In a world being changed by AI: what is your value?

 In an age of rapid AI advancements, it’s more important than ever to ask ourselves: “What is my unique value?”

AI is transforming industries and jobs, but people are feeling more disengaged than ever at work and not thriving outside work and in life more broadly.  We are at a precipice.  Will  AI be able to re-energise how we feel about work, help us be less lonely, have more time to spend time with the people we love and doing the things we find joy in, or will it further disengage us, stripping out everything that is human?

As a coaching consultant, I’m acutely aware of the impact of AI on my profession.  On the one hand I can knock out a presentation even quicker than I ever could before (this was my super powers even prior to AI) and leaders and professionals can turn to AI for advice on navigating their organisation, their work and their team members.  In fact, I was surprised to read that using AI for personal development is now its most popular usage in 2025.  It made me reflect, if this content is readily available 24 x 7, in a device that is almost surgically attached to us, where is my value?

The value conversation isn’t new

The value conversation isn’t new, many functions in organisations and roles have always been challenged to demonstrate their value.  I worked a lot with HR functions in my consulting career and the problem these teams were trying to solve was demonstrating the value they added to an organisation.  The barrier for HR was the evolution and uncertainty of its role in an organisation and being able to demonstrate their value.  AI will have certainly impacted this part of the organisation, but as with other roles, it will be questionably positive.  It may be making the teams more efficient, but it might also be stripping out the ‘human’ parts of the work which draws many people into the profession, because they like helping people.

Why does this question matter?

Why does it matter that we recognise our value?  Why does it matter now, with the speed of AI advancements.  I think it matters because it affects how we see AI, it matters because it affects whether we fear or we embrace it.  It matters because many people already struggle with low self-esteem and a lack of confidence.

I use AI in my personal and  professional life.  I use AI in meetings and it makes life easier for me to track actions and see the themes and decisions that come out of meetings.  I use AI in my personal life to get suggestions for meal planning to ensure that we maintain healthy balanced nutrition, even when I’m busy, it takes the thinking out of the weekly food shop for me.

At the moment, AI is great at data processing and pattern recognition but its not so great at emotional intelligence and nuanced decision-making.  AI challenges us to clarify our own unique strengths and focus on what can’t be automated.  It forces us to ask ourselves, “Where do I add human value that technology cannot replace?”.

Identifying Unique Human Value

I know from trying to do this for myself and supporting clients, it isn’t easy to recognise the skills we bring to the table.  Even more looking at these skills and assessing how automatable or how irreplaceable they are. 

If I told you, AI can’t do emotion, complexity, build relationships, or be original or creative, adapt to quick changes – does that help you identify your uniqueness?

How are you adapting to AI and where are your irreplaceable contributions?

As a leader or someone embracing change themselves and supporting others to do the same we have a responsibility to adapt our behaviour to utilise AI and encourage others to do the same. 

To do so, we need to focus on the uniquely human behaviour of trust.  Understanding people’s fears, perhaps that they won’t be able to adapt and will lose their jobs or have to reskill. 

We also need to focus on building people’s self-esteem and confidence that they can explore AI and experiment with it.

We then need to give people the time to innovate and be creative and foster the conditions for them to do so.  In a world where everything should have been done yesterday and there is a pressure on efficiency and productivity, we know that these high stress environments are not the conditions that our brains best innovate or create within.  How can we use AI to build out MORE quality time so we can do deeper work?

As always though as a leader it has to start with the self, and I leave you with this, ‘in a world where AI is here to stay, our greatest value lies in what makes us irreplaceably human’.

What is your unique value, and how are you demonstrating it today?

I am a coaching consultant working with founders and leaders,

developing a tool that helps individuals and teams to assess their skills and to analyse these based on their ‘humanness and irreplaceability’ and where they can be AI supported or AI adapted.  If you’re a leader and you know that you need to start to embrace AI.  You know that as an organisation you need to deliver more but there is no capital to invest in technology or resource.  Your team is overwhelmed and you risk some burning out.  You sense that they know that AI might be on the horizon and they fear that they will loose their jobs or need to change.   I can support your team to explore AI in a safe environment where they can feel empowered to utilise it and explore the benefits for themselves, they can also grow in confidence in their skills and uniqueness.  Giving you a team that is excited about embracing AI and more engaged and motivated than ever!