AI is a big advantage for more senior employees

There have been a lot of stories about how older workers are getting pushed out of jobs in various industries. While this may be true, I am going to offer a contrarian perspective. I think older workers have a distinct advantage in an AI-driven world specifically because of their experience, subject matter expertise and perspectives.

More junior workers are learning the ropes. Often, they are assigned work that more senior employees or managers also start out by doing — basic research and analysis, repetitive writing or PPT design task, and so forth. Doing this work helps more junior workers get a handle on organizational voice, mission, vision, value, strategic objectives, as well as how information flows within an organization.

Generative AI is rapidly replacing this “low attention work”, with chatbots and AI agents automating away the “grind,” leaving workers free to engage in more creative or strategic work.

That is great — for experienced workers who have the subject matter expertise and professional experience to deftly use AI to do creative or strategic work. Indeed, in my experience, the more adept you already are at your job, the better you will deploy AI and the greater impact it will have on your productivity and the value you are adding.

Take for example, someone using AI to help write a white paper to be published on an organization’s website. The white paper is meant to be downloaded and then drive sales of featured products and services. If an experienced worker or manager uses AI to research and then compose the white paper — the text and images — they will be greatly aided by the AI. That’s because they already had a distinct vision for what they wanted.

So, while I worry about what AI will do to junior positions, I think that seasoned workers and managers will find AI to be a great productivity multiplier.

The moral of this of this post: Senior employees, don’t spend your time fretting about AI. Get in there and learn how to use it and integrate it into your workflows as soon as you can. AI will only augment and enhance the experience and knowledge your already possess about your organizations.

More of my thoughts on the effects of AI on junior employees in a future post, shortly.