AI is Better Than Me; Now What?

We all know that AI is progressing fast in a linear fashion so far, but there is an inflection point coming. In early 2026, AI’s IQ is now higher than 98% of the population, hovering near 130 and growing about 2.5 points per month in a linear fashion. The reaction might be “OMG What am I going to do?” 

First, you might question whether IQ is the right measurement because IQ is for humans, and AI might find IQ answers in large data sets that it can power through instantaneously.  That only delays action and is kind of a “head in the sand” approach for AI. Second, you might take a number of proactive approaches to dealing with AI. Whatever you do, keep in mind that AI struggles with the following (for now)

·        Common sense

·        Contextual understanding

·        Explainability and transparency

·        Ethics and judgements

·        Emotional intelligence (EQ)

·        Empathy

·        Creativity and Original Innovation

Proactive Approaches to Buy Time

Super Charge Yourself with AI

Use AI as an assistant as it is powerful, fast, and cheap for automation tasks and integrating some answers for further human processing. AI is great at data analysis and pattern recognition, which can be leveraged for better situational analysis. AI is also getting great at generating images, videos, and even self-healing software.

Shift Your Differentiation to Soft Skills

If you see AI painting you into a corner as your organization keeps aggressively leveraging AI to stay competitive, make sure you pick skills and volunteer to handle roles that are more reasoning-focused and judgmental.

Shift Your Career from Knowledge Work to Physical Skills

Long-term AI will try to eat up most of the knowledge work. There are predictions that most knowledge work will be rare in a five-year horizon, so physical infrastructure jobs will be in demand until robotics catches up

Net; Net:

Organizations will need AI to stay competitive in changing markets, so they will not likely take care of their employees. Everyone will be on their own to cope with AI’s impacts even before it reaches the singularity. While AI still struggles with 100% factual accuracy and common sense, it’s just a matter of time before it reaches excellent accuracy. You can ignore AI at your own peril, as every knowledge job is on a countdown to be reduced or eliminated in the next five years, and physical work displacement another five years. Will unemployment approach 90+ percent in your lifetime? Time will tell.