Note: This post is by Dennis Shiao, Founder of Attention Retention.
The world changed when ChatGPT was released to the public on November 30, 2022. Think things moved quickly over the past 12 months? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
It’s exciting and scary at the same time. No one has all the answers, so I focus on asking the right questions.
Questions like:
- How should I be thinking about AI?
- What changes do I need to make in my business and career?
A Framework to Think About AI
I’ve come up with a framework to help. I call it the A4 Framework:
- Assess
- Anticipate
- Act
- Adjust
Let’s take them one by one.
Assess
You want to be aware of technological developments and have hands-on experience with the technology. I read articles that detail AI developments: startups, new technologies, how governments are thinking about regulation, use cases, potential harms, etc.
I also spend time experimenting with ChatGPT. I haven’t gone too deep, but I need to go deep enough to be comfortable making high-level assessments.
Here’s one prediction that comes out of that:
Whatever role you’re in today, it will be completely different one year from today, whether you initiated that change or not.
That means you won’t be working for the same company or you won’t have the same job title.
Anticipate
Next you need to sense (or even predict) what changes are coming your way. I run a solo marketing agency and anticipate a decline in paid writing assignments.
Businesses that hired me to write blog posts, articles and white papers in the past aren’t asking me to write more of them. Some of those businesses have paused their content marketing efforts in order to assess how they will adapt to AI.
Others might be using AI in lieu of freelance writers.
Act
Once you’ve assessed and anticipated, what actions do you take based on that. I’m currently focused on consulting engagements where I help with marketing strategy (e.g., an “Interim Head of Content” role).
This includes the execution (i.e., content creation), but I lead first with the strategy consulting. The value I provide is my advice, recommendations and plans. And yes, if I’m asked to execute on those plans, that’s included.
Adjust
The best-laid plans are subject to change. There can be monumental changes or small changes. A small change might affect just your industry. You might have to re-assess and re-anticipate, then make small changes.
Or, you might need to start from scratch and disrupt yourself again.
Conclusion
The key is not just to be open to change. It’s to embrace change, because change is here to stay. In other words, instead of letting change affect you, be proactive and initiate the change.
Disrupt yourself.