Introduction
A rollercoaster week.
Had some quite angry people!
If you are still here then you are in a good place – you aren’t burying your head in the sand!
In this final section we look at what I believe to be the best reaction to AI.
We’ll get rolling right after this word from our sponsor.
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Let’s get started:
Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em
AI is 100% coming for jobs and entire industries.
Some will fall quickly. Others will take time.
We can (roughly) guess that those at risk are roles that are non-physical, algorithmic and non-empathetic.
This is true of:
- individual jobs
- whole companies
- entire industries
Over the last couple of Parts we’ve looked at how to insulate and up-skill.
Primarily it’s been defensive- trying to keep the status quo.
In this Part we’re looking at going beyond and carving our your own space.
Start with Value
My number one recommendation is to work out what value you can create and how to sell it.
This could be a product or service, freelancing or building a big business, digital or physical. It doesn’t really matter.
What matters is finding something that people value and they’ll be willing to pay you for.
Sounds simple. But that’s the basic foundation of business.
AI does not fundamentally change this. Here’s a video around this topic if helpful:
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7343216577233308960?lang=en-GB&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fpromptentrepreneur.beehiiv.com%2Fp%2Fai-and-the-future-of-work-part-5
Why does having your own business protect you from AI?
It affords you flexibility.
You, as someone who sees the importance of AI, will be able to pivot and adjust as required.
If you are in a job this is much harder to do – there are always going to be limits to how much you flex.
With your own business though you are in control.
You are able to adapt and protect the space you’ve carved out because of this control.
You don’t even need to quit your job. In fact I recommend building something on the side and maintaining the job, at least initially.
Diversification
Focus also on setting up multiple streams of income.
One of these streams, initially, can be your job. It’ll be the largest stream at first.
Over time you supplement this – maybe with freelance or consulting work – and start to reduce hours in the 9-5.
And you build a wide base of income streams.
Why is this important? Again, faced with the uncertainty of AI we want optionality. Keep options open.
Prompt Entrepreneur right now has the following revenue streams:
- high-ticket consulting and training with companies
- course and community sales
- low-ticket digital item sales
- Premium subscriptions
- beehiiv Boost revenue
- Kindle book sales
- newsletter sponsorships
- social media promotions
- social media direct payments
And probably some others I’ve forgotten.
Take one away? Not a problem. There are multiple other streams that can be focused on to replace the income.
This is because we don’t know the future. We never can. And with AI in play this is doubly so.
Having a broad base allows for a more stable foundation. I assume one or more of these will collapse at some point! And we’ll deal with it!
A caveat here – don’t try and deploy all of these all at once. Instead lock each element in place, systematise and then move on.
My recommended order is:
- service offering for cash
- low cost digital product
- high cost digital product
All by social media for traffic (or ads if you have cash) and a newsletter for nurturing and closing sales.
Obviously the exact application depends on your niche, audience and customers!
What about AI then?
AI can supplement what you build.
You still need to work out what the business is. And do all the normal things you’d need to in order to build a successful business.
But AI can accelerate everything.
Here’s a video we me ranting about this:
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7343211610598542624?lang=en-GB&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fpromptentrepreneur.beehiiv.com%2Fp%2Fai-and-the-future-of-work-part-5
Think of AI as an accelerant. By itself it doesn’t do much. But add it to a valuable process and it’ll move faster, burn brighter and kick you into the atmosphere.
Which business to start then?
Big question!
I’ve written several guides on this before and in fact an entire Niche Navigator course.
Let’s use a quick prompt to get us started on this process:
As as a business strategist
Generate 5 potential business ideas based on my expertise and the stipulations below
My expertise is [enter main valuable expertise]
The business ideas should:
- be resistant to AI by preffering physical to digital, dealing in randomness rather than problems that can be easily reduced to an algorithm, relying on human empathy and communication
- have multiple diverse potential streams of income (list them) in order to diversify against AI's yet unknown impact on the marketThis prompt pulls together what we’ve been discussing in the last few Parts.
Simply add a valuable expertise that you have. I recommend using one expertise here at a time.
I used “baking” as an example and ChatGPT created a long list of possibilities:
Plenty here to pick and choose from, all with a skew that means they are safer from AI.