Let the bots have it

To stay ahead, you need to know which of your skills AI enhances, and which it automates. Then double down on the former, and let the bots have the rest.

Author

Malcolm Frank, CEO
August 05, 2025

Let the bots have it

Every executive I’ve met lately carries the same twitchy energy, like someone who’s just learned the intern might be smarter, faster, and never sleeps. Except in this case, the intern is artificial. We’re all living inside this uncanny moment where AI has graduated from parlor trick to boardroom force. One minute it’s helping draft emails, the next it’s rethinking product strategy. So, is AI here to enhance us, or automate us away?

The answer, inconveniently, is both.

A landmark study by Anthropic shows AI is already augmenting or replacing about a quarter of job tasks across industries. The dividing line? It isn’t your title; it’s your skill mix. Repetitive cognitive work? Gone. Strategic synthesis, judgment, storytelling, ethical tradeoffs? In demand like never before.

This isn’t a doom story; it’s a portfolio shift. The winners won’t be the fastest typers or deepest memorization machines. They’ll be the executives who learn to wield AI like a violin, not fear it like a guillotine. To stay ahead, you need to know which of your skills AI enhances, and which it automates. Then double down on the former, and let the bots have the rest.

Because in this new age, the scariest thing isn’t that AI will surprise you; it’s that you’ll stop surprising yourself.

How AI is impacting 700 professions — and might impact yours

What 1 million text-based conversations on Anthropic’s Claude tells us about which jobs will be augmented vs. automated by AI.

AI is coming for the consultants. Inside McKinsey, “This is existential”

AI can increasingly do the work done by the firm’s highly paid consultants, often within minutes.

Meta dishes out $250M to lure 24-year-old AI whiz kid

“We have reached the climax of ‘Revenge of the Nerds'.”

OpenAI raises $8.3B in funding after annualized revenue tops $13B

Current round values ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, worth more than Coca Cola, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, and UnitedHealth.

Why the analyst advisor industry is getting obliterated by AI and how to save it

Today’s analysts and advisors love talking about how the speed of AI advancements is turning every industry on its head, but most conveniently ignore the fact that their own industry is getting rewired faster than they can say “disrupted.”

The two-step comes to Atlassian: CEO lays off 150 employees, tells them they'll largely be replaced with AI

Oh, and he recently purchased a $75 million jet for private use.

80% of workers rely on AI, but nearly half don’t inform their boss

While AI adoption surges, most employees navigate it without clear direction or support, 66% pay for AI tools themselves, and only 17% receive employer compensation.

The 40 most likely, and least likely, jobs to be replaced by AI

A new Microsoft report ranks 80 professions by their risk of being replaced by AI tools.

Will AI agents eat the SaaS market? Experts are split

Time will tell if backend databases will be needed at all once agents end up doing most of the work.

Explained:  Why TCS firing 12,000 employees may be a canary in the mine and what it means for investors

“With most deal wins [in IT services] being led by cost-optimization initiatives and involving AI-led productivity pass-through, IT firms unable to gain share may have to resort to lay-offs."

India IT’s agent era has begun

The Indian IT services industry is undergoing a transformation so profound that it might soon become unrecognizable, and it’s all about agents.

Agent of the Week:  Phoenix

Accelerate AI development with powerful insights.

Enterprise AI is at a tipping point, here’s what comes next

Business leaders are stuck between powerful consumer AI and clunky, fragmented enterprise tools. Proof-of-concepts are everywhere, but few scale - until now.

Case study: Palantir gets $10B Army contract to improve readiness with AI

Deal consolidates 75 existing contracts into a single deal worth up to $10 billion, enabling bulk purchases of data, analytics, and AI tools.

Update:  Delta Air Lines assures US lawmakers it will not personalize fares using AI

Delta Air Lines said it will not use AI to set personalized ticket prices for passengers after facing sharp criticism and broad public concern.

And one more thing…

The uproar over Vogue’s AI-generated ad isn’t just about fashion

“Modeling as a profession is already challenging enough without having to compete with now new digital standards of perfection that can be achieved with AI.”

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