We’re Asking the Wrong Question

Everyone wants to know if AI will take their job. But the deeper question—the more human question—is this:

What was the soul of our work to begin with?

Because if we don’t know that, how can we possibly defend it?

The Great Unmasking

AI isn’t just fast—it’s exposing. Suddenly, we’re seeing how much of our day was filled with tasks that didn’t require us. Just our presence. Our compliance.

I once worked with a colleague who was sharp, creative, and people loved working with him. But he spent 80% of his time chasing down spreadsheet updates from five different teams. He’d spend hours formatting PowerPoint decks that no one read. He knew it wasn’t the best use of his time. We all did. But that’s just how the system worked.

Now imagine that same person—freed from the drudgery—using that time to build something new, coach a team member, or challenge a stale process.

That’s what AI can offer: not just speed, but space—the chance to bring humanity back into our work.

AI Will Do the Work. But We Must Bring the Soul.

We’ve all been conditioned to think that "work" is what shows up in a system of record: ticket closed, deck delivered, hours billed. But that’s just the output.

The real value is in how we think, connect, and show up.

Think about the teammate who stays after the meeting to ask, “Are you really okay?” The kind of leader who reads between the lines of what’s not being said. Or the account manager who turns a product demo into a moment of trust and excitement because they actually listened.

No prompt can generate that. No model can manufacture it.

It’s not “soft skills.” It’s soul skills—and AI has no access to them.

This Is Not the End of Your Role. It’s the Rebirth of Your Value.

There’s a quiet panic rippling through corporate offices right now. People wondering, “What do I offer that a machine can’t?”

That’s the wrong fear. The better question is: What parts of myself have I been hiding, ignoring, or undervaluing that AI is now forcing me to rediscover?

Maybe it’s your ability to synthesize ambiguity. Maybe it’s how people open up to you in tough moments. Maybe it’s your ability to spot problems no one else sees.

I remember a former teammate who wasn’t the most technical, but her superpower was this uncanny ability to spot bottlenecks before they happened. She was like air traffic control for our team. That’s not in any job description. That’s soul-of-work stuff.

She isn’t at risk from AI. She’ll thrive with it—because her value was never in doing more, but in seeing deeper.

Re-skill if You Must. But Re-human First.

There’s this obsession right now with “upskilling.” And yes, it’s important to learn how to work with AI.

But the real unlock isn’t learning how to prompt ChatGPT—it’s remembering how to show up as a human.

We’ve all had jobs where we started to feel more like a cog than a contributor. Where our ideas got filtered down into Jira tickets or buried under status reports.

That’s the trap AI is exposing.

Now’s the time to double down on what machines still can’t touch:

• Empathy in high-stakes conversations
• Humor that diffuses tension
• Creativity that doesn’t follow a template
• Integrity when no one’s watching

That’s the new toolkit. And it’s not found in a bootcamp—it’s already in you. You just need permission to use it again.

The Future Isn’t Machine vs. Human.

It’s Machine and Human. But only if we show up as fully human.

We’re not competing with AI—we’re evolving with it. The winners in this next era won’t be the ones who resist or retreat. It will be those who lead with their humanity. Who let AI take the keyboard, while they take the conversation. Who use the tools, but don’t become them.

This is the Soul of Work:

To be seen. To create meaning. To move people. To make time matter.

Maybe AI won’t just change the nature of work. Maybe it’ll remind us why we do it in the first place.