3 Skills I'd Learn In the Age of AI — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00What are the skills that you should
- 0:01learn in order to thrive in a post AI
- 0:03world? I think they fall in three camps.
- 0:05The first one is really simple.
- 0:08The skill of using AI.
- 0:09Easy. Stay on the cutting edge. Stop
- 0:11using the free version of ChatGPT. Find
- 0:13accounts to follow on Twitter cuz
- 0:14Twitter is where the conversation is
- 0:15happening about AI. If you're serious
- 0:16about leveling up in AI and you're not
- 0:18on Twitter like looking at it every day,
- 0:19I think that's a mistake personally cuz
- 0:21that's where the conversation is
- 0:22happening. It's not to say you have to
- 0:23play with every new AI tool that comes
- 0:24out. It keeps you on the front lines of
- 0:27the conversation. We are sitting right
- 0:29now through an insanely huge
- 0:30technological shift. Like getting
- 0:32involved in the in AI using it every
- 0:33day, understanding like what is Claude
- 0:35code, what is Codex, what's Perplexity
- 0:37up to, who are the interesting people to
- 0:39follow in the AI space. When OpenAI or
- 0:41when Google or when Anthropic is doing
- 0:43like their annual conferences and stuff
- 0:45where they're explaining what's going
- 0:46on. Can you watch some of these talks?
- 0:48Can you understand what's actually
- 0:50happening? And instead of just sort of
- 0:51sitting there and trying to understand
- 0:52it, can you figure out how you can apply
- 0:54this amazing new technology to your
- 0:56business or your life or your work,
- 0:58whatever that thing might be. Again,
- 0:59it's sort of like being early to the
- 1:00internet. Most businesses in the world
- 1:02didn't have websites for a very long
- 1:03time and the ones who decided to create
- 1:05websites,
- 1:06they won. I think another thing I would
- 1:08say for this is
- 1:10get
- 1:11as close to revenue generation as
- 1:14possible. When it comes to any kind of
- 1:16job, there's sort of like three prongs
- 1:18of it. Number one is making the money.
- 1:19Number two is doing the work. And number
- 1:22three is, shall we say, operating. Slash
- 1:25admin. Now, with whatever your job
- 1:27currently is, for most people it is
- 1:29probably in number two or in number
- 1:31three. It's doing the thing. If you're a
- 1:33management consultant, your job is
- 1:34probably, when you're more junior,
- 1:36making the PowerPoint slides, coming up
- 1:37with the strategy, using the their
- 1:40Microsoft Copilot or whatever AI tool
- 1:41they've got to query the database,
- 1:43getting on calls with experts in the
- 1:44field and putting together a PowerPoint
- 1:46presentation. That is the doing of the
- 1:48work. You could be in the back office or
- 1:49you could be working in HR. Um or you
- 1:51could be working in IT or like admin and
- 1:53stuff. Where your job is to sort of
- 1:55administer the work, but your job is
- 1:57probably not making the money, i.e.
- 1:59winning the work. In a post-AI world, I
- 2:02think doing the work will become an AI
- 2:04thing. Administering and operating the
- 2:05work will increasingly become an AI
- 2:07thing, but there will always be a need
- 2:09for people to actually win the work, to
- 2:11actually make the money. This is why
- 2:13partners at accounting firms and
- 2:15management consulting firms and law
- 2:16firms get paid loads of money. It's not
- 2:17because they are better at making
- 2:18PowerPoint slides than the associates,
- 2:20it's because they have the
- 2:21relationships. They spend time on the
- 2:22golf course, they spend time wining and
- 2:23dining dining clients to the point that
- 2:25they can bring new clients into the
- 2:26firm. In a world where our AI overlords
- 2:28take over, there will still need to be
- 2:29some kind of commerce happening, and the
- 2:32people who are closest to revenue
- 2:34generation are the people who are the
- 2:36safest. I have a business. I have about
- 2:3720 team members in my business. Some of
- 2:39them are cost centers, they cost the
- 2:41business money, and some of them are
- 2:42profit centers, they make the business
- 2:44money. Who do you think is more likely
- 2:45to stay around if the business goes
- 2:47through difficult times? If you can find
- 2:48a way to generate money for your own
- 2:50business or for your employer, you are
- 2:52way more likely to stay around in the
- 2:53world of AI and be way more valuable
- 2:55compared to someone who is on the doing
- 2:57of the work or on the operation side.
- 2:58Like, for example, we're just about to
- 2:59hire a director of client success.
- 3:01Client success or customer success is
- 3:03generally a cost center for most
- 3:05businesses, but if the business is good,
- 3:07the leader of that department turns it
- 3:08into a profit center. So, instead of
- 3:10thinking of yourself as like, "I'm the
- 3:11person answering customer support." It's
- 3:13like, "No, no, that's just you know,
- 3:14that's a cost center. That's easily
- 3:15automatable with AI these days.
- 3:16Everyone's automating that." But, if you
- 3:19can be the one to orchestrate a system
- 3:20that causes customers to not cancel
- 3:23their memberships or to stay and pay the
- 3:25money and pay the company money a little
- 3:26bit longer, you're now touching revenue
- 3:29generation, and that makes you insanely
- 3:30valuable with whatever you do now and
- 3:32whatever you're going to do in the
- 3:33future. Generating the revenue is way
- 3:34harder than doing the work, and I wish
- 3:37more people knew this. Everyone working
- 3:38in anything other than sales and
- 3:39marketing, you probably think of sales
- 3:40and marketing as being scammy and being
- 3:42like, "Oh my god, sleazy. I don't I
- 3:43don't want to do that." But, the more
- 3:45you can get yourself as close to the
- 3:46revenue generation as possible, the more
- 3:48likely you are to thrive in a post-AI
- 3:49world. And so, coming back to this,
- 3:51yeah, if you learn how to use AI
- 3:52properly and you're using AI to generate
- 3:55literally generate money for your
- 3:56business by being on the sales and
- 3:58marketing end or something like that,
- 4:00you are way, way, way more likely to
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- 5:24back to it. The final thing I would say
- 5:26as a skill, again, everyone talks about
- 5:27this, but it's so true, personal
- 5:28branding. It's all well and good being
- 5:30someone who is really good at AI and who
- 5:32generates revenue, but you also want to
- 5:34be known for being the person who's
- 5:36really good at AI and really good at
- 5:37generating revenue. You want to be known
- 5:39internally within your own company,
- 5:40let's say you work in a big corporation,
- 5:41you know the power of like stakeholder
- 5:42management and the power of like
- 5:43visibility and how like your promotion
- 5:45doesn't come from how good you actually
- 5:47are, but how good your manager thinks
- 5:49you are, and how good your manager's
- 5:50manager thinks you are. No human in
- 5:52their brain can actually understand the
- 5:53context behind what you're actually
- 5:54doing. But, if your reputation is
- 5:56someone who gets things done and makes
- 5:57the company money and is pleasure to
- 5:59work with, you're way more likely to
- 6:00succeed in whatever your line of work
- 6:02is. And so, that's personal branding,
- 6:03just within the context of your
- 6:04business. But, what if you [music] were
- 6:05to able to do personal branding outside
- 6:07of just the context of your business?
- 6:08What if you were able to create content
- 6:09on LinkedIn explaining how you're using
- 6:12AI to generate revenue for your company?
- 6:13The company's happy because it's like
- 6:15they get extra press. You're happy
- 6:16because now your personal brand is
- 6:17growing. What if you were to write a
- 6:18newsletter talking about behind the
- 6:20scenes of working in whatever the
- 6:21business or area or job that you're
- 6:22working in? What if you were to start a
- 6:24YouTube channel where you're giving
- 6:25people advice and sharing your own
- 6:26experiences and stuff? Sure, not
- 6:27everyone's going to vibe with it, but
- 6:29you know, case in point right now, you
- 6:30are watching this video. Because I've
- 6:31spent the last 10 years just making
- 6:33up on the internet and posting it, and
- 6:34some people find it useful, some people
- 6:35don't, some people leave nasty comments,
- 6:37some people say nice things, but either
- 6:39way, for someone with a personal brand,
- 6:41someone who is known for being competent
- 6:43at like in a particular area, it is a
- 6:45lot easier to thrive in a post-AI world
- 6:47because ultimately, even though AI might
- 6:49be the one doing the work, it will be
- 6:50humans who are making the decisions
- 6:51about where to spend money, where to
- 6:53allocate resources, and where the AI is
- 6:54going to be pointed. For example, you
- 6:57were to build a personal brand being
- 6:58known as like the the go-to person for,
- 7:01I don't know, AI for accountants. And a
- 7:03human is holding a conference and run it
- 7:05organizing a conference on like for
- 7:07accountants. And they're thinking, "Oh,
- 7:09we really need to talk about AI because
- 7:10everyone's talking about this."
- 7:12Whose name's going to come to mind? Is
- 7:13it going to be some random person or is
- 7:14it going to be you? Because you have
- 7:15built a personal brand and a
- 7:16professional reputation around being a
- 7:18sort of thought leader in that space.
- 7:20And it's not that hard to be a thought
- 7:21leader in the space. I think the old
- 7:22school way of of doing this is thinking
- 7:24you need a credential and then you're
- 7:26allowed to teach, or you need experience
- 7:27and then you're allowed to teach, or you
- 7:29have some form of credibility and then
- 7:31you start teaching. But, in the new
- 7:32world, and this has been true for like
- 7:3310-plus years, so it's not that new, but
- 7:35it seems to be new to a lot of people I
- 7:36speak to. In the new world, it's like by
- 7:38virtue of doing the teaching, that is
- 7:40how people think you're legit. I do not
- 7:41have any qualifications to teach you
- 7:43about productivity. I do not have any
- 7:44like there's no badge of
- 7:46There's no credibility here. There's no
- 7:48There's no badge. There's no letters on
- 7:49the CV. Yeah, I was a freaking doctor.
- 7:51Maybe
- 7:51Okay, if you're a doctor, then giving
- 7:53health advice is It's like a different
- 7:54thing. But like I have built a personal
- 7:55brand being known as the productivity
- 7:56guy because I was just making helpful
- 7:58videos talking about how like my
- 8:00productivity tips. Anyone could do that.
- 8:02Right now, you starting
- 8:03you could get really good at using AI
- 8:04because we're still early and most
- 8:06people suck at doing it. You could
- 8:08figure out how to get close as close to
- 8:09the revenue generation as possible and
- 8:11you could start sharing content online
- 8:12about what you're doing. Obviously,
- 8:14don't give away any trade secrets, but
- 8:15just be helpful to others. Be a teacher.
- 8:16Personal branding when you're doing it
- 8:18on the internet is really just about
- 8:19being a teacher. Except instead of
- 8:20teaching to a lecture hall of like five
- 8:22or six or seven or 30 or even 100
- 8:23people, you're posting stuff for free on
- 8:25the internet, which is able to be
- 8:26watched by anyone anywhere in the world.
- 8:28And then they view you as a thought
- 8:29leader in that subject, which means you
- 8:30stand out in their mind, which means
- 8:32again in a post-AI world where our AI
- 8:33overlords are like doing all the work,
- 8:35the human will still think of you in
- 8:36their mind when they think of Oh, I need
- 8:37someone to talk about accounting.
- 8:38Hopefully, a human at some random
- 8:40company will think, Oh, we want to do a
- 8:42talk about productivity. Oh, I like Oh,
- 8:43I used to watch his videos back in the
- 8:44day. Used to. So, hopefully, they might
- 8:46reach out to me and be like, "Hey, do
- 8:47you want to be paid 100 grand to give a
- 8:48talk about this thing?" Which has
- 8:49happened in the past. The power of being
- 8:51known for being the person who's
- 8:52competent at the thing is insanely
- 8:54valuable in a post-AI world. Now, when
- 8:55it comes to personal branding, just
- 8:57double-click on this. There's sort of
- 8:58two ways of doing this. Number one is
- 9:00you have a word of mouth personal brand.
- 9:03You are known amongst people by word of
- 9:06mouth as being really good at doing a
- 9:08particular thing. I was recently trying
- 9:09to hire an accountant and I messaged
- 9:10some of my entrepreneur friends in Hong
- 9:11Kong being like, "Hey, anyone know an
- 9:12accountant in Hong Kong?" And they
- 9:13recommended this guy Pierre at the firm
- 9:15Acclime. I was like, "Great." I'd never
- 9:17heard of him, never heard of the firm,
- 9:18but the fact that it came from a
- 9:19recommendation from a trusted person.
- 9:21And I was like, "Great." I hung out with
- 9:22Pierre and now we're going to sign on
- 9:23with their firm. Fantastic. Pierre and
- 9:25his firm have a good word of mouth
- 9:27reputation. Then there is, for example,
- 9:29the online personal brand where it's
- 9:31sort of like I mean, it's hard to
- 9:32imagine in this accounting example, but
- 9:33if I were to search Accountants Hong
- 9:35Kong, I suspect they're doing some level
- 9:36of search engine optimization to try and
- 9:38get to the top of the thing. Maybe they
- 9:39have an Instagram page or a YouTube
- 9:40channel where they're giving advice. And
- 9:42maybe I come across their videos and I'm
- 9:43like, "Oh, sick. These guys know what
- 9:44they're talking about. Oh, I want to
- 9:45work with them. Amazing." When I was
- 9:47searching for like, you know, what's the
- 9:48tax situation in like Singapore versus
- 9:49Dubai versus like Malaysia versus like
- 9:51Hong Kong, I came across this guy called
- 9:52Andrew Henderson who makes videos on on
- 9:54a YouTube channel called Nomad
- 9:55Capitalist. And I was like, "Oh, his
- 9:56videos are good. They tell you all about
- 9:58like high net worth tax strategies and
- 10:00like that." And we paid $25,000 to
- 10:01work with his team. That is an online
- 10:04personal brand. And so, this is not like
- 10:06an either/or situation. It's not like
- 10:07you can have a word-of-mouth personal
- 10:08brand or an online personal brand.
- 10:10Ideally, you want a personal brand,
- 10:12i.e., a professional reputation that is
- 10:13genuinely looked upon with favor amongst
- 10:16the people that are in your in your
- 10:18industry. You want to be known as like,
- 10:19"Oh, James is an amazing accountant." or
- 10:20like, "Jack's an amazing IT person." or
- 10:22like, "Harry's an amazing developer."
- 10:24But it puts fuel on the fire if this
- 10:26sphere of influence you have goes beyond
- 10:28pure word-of-mouth and actually starts
- 10:30hitting the, shall we say, mass market.
- 10:32And even then, it doesn't have to be the
- 10:32mass market. It's not like you're trying
- 10:33to be famous. You're not trying to be
- 10:34like Brad Pitt or like Jennifer Aniston
- 10:36or whatever. You're just trying to be
- 10:37known within your niche. These are sort
- 10:38of like the the word-of-mouth. These are
- 10:39the people that know you in person. And
- 10:41these are the people within your niche
- 10:42that know you online.
- 10:44And then, these are total strangers that
- 10:45have nothing to do with your niche. And
- 10:47I think this is kind of pointless, but
- 10:48this is a great place to be. And this is
- 10:50a great place to be. I mean, you
- 10:51probably don't want to dance on TikTok
- 10:52to get known by random strangers on the
- 10:53internet, but you do want to be famous
- 10:55famous, niche famous to someone who's in
- 10:57your industry. Let's say we're using the
- 10:59management consultant example. If you're
- 11:00known as like, "Wow, this person's
- 11:02really good at like, you know,
- 11:03consulting. They did an amazing job for
- 11:05blah blah blah blah blah blah with
- 11:06company X, Y, and Z." And you give a
- 11:07talk at a conference of other people who
- 11:09are in that industry, you're increasing
- 11:11your personal brand, your personal
- 11:12reputation in that particular space,
- 11:13right? That would be uncontroversial.
- 11:14Doing it on LinkedIn is the same thing.
- 11:15It's just you're doing it online. And
- 11:17like a random person on the street is
- 11:18probably not going to read your LinkedIn
- 11:19posts about how you increased lifetime
- 11:22value for, I don't know, enterprise
- 11:23customers working with British Telecom
- 11:25or whatever. They probably won't. But
- 11:27someone in your industry would read that
- 11:28because it's what they care about. It's
- 11:30just really valuable to be known in your
- 11:31industry to people that know you in
- 11:32person and also to people that haven't
- 11:34yet met you in person as like a solid
- 11:36stellar go-to person who is great at
- 11:38what they do, delivers on time, delivers
- 11:40well, is a pleasure to work with, and
- 11:41shares freely what they're learning so
- 11:43that others can benefit from it. My
- 11:44whole take is that basically everyone
- 11:45should be a sales guy. A job is where
- 11:46you are working for a business, right?
- 11:47What does a business exist to do? A
- 11:48business exists to serve customers and
- 11:50make money while doing it. What does
- 11:51every business struggle with? Making
- 11:52money. What does every business want
- 11:53more of? More customers. Like the only
- 11:54reason the reason the business is paying
- 11:56you is because there is some kind of
- 11:57connection between the work you do and
- 11:59how much money it makes to the business.
- 12:00And the only reason they continue to pay
- 12:01you is because what you do ends up
- 12:03costing them less than the amount that
- 12:04you're making them. And the more
- 12:05explicit you can make that connection,
- 12:07the more you are aware of that
- 12:08connection itself, the more leverage you
- 12:10have to be able to negotiate raises, to
- 12:11be able to switch jobs, to be able to
- 12:12start your own business cuz you know
- 12:14exactly how much you are worth. Sales
- 12:15feels like a dirty word to a lot of
- 12:17people, but sales is literally what
- 12:18keeps the economy alive. The highest
- 12:19paid people in a company often are the
- 12:21sales people, not necessarily even the
- 12:22CEO. Often the sales people get paid
- 12:24more than the CEO does because they're
- 12:25literally bringing in the money.
- 12:26Um the most valuable people in the
- 12:28company are the ones who are generating
- 12:30the most revenue. With the exception of
- 12:31like if it's a if if the product side of
- 12:33the business is really hard and you're
- 12:34like a genius in product, then I sure
- 12:35you're very valuable as well, but you're
- 12:36valuable not because you're making an
- 12:38amazing product but because that amazing
- 12:39product causes the business to make a
- 12:40ton of money. It all comes down to
- 12:41how valuable are you at generating money
- 12:43for the business that you work in,
- 12:45whether it's your own business or
- 12:45someone else's. And it's just an
- 12:47unfortunate truth that that is just like
- 12:48how capitalism works. And this is what
- 12:50someone's market value is based on. It's
- 12:51like when you when you think how much to
- 12:52pay someone a salary, it's based on the
- 12:54market rate, right? What's the market
- 12:55rate based on? It's based on supply and
- 12:56demand. The demand for people is higher
- 12:58when they can make more money.
- 13:00I don't know. I think the closer you get
- 13:01to revenue generation and the less
- 13:02people can have like a fear or an echo
- 13:04or discomfort with the idea of sales and
- 13:05the idea of money, the easier it is to
- 13:07stay competitive in a post-AI world,
- 13:09even in a pre-AI world, to be honest. So
- 13:11I think that get closest to revenue
- 13:12generation as possible. Honestly, we
- 13:14could summarize that all as sales. Sales
- 13:15doesn't have to be getting on the
- 13:16customers on the phone and cold calling
- 13:18them. Sales is like your ability to
- 13:19express ideas to your team, your ability
- 13:21to get buy-in from your team about an
- 13:23idea that you have, your ability to keep
- 13:24everyone aligned, your your to negotiate
- 13:25with your manager or your manager's
- 13:26manager, your ability to manage up, your
- 13:28ability to manage down, just an insanely
- 13:30valuable skill set. And it will stay
- 13:31that way even in a post-AI world. Unlike
- 13:33the skill set of accounting, even in
- 13:34medicine. Couple of my friends are
- 13:36doctors from back in my back in my
- 13:37doctor days, even the skill of being a
- 13:39doctor is now being kind of democratized
- 13:41by AI where the ambient listening
- 13:42devices and like the diagnosis the AI is
- 13:45considering is doing a better job than
- 13:47most doctors at diagnosing the patients.
- 13:49This is already happening and it is the
- 13:51worst it is ever going to be right now.
- 13:52It's only going to get better. In a
- 13:53world where that is that that's
- 13:55happening and the AI is like a genius
- 13:57level person that can just do anything,
- 13:58I think sales is still sales, convincing
- 14:00another human to part with their cash
- 14:02and convincing them that like what you
- 14:03or your business or your career or your
- 14:04job or whatever your thing is, that's
- 14:06just almost like the only valuable the
- 14:08only thing that is still left in this
- 14:09world. Now, if you've gotten to the end
- 14:11of this video and you are serious about
- 14:12leveling up in AI and becoming an
- 14:13absolute AI fiend, an AI demon, then
- 14:15check out this video over here. This is
- 14:16my AI Yes, it's an introduction to using
- 14:18cloud code, but it's way more than that.
- 14:20And I've had messages from lots of
- 14:21friends and team members saying that
- 14:22just watching that video gave them the
- 14:23firmware update mindset shift that they
- 14:25needed to actually start taking AI
- 14:27seriously and it's the that video, from
- 14:30what I've heard from friends and team
- 14:31members, has changed people's lives. So,
- 14:32check out that video over here. Thank
- 14:34you for watching. See you next time.
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This page contains the full transcript of 3 Skills I'd Learn In the Age of AI by Ali Abdaal, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,966 words across 570 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.
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