imagining a future where AI takes over, picture a workplace where it amplifies what your team already does best.
- Where your marketers use ChatGPT to fast-track their ideas – then polish them with lived experience and expertise.
- Where your admin team automates repetitive tasks – so they can finally focus on strategic projects they never had time for.
- Where your copywriter becomes an advisor, not just a doer – guiding everyone in the business how to effectively write with AI (rather than replacing themselves with it).
This is what happens when we retrain instead of replace.
You don’t just get a faster output – you get more meaningful, more consistent, and more human-led results. You create space for creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking to thrive, with AI sitting in the passenger seat – not the driver’s seat.
And when people feel safe, skilled, and supported in how they use AI, they stop worrying about their jobs… and start getting really, really good at them.
If replacing your team is the plan, you’re missing the point
We’re not at the end of human-led work. We’re at the beginning of something better – if we choose to lead it that way.
AI isn’t here to wipe out your workforce. But if you treat it like a replacement plan instead of a reimagination opportunity, that’s exactly the message your team will receive.
You don’t need to shrink your headcount to prove you’re forward-thinking. You need to create a culture where AI enhances human potential, rather than competing with it.
Because real leadership in this AI era is about empowerment, not uncertainty.
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