Remember last year when everyone (including me) was repeating Scott Galloway’s quote: AI isn’t going to take your job. Someone who knows AI will. Well, turns out the adoption of AI in the workplace is a bit messier, and moving a bit faster, than we thought.
According to this recent Microsoft report, companies around the world are rapidly embracing new organizational models built around “hybrid” teams—a mix of humans and their “AI agent colleagues.” And, it will soon become the norm. In fact, 81% of company leaders surveyed say they expect AI agents to be “moderately or extensively integrated” into their organizations within the next 12 to 18 months. Within 2 to 5 years, the report predicts that every company will be somewhere on the path to AI integration.
How long will it take till your AI coworkers are brown-nosing your boss and vying for your promotion — for a fraction of your salary? Not long, it seems. Consumer brands are already experimenting with AI-led customer service and marketing. Take Benefit Cosmetics: their new AI tool has so perfectly captured their brand voice, they described it as “warm, witty, and human.” Presumably brands will no longer need the former (human) magazine beauty editor they hired to write their copy.
Media outlets once shy about embracing LLMs and enterprise AI, are now admitting to laying off staff to go “all-in on AI.” (Ahem, Business Insider.) TBH, it’s not like they have much choice — media is in dire straits. If our digital publishing sites don’t adopt and adapt, they will die. It’s inevitable that some copyeditors, writers, and editors (in that order) will lose their jobs in the coming months and years. Publishers have already leaned in heavily on AI for the other parts of the business. The Rebooting says many are using AI, or planning to use it, to streamline workflow, provide “audience insights,” and reduce “segmentation or churn.”
That seems all perfectly logical. Who doesn’t want to create efficiencies and reduce churn? But then I realized that we are the ones churning in this scenario; I churned a lot as a junior editor if I remember correctly. Considering the alternative, churning might not be so bad.
Then I came across the Trends in Artificial Intelligence report from Bond Capital. (Thanks Kathy!) It’s dense, but one section in particular stopped me cold. It outlined what AI will be capable of now, in five years, and in ten years—and frankly, it freaked. me. out. Now I’m not just worried about the future of editors. I’m worried about the future of the human race. Before you roll your eyes too hard, take a look (I edited for brevity; the full report is here):
- AI Now: Will “write or edit anything: emails, essays, contracts, poems, code” … “instantly and fluently”
- AI in 5 years: Will “create full-length films” with “scripts characters, scenes” and “collaborate creatively like a partner” to “co-writing novels, music, production, fashion design”
- AI in 10 years: Will “shape public debate and policy,” and “moderate forums, propose laws, and balance competing interests”
Eek! Where are the journalists in 2035? The artists? The lawmakers? (Not to mention the recruiters and career coaches!)
So what’s next? Who’s next? I wish I had the answer. And for all the experts and scientists weighing in, no one really knows how AI will reshape our industry—or the workplace as a whole. But one thing’s for sure: the AI avalanche is coming. It’s barreling toward us, whether we like it or not. Our best bet? Stay informed. Stay curious. Stay flexible. And try to revel in this brief, extraordinary moment while human creativity is still queen.
Chandra Turner is an editorial recruiter and career coach and the founder of The Talent Fairy.
