Original video in Chinese.
Key Takeaway
- The company’s view of talent has changed completely: in the AI era, the gap between people is being magnified dramatically. One strong person paired with AI can rival an entire team, so companies will “rather have fewer than settle for mediocre,” prioritize screening, and no longer hire casually or patiently train people. Traditional skills can be taught, but AI involves the very foundations of cognition; there were never that many people who could truly learn it in the first place.
- The value of initiative has been magnified enormously: AI has lowered the barrier to execution to an extremely low level. As long as you actually get started, you can produce results. What really widens the gap is not “whether you can learn AI,” but “whether you are willing to just do it.” People with low initiative will use “learn first, do later” as an excuse and ultimately get left behind.
- The risk of pure management roles has risen significantly: after the cleanup of execution-level positions, pure management will face renewed scrutiny. The advice is to get back to the front line as soon as possible, solve concrete problems, and truly combine AI with the business, instead of staying at the level of meetings, coordination, and empty talk about going all in on AI.
After AI arrived, the rules and logic of the workplace are definitely going to change too.
You don’t naively think it’s just layoffs, do you?
In this episode, I’ll share three of my judgments, as some advice for those of you still in the workplace.
First, the company’s view of talent has completely changed.
In fact, over the past two years, a great many companies have already been trying to transform with AI. The paths may differ, but they will eventually form these two common understandings.
The first is that the gap between people is truly enormous.
A capable person paired with AI has combat power comparable to an entire team, and is especially good at breaking through and creating the impossible.
So companies will no longer hire people as casually as before. They will definitely rather have fewer than settle for mediocre. I would rather leave a seat empty than rush to hire someone to fill a hole.
The second is that people actually cannot be cultivated.
When companies promote AI internally, the most common situation is: no matter how much is fed right to people’s mouths, they still refuse to swallow. The resistance is huge.
Traditional skills may be trainable. But AI involves too many things at the level of cognition itself; it really can’t be taught.
So companies will no longer patiently train people the way they used to, and as business pressure keeps increasing, they will definitely prioritize screening.
“Rather have fewer than settle for mediocre” and “prioritize screening” will definitely become the talent philosophy of many companies.
Second, the value of initiative has been dramatically magnified.
In the AI era, what kind of people do companies most want to hire?
People with extremely strong initiative.
The logic is simple. AI has removed all the barriers to implementation. As long as you really do it, you can always make something happen. And once you keep doing it, it starts to work.
Then why are so many people still failing to get results?
Because those people have too little initiative. They will find all kinds of excuses not to take action. Learning AI is the best example.
Do you really need to learn AI?
I’ve privately talked with many people who have achieved major results. Everyone agreed that AI doesn’t need to be learned; just do it directly and that’s enough. If you insist on talking about learning, then it’s “learning by doing.”
Then why are there still so many people who want to learn AI? Because their initiative is too low; they simply don’t want to take action, and they use “learning AI” as an excuse to procrastinate.
Since we’re on this topic, I can tell you another brutally honest fact: if you absolutely need someone to teach you step by step before you can learn, then in the end you definitely won’t learn it.
So in the AI era, the truly capable people, the people who can actually get things done, are definitely the ones with maxed-out initiative. That is true in entrepreneurship, and it is true in the workplace as well.
While your colleagues are still planning and still in meetings, you have already started running. Only then can AI or any other technology truly empower you, and only then can the situation actually open up.
Third, the risk of pure management roles has risen significantly.
After the big cleanup of execution-layer positions, it will be management’s turn next, especially pure management.
In fact, everyone knows what management in Chinese companies looks like. Your boss knows it too.
When AI comes in and reshuffles the deck, sooner or later the company’s business logic and organizational structure will undergo a complete transformation. Because if they don’t change, they have to die.
In this process, the value of every role will be reexamined. Your management role won’t escape either. After all, you’re not the boss; you’re just the housekeeper the boss hired.
So I suggest you stop spending all day in meetings, coordination, and communication. You must go back to the front line, solve those concrete problems, and regain the feel of doing business. Then you’ll really know how to combine AI with the business, instead of the way you are now—reading a few articles, listening to a few podcasts, using a few tools, and then talking endlessly about all in on AI.
These three judgments I just mentioned will definitely be disagreed with by many people, and many people will curse me for them. That’s fine—I’m doing screening too. Those who understand can stay. Those who don’t, I won’t say much more. I wish you luck.
OK, that’s it for this episode. If you want to learn about AI, reclaim individual sovereignty, and find like-minded people, come join the newtype community. See you next time!