AI Won’t Steal Your Job — Unless You Let It

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Nichol Bradford: The top two survival skills period, period for all generations is adaptability and ideation. So adaptability. It's like things are gonna change, things are gonna change, and ideation, which is what I call creative iteration.

Anne Sparaco: No matter where you [00:01:00] are in the world, if you're clocking in for work these days, you're likely hearing about the words artificial intelligence. It may be repetitive, and if you haven't heard of it, you might be living under a rock here, but you also might be wondering what it means for your individual job.

Headlines are warning about automation and job displacement, but what's really happening? In 2026, are robots coming for your desk or is the reality a little more nuanced than that? Today we're going to focus on workers' biggest fears about ai, debunking as many as we can along the way, and diving into how to position yourself for success in this AI driven world.

To guide us through this conversation, we have an extra special guest. We're joined by Nichol Bradford, host of the A IHI Project podcast, and SHRM's executive in residence. Ai Hi, which by the way stands for Artificial Intelligence plus Human Intelligence. And Nicole, we're so happy [00:02:00] to have you on all things work.

This feels like a crossover episode, and I, I just love speaking with you all the time. I always feel like I am learning something from you every day in the world of ai. So thank you for joining us today.

Nichol Bradford: Thank you for having me.

Anne Sparaco: Alright, so we can just dive right into it. We know that SHRM just released some recent data regarding AI and job displacement risk.

Um, and it discusses how there's, there are millions of jobs out there that are. 50% or more automated in their tasks, and there's a lot more nuance to it. We can dive into a little bit later, but I know you had a separate episode with our lead researcher on that subject, Justin Ladner on AI Plus. Hi. So we are going to leave the expert to that, but for our audience, can you help clarify what the everyday worker needs?

To really understand about this with the, with the more job [00:03:00] transformation than job displacement, regardless of what they're in or career level they're at.

Nichol Bradford: So the way to think about when you think about your job, um, your job is a collection of tasks and some of those tasks are more interesting and some of those tasks are a little bit more.

Repetitive and the repetitive tasks that are in your job basket are things that are really accessible for ai. To, to, to use AI for. And so for the everyday worker out there who's thinking about how will AI affect my job, how, what do I need to be thinking about? Um, the way to do it is to look at the, the tasks that you have and to evaluate which ones really create a great deal of value.

So we have value tasks that we do that maybe, uh, whether [00:04:00] your audience is internal or external. So if you're in HR, high value tasks include when you're coaching employees, when you're working with a, a manager, to help them understand what they actually really need in the role. Those are very high value tasks.

And then you have some process tasks, um, things that. Just sort of help move things along. Those tasks are tasks that are very ripe, uh, for. Automation. And you know, when you're looking at your basket of tasks, what you want is you want, you know, over 50%, you want 60, 70% of your task to be the things that create value, um, internally or externally for your company.

And you want to, you, yourself, you wanna do it before anyone else does it for you. You wanna start to take the tasks that are really just more process related, um, and see how you can. Assertively, um, [00:05:00] get, reduce those. Use AI to make those easier for you so you can expand that basket. Of high value tasks.

That's the way I would say to think about it. And the funny thing is that you can actually even use AI to do that. You could take your resume, you could take your job description. Mm-hmm. You could take, you could, uh, take your task description. And one of the things that I do a lot, I hope everybody out there is, is, um, talking to ai, um, you know, what I do is I'll, I'll turn on my phone, um, I'll turn on the audio.

For, uh, chat g pt, and you could just talk. So talk about what you do in your day and ask which one of these are, which out of all these things I told you that I do in a given day, what is easily automatable? And then you can sort of like see, uh, what it looks like for you and, and, um, uh, you know, take the lead on moving your job basket towards high value.

Anne Sparaco: [00:06:00] I love that I, it's such a visual, um, that the jaw basket, and I love that you also talked about talking to ai. Uh, 'cause some people might feel a little uncomfortable, kind of weird. Like, they're like, wait, I'm just kind of saying my thoughts out loud to this computer. Um, but it's, it's actually very helpful and I do that on my own 'cause sometimes.

Even in the simplest things I'm thinking to myself, how do I, how do I move forward with this? So I'll explain my situation to the AI platform and sometimes they'll throw something at me, I'm like, wow, I never thought of that. Or um, they'll even just, you know, maybe it'll be repetitive in something I already thought of.

So that's, it can't hurt to do that. So I love that you brought that up.

Nichol Bradford: You know, one interesting thing, there was some interesting research that, um, showed that people who are good at managing people. Often also tend to be good at managing agents because like when you manage a person and they do something wrong, you explain to them why they did something wrong.

Or when you [00:07:00] have a new person coming on you, you expect to be able to, to need to explain how you want it done. And so, you know, people who are great managers who are good at giving feedback or good at giving direction, good at giving feedback. Um, and can do that. They also tend to be really great at using ai.

Anne Sparaco: Yeah, that makes sense because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if it's a person or AI in front of you, communication's key here. And, uh, you gotta be, you gotta have effective communication, like with the, like you said, with the manager and their direct report or their new trainee. Uh, so I love that you brought that up.

I think that's a skill, uh, humans really. You need to continuously develop. It's not just a one and done training, it's an everyday learning experience. And AI's not gonna fully displace us on that. So, um, so focusing a bit more on how this might impact different [00:08:00] generations. Um, I know I posted on LinkedIn just the other day about how a family member of mine at the Christmas table, um, for, for dinner, uh.

Had to, we asked him to answer the house phone, uh, 'cause it was our family, older generation's house and they had a house phone and he's 13 years old. He had no idea how to answer that phone because it was a house phone. But if I handed him the most advanced iPhone or iPad or, or any kind of technology that maybe I might not be the best he could fix things, do things inside out, and probably more than I can, and.

So there's, we're seeing that difference, that real significant gap between generations of what we learned in those developmental years. So do you have any insights on who might most be affected here in this, you know, turn of AI that we're seeing coming into 2026?

Nichol Bradford: So, one of some of the interesting things, it, it, and we're about to come into a, in a, to a stage where we [00:09:00] have, um, some organizations have, you know, four generations.

In the organization at the same time, which is just really amazing. I was talking to someone who, uh, worked at a, a very, you know, old, well established, uh, law firm, and so they had, you know, they had everything from, you know, the 22, 23 year olds all the way up to people who were in their, um, you know, late sixties, um, because the founders were still there.

Um, and so it's like multi-generation. I mean, the, the. To your point, which you said earlier, the number, so like the, the top two sort of, I call them the top two survival skills, period. Period for all generations is adaptability. And ideation. So adaptability, it's like things are gonna change, things are gonna change and ideation, which is what I call creative iteration because one of the things that is happening is that the tools are shortening the length of time between an [00:10:00] idea and sort of like what the next step is.

Um, so you know, from whether it's, you know, doing an analysis that used to take us weeks or, um. You know, actually even creating software. A friend of mine was in a meeting a little while ago, and it was right when Lovable first came out, which is for everyone out there lovable is a software development platform.

And you can just prompt, you can just say, oh, you know, I want something to help you with X. And, uh, it will build the software for that within 10 minutes. Wow. It's really amazing. Wow. And, uh, Google just is, is, um, um. Has a, a, a thing called disco that just came out and it's going to do that all inside your Gemini.

Um, so, you know, so that distance between an idea and that first execution that used to take us weeks or maybe even months is, you know, down to. Almost immediately or maybe a day. [00:11:00] Uh, and so with that, the ability to, um, ideate and creatively iterate with your teams really important. But what that leads to is that the, the, you know, for people who are leaders and, and I think one of the distinctions that.

It's important to know is that when you have a completely new wave of technology coming, what is it, what it means to lead? Um, it isn't necessarily who's a leader on the hierarchy, um, you know, on the word chart, but it's like in every group that you're in at work and also at home, because you're, you know, your friends and your family are also facing this change no matter where they are.

It's affecting all of us. It's like the advent of electricity and so. Being the kind of person who, who learns and changes, but also you know, is the kind of person that wherever you go, everyone who's there is more ready to learn and to change. Like so that empowering people to learn and [00:12:00] change around you being the kind of person.

Where people around you become empowered to learn and change. 'cause we're all kind of going through this together, just like we all pandemic together, learned how to pandemic together. We have to learn how to AI together. So what that means for having different generations who are in the workplace. Um, it's, it's affecting everyone a little bit differently.

So one of the things that we've seen now is that, you know, the ability to really interrogate. So you get an output and to really question it because you need to really question it. And you also need to apply it to your unique case because if you take it as is any output that you get, if you take it as is, there are millions of people who get the same output for the same question.

So like if you were, say you were a product manager, um, or you say, um, you know, what are the top four reasons people in their twenties quit? [00:13:00] Um. Everyone who asks that question is getting the same answer. Um, so you have to be specific. What are the top four reasons that people in their twenties quit in frontline?

Situations in, you know, southeast Texas and you have to have, so the knowledge, so if you're an older worker or you know, if you're in a, in a, um, you know, in some previous generations and you're in the workplace and you have this deep domain expertise, your ability to. To prompt and to interrogate output, uh, with, uh, your deep knowledge base means you're going to get better results than other people.

So, um, you know, workers that have been around for a while and have deep domain expertise, this is really your moment. And so if you really embrace the tools and really start to use them, your work product, um, and your discernment on what the output is, it's gonna be better than anyone's really. [00:14:00] Because you, you, you have a great deal of what's called tacit knowledge.

And tacit knowledge is the things that, you know, that are not in the models yet. And so, so that group really has to, um, I advise you like, just lean in and become a user of the tools because the knowledge that you have isn't in the models yet. And so that can be very valuable, uh, for people in the, the, the, you know, the middle generation.

And I'll go to the, the. Early career people coming into, uh, one of the really important things to do, um, is you've probably noticed, like the senior executives are talking about this, where, um, every Monday, like a hundred page reports come in. The people have used AI to generate, so it's called work slop.

And so the work slop is going through the roof and it's making it really hard for people to know what to pay attention to. So it's actually slowing things down. So for everyone [00:15:00] in the middle, wow, like really learn how to use ai. As an organization, as a team. But that right is where I think the sweet spot is because organizations are still groups of people working together to solve problems.

And so that is super high value because right now teamwork is a big problem with ai. And then for people coming in, um, that's a whole new, uh, kettle of Fish, you know, like they are, they're AI ready. But at the same time, uh, organizations are, um. You know, a bit slower, uh, to bring in early career because there's a lot of things that those people did, um, that people are using models to do.

Anne Sparaco: Hey everyone. We'll get right back to the episode. But first, if you've been following the headlines about automation and generative ai, you know the conversation around job displacement is more urgent than ever. SHRM's new data brief based on the [00:16:00] groundbreaking 2025 automation AI survey. With over 20,000 US workers offers actionable insights into how these technologies are reshaping the work.

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For instant access on YouTube, just click the link above or check the episode description. This is one of the many ways SHRM empowers you to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape. Now let's get back to the conversation. So Nicole, for our next segment, I'd love to see how you personally integrate AI into your daily work.

You kind of gave us a little snippet of how you say you talk to the platform, uh, you know, to get a response and um, kind of the tips [00:17:00] and tricks of how to make sure you're getting the most out of it as well. So, can you walk us through what a day in your life looks like with. Ai, but incorporating your own human intelligence to collaborate partnership.

Nichol Bradford: Yeah. Uh, my average day in the life is that, um, different ways that, that I use ai. Um, a great deal of the work I do includes. Connecting with and looking for people to have, um, conversations with on subjects that are important to the future of health work or cities. And so, um, I use a tool called happenstance and um, it allows you to natural language just like you.

Query chat, GBT, you can, uh, query your entire network, LinkedIn plus email plus Twitter and say, who do I know who blank? Um, so I usually start my day with generating a list around that of people that I'd like to, [00:18:00] um. Connect with, engage with, um, on different subject matters. And then I, you know, have my team start to book meetings with those people.

And then I'll get to my, um, big thoughts or the, the. The questions that I'm, I'm really exploring. Um, so I'll take some quiet time where, um, I think through what my thesis is before I get to, before I start using, um, the different LLMs. Um, and so I really think through like what do I. Think about this topic and what are my, what are my theories that I want to, you know, prove are true or not true?

And then usually if I'll, I'll go to perplexity first. Um, because perplexity is great for research and, and with that I can see, you know, just like what are the, it's a better way to search for news, um, and to educate myself about, um, different. Different aspects of the theory [00:19:00] that I've already sort of worked through.

Then I might take that over to, um, notebook, lm uh, and that what what makes that kind of interface interesting is that you can do deep research in it, but it pulls in actual documents and then that becomes. At the center of its world. And so, you know, if you're using AI a lot, you've probably noticed that things will really drift.

Um, and a one little word change that you didn't pay attention to can change your entire output. So I like to get my act together before I start to, uh, use the, uh, chat gpt of the world. Um, and then I will sometimes take a walk, um, after I've read all that. I've told you about and I'll just talk to it and, um, but I'll put in the prompt.

You are taking a transcript. You are not to, um. Uh, you're not to change or shift or, uh, you know, evaluate this. I just want you to take out filler words and [00:20:00] record what I'm saying. Um, and so I'll do that, so, you know, and just talk to it for a while. Um, and then I'll have all of those transcripts, um, plus what I, my outline.

And from that, then I'll start to, you know, shape an article or, um, you know, something that I'm working on.

Anne Sparaco: I love that. Um, you, you brought that up and when you said LLM, is that, um, remind me as someone who's not maybe the most techie person, is that language learning model, is that what it stands? Stands for?

Nichol Bradford: Yeah, so chat, GBT and uh, Gemini and. Gr and you know, all of those, um, there's about eight big Western, uh, large language models, um, uh mm-hmm. Pie at inflection is another one. Um, and so that's what an LLM is.

Anne Sparaco: Awesome. I just wanna break that down for maybe our less techie parts of the audience, uh, for people like me.

Um, so we [00:21:00] talked a lot about how it, you know, AI can be seen by some people who may not be as familiar with it as well. Um, it seems foreign, it may seem even threatening to their career. Um. What's that mindset that you took on or that you would advise other people to take on that really helped you embrace AI as a partner with your human intelligence to advance your career, transform your career, rather than just take it away?

Nichol Bradford: I'll go back to what I said before. It's really, you know, being willing to adapt. You have to really be willing to adapt. Um, you have to be willing to ideate, which also means you have to be willing to experiment, um, and, and, you know, to do it for yourself before the world does it for you. Um, and you have to be willing to learn.

You have to be willing to change. Um, and I think [00:22:00] if you focus on that, then you know you'll, you'll be in a good position. Uh, one thing that I think is good for, for families to do is, um, and, and I advise people to do this a lot, I. As a family on Friday, decide that you're gonna do your own family hackathon and have the goal be that by Sunday afternoon you have set up a business that you completely created and generated everything with ai, whether it's the website or whatever.

Um, cool. The software, whatever you do, set up something and be in the position where you can take money. By, by the end of the night on Sunday. So do a family hackathon to set up an actual business together. Um, and by doing that, it'll get you to use all the tools. Um, and you have an outcome where like the successor failure is like, can you take money by midnight on Sunday and do it as a [00:23:00] family and use it to really explore and it's good for everybody to just get hands on it.

It'll make it a lot less scary, uh, because then you'll see, oh gosh, I actually get a lot of power out of this. Software is power.

Anne Sparaco: I love that. That's, that's fun. That sounds like fun. I might actually try to, I know that, I definitely try to just play around with it just to try different things and, and I even just Google, you know, what, what are some of the newest platforms for specifically what I'm looking for that might actually be helpful because it's not just one AI platform that works for everything.

It's, you know, there's so many different industries and jobs and sectors out there that AI is. Evolving to meet the needs of,

Nichol Bradford: I think it's really important for everyone out there is that, um, do not approach this. Like you have to do it on your own. Like you don't have to do it on your own. So just like I just said, um, you know, you can have a family [00:24:00] hackathon.

Have the family hackathon. Um, and then you'll get to see by using it as a group, as a team, um

Anne Sparaco: mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Nichol Bradford: You know, it really changes your fear level around it. And also at work do the same thing. Like you don't have to learn how to lose, use the tools by yourself. Like have a have a Friday lunch bunch where you just take the list of what's new.

And, and sit together and try it, or a great way to not, um, you know, to not have ai, you know, dumb things down, you know, like lose your edge. Is that any prompt or any output that you get? Have lunch with a peer. Um, and talk about it together. Read it and then discuss it. It'll show you the flaws in its thinking, you know, when you see the thinking.

So it's like, I would say if there's a big takeaway, do not do this alone. You don't have to do this alone. And if you're afraid, one of the best ways to lower that fear is to do it with [00:25:00] people that you care about, whether it's your team or your spouse or your kids.

Anne Sparaco: Remember that basket of skills, example you brought up.

So that's all together. Just wonderful advice. And I feel like we only got a small snippet of all that, you know, because you, you're just so, um, well versed in all of this and you have a lot of experience. So thank you for sharing a snippet of everything, you know, and, and a day in your life, because I really hope this can guide someone who may be at the.

At the more beginning stage of it. Uh, so thank you for this crossover episode with all things to work today, Nicole.

Nichol Bradford: My pleasure.

Anne Sparaco: All right, that's all for this week. We'll catch you next time.

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