If you are wondering what AI means for your job, pick one piece of work you do every week. Which steps are changing? Has anyone changed what they expect from you? You can get closer to an answer in 20 minutes than you can by reading another prediction about your profession.
Look at the work behind the job title
A project coordinator might collect updates, resolve conflicting dates, write a summary and chase a decision. AI can help with the summary. The more interesting question is whether the coordinator’s other work becomes more important, or whether colleagues start doing some of it themselves.
Research from the ILO and OECD points to changes in tasks and working conditions across many jobs. It cannot tell you what will happen in yours. Your own workflow is the place to start.
Try this 20-minute audit
Choose a recurring piece of work that someone relies on: perhaps a customer reply, a report or a weekly update. Take a page of notes.
- First 5 minutes: Write what the work is for and who uses it. For a weekly update: “The team lead can see what needs a decision.”
- Next 10 minutes: List the steps from request to result. Include gathering information, drafting, checking, handling exceptions and following up. Mark which steps are already changing at work, and what you have actually seen.
- Last 5 minutes: Circle one step worth investigating. Could a tool speed it up? Could a colleague do it themselves? Who would then check the result or handle the awkward cases?
Check whether the change helps
If your workplace permits it, try an approved AI tool on the circled step. Compare a few similar pieces of work before and after. Count the whole job: preparation, checking, corrections and hand-offs. Ask the person receiving it whether the result is useful. Keep confidential or personal data out of unapproved tools.
If you cannot run a test, ask that person what they now need from the work. Watch whether requests or responsibilities shift. Those observations count too.
Watch for a month, then decide
Over the next month, notice whether people still ask for the work, whether they do more of it themselves, and who now catches errors or makes decisions. Time saved in one step may not change the value of the whole role; an ILO review found that reported time savings do not necessarily translate into higher measured output, earnings or employment.
Then write down three things: what changed, what you still need to find out, and one sensible next move. You might improve your quality check, discuss a new expectation with your manager, or stop using a tool that creates more rework than it saves.
Keep your notes. The next time the workflow changes, you will have something concrete to compare. To turn that snapshot into a wider plan, use the ADAPTOR framework guide. If you are worried about demand for your whole role, Will AI Replace My Job? takes that question further.