Despite this blog post by Will Larson being written from the perspective of, and for, software developers, his insights into the impact of AI on careers (both from the perspective of an individual as well as a company) ring true across the spectrum:
The technology transition to Foundational models / LLMs as a core product and development tool is causing many senior leaders’ hard-earned playbooks to be invalidated. Many companies that were stable, durable market leaders are now in tenuous positions because foundational models threaten to erode their advantage. Whether or not their advantage is truly eroded is uncertain, but it is clear that usefully adopting foundational models into a product requires more than simply shoving an OpenAI/Anthropic API call in somewhere.
In our sessions, we often open with the observation that “we are trying to solve new world problems with old world thinking.” In Will’s words, our playbooks become rapidly obsolete, and in many cases, we haven’t developed new ones quite yet.
Sitting out this transition, when we are relearning how to develop software, feels like a high risk proposition. Your well-honed skills in team development are already devalued today relative to three years ago, and now your other skills are at risk of being devalued as well.
And as this world is moving at a frenzied pace, the above seems to be doubly true. As someone else recently wrote: Now might be the worst time to take a sabbatical.
