You’ve worked hard to land a stable job, but lately, something feels off. Everywhere you look, AI is creeping in—automating tasks, streamlining processes, and even doing creative work. What if your job is next?

This worry is not just yours; it’s the reality of the modern workforce. AI is here, and it’s reshaping industries faster than we thought. If your job can be easily automated, it might be at risk. So, the real question isn’t “Will AI replace jobs?” but rather,

“How can I ensure that I’ll still have a job tomorrow?”

The solution is to build a competitive advantage—something that allows you to outperform AI.

There are 2 reasons why you should build a competitive advantage:

The right competitive advantage can make you hard to replace

To know what can help you outperform, it’s helpful to understand the current capabilities of AI.

Currently, AI is fantastic at repetitive tasks or crunching data. Models like ChatGPT o1 has exceed human performance in areas like math, coding.

But those models still struggle with creativity, emotional intelligence, specialized expertise, and human relationships.

In cooking, an area where there’s no substitute for experience; there’s no way for an AI to produce a delicious dish without tasting the food.

In human relationships, it takes years to build a meaningful relationship between 2 people. The reason why it takes so long is trust is hard to build. AI can talk like a human, but it sure cannot create trust in a day.

Competitive advantage is not so hard to build

Most people think in order to have a competitive advantage, they need to “do more”. Like taking another job, working extra hours whenever their boss tell them to, …

One of my friend worked super hard at his job. He got a raise from his boss, even got “Best employee of the year” award from the company. Then he switched jobs to another company. He received bad performance rating; his new employer even complained about him with the old company.

Why “working harder” doesn’t necessarily give you a competitive advantage?

One reason might be it’s not hard to find other people who can work harder than you. Heck, AI can work 24/7 365 days a year.

Another reason is the work you work hard at doesn’t give you an advantage. My friend performed poorly at his new company is because he only did operation work at the old company, while the new company requires strategic work. Clearly his hard work in operation did not help his ability to perform strategic work.

So it’s not about “doing more” with your time, but rather knowing “what to do” with your time.

If you spend your time building meaningful relationships, one of those relationship might become useful years later. Do you have a friend that were able to pass the first round of interview just because they know someone from the company they’re applying to?

If you spend your time on the weekend practicing public speaking, 5 years later, when you are promoted to manager, you can communicate clearly with executives and deliver excellent speech to your team.

If you spend 10 years building a business, even if your business don’t do very well, you still accumulate an enormous amount of experience and knowledge in building a company. This is tremendously useful when your friend ask you to join his new venture.

There are countless ways to spend your time, but the key is to align your efforts with your long-term goals. Whether it’s fostering deep relationships, gaining specialized knowledge, or accumulating unique experiences, focus on what truly sets you apart.

Small, consistent steps taken today can lead to a future where your career stands strong, no matter how the job market evolves.

What will you start building today?