When Will AI Make You Obsolete? A Simple Way to Find Out
Calculate the exact moment AI starts doing your job cheaper than you can afford to work
Picture this: You're teaching the next generation of business leaders at one of the world's top business schools. Your guest speaker—Pat, a brilliant lawyer-turned-software-developer from https://querylaw.com/au—casually demonstrates a tool that creates $60,000 worth of startup legal documentation in minutes. Then he drops the bombshell: "Any enterprise can now do this without lawyers or business degrees."
The room goes silent. You can practically hear their career plans crumbling.
This wasn't just a tech demo—it was a wake-up call. So I did what any good educator does: I turned their crisis into a learning opportunity.
The 30% Tipping Point Exercise - Try our on the tasks you get paid to perform
I created a simple self-assessment for my Applied Business Web3 students at Hult International Business School. The goal? Help them identify their personal AI disruption timeline—that moment when they can't compete with someone using AI, or worse, with an AI working for pennies on the dollar.
Here's the reality check: Imagine walking into your doctor's office in two years, only to discover an AI has already tested, diagnosed, and prescribed treatment—all while scoring higher on medical exams and showing more empathy than your human doctor. What happens to that $200,000 medical degree then?
The students' reaction was profound. They realized most of what they were learning wouldn't make them more valuable than a person equipped with AI tools. The question became: How do you create more value than AI as a human being?
From Crisis to Opportunity
Ronan Gruenbaum, Global Director for Undergraduate Learning & Development, saw the potential. He asked me to develop this into a full challenge using my i-Future Proof methodology and Digital Value Capture framework. The mission: help students differentiate themselves by delivering measurable economic, social, and system value that leverages uniquely human attributes.
The timing couldn't be more critical for them as they leave and seek work with a certificate that would not represent their value potential. AI pioneer Emad just launched open-source distributed AI at https://ii.inc/web, making AI bot creation as simple as app development. Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella declared "the application layer is collapsing into agents." For white-collar workers whose jobs can be reduced to rules and decision tables, the impact will be devastating.
Even Pat has evolved beyond AI assistance—his systems now understand the collective intent behind legal contracts, allowing consumers to handle complex legal work themselves. We've moved past AI as a helper to AI as a replacement.
The Questions That Keep Leaders Awake
Here's what you need to assess: When will your profession hit the 30% threshold—where AI can perform nearly a third of your tasks below minimum wage? What happens when it reaches 70%, like we're seeing with lawyers?
Now think bigger. You're a CEO, team leader, shareholder, or government official (hello, DOGE). You're managing assets like BlackRock, running higher education, or planning workforce retraining like Singapore. The questions multiply: What's the budget? How long do we have? Who funds Universal Basic Income? How do we handle the inevitable public panic?
Getting uncomfortable yet? Good. That means you're paying attention.
Your Next Move
If you want to stay ahead of this wave, start with my free subscription—I'll show you exactly how to position yourself and your work for what's coming.
Ready to dive deeper? Join the i-Future Proof Community for $20/month. You'll get 9 hours of hands-on group coaching monthly—think of it as a digital apprenticeship where I show you exactly how to future-proof your career using proven methodologies.
Need immediate action? Let's schedule a team discovery and planning session. In half a day, I'll help you get ahead of the pack, build stakeholder confidence, and create actionable AI-assisted implementation plans. Investment: $2,000 plus applicable GST for prep and online attendance.