🤖 The Great Skill Shift 🤖

🤦 AI-yay-yay - another AI piece?! Yes.

APA’s Work in America survey results show that nearly 4 out of 10 U.S. workers (38%) are worried AI may make some, or all, of their job duties obsolete in the future.

But this is the tech world we live in, sometimes your skills are hot and sometimes they’re not. That being said, the reskilling revolution continues.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Let's look at how the skills landscape is evolving.

Plot twist: It's not about competing with AI, it's about becoming its BFF. Think of AI as that overachieving intern who's great at grunt work but needs your creative genius to truly shine.

Top 5 Skills Losing Ground to AI in 2024

As AI continues to evolve, certain skills are becoming less in-demand. Here are some roles that freelancers might want to pivot away from:

1. 📊 Basic data entry: With AI's ability to quickly and accurately process large amounts of data, manual data entry is becoming increasingly automated.

2. 🔤 Simple content creation: AI-powered writing tools are now capable of producing basic articles, product descriptions, and social media posts, reducing demand for entry-level content creation.

3. 🖼️ Stock image creation: As AI image generators improve, the market for generic stock photos and simple graphic design is shrinking.

4. 📞 Basic customer service: Chatbots and AI-powered customer service systems are handling an increasing number of routine inquiries and support tasks.

5. 🔎 Elementary market research: AI tools can now gather, analyze, and present basic market data more efficiently than human researchers for straightforward projects.

These roles primarily involve repetitive, rule-based tasks that AI can perform quickly and accurately. Freelancers in these fields may need to upskill or transition to more complex, nuanced versions of their work that still require human insight and creativity.

Top 5 AI-Influenced Skills for Freelancers in 2024

Looking at industry reports and trends, here are some emerging roles that will continue to be in high demand:

1. ✨ Hyper-personalization specialists: Experts who can leverage AI to create highly individualized user experiences across various platforms and services.

2. ❤️ AI ethics consultants: Professionals who ensure AI systems are developed and deployed ethically, addressing issues like bias, privacy, and transparency.

3. 🤝 Human-AI collaboration managers: Specialists who optimize workflows between human teams and AI systems, ensuring efficient and effective integration.

4. 🗣️ AI prompt engineers: Experts in crafting precise and effective prompts to get the best results from large language models and other AI tools.

5. 🎨 AI-human interface designers: UX/UI professionals who create intuitive interfaces for AI tools, making them accessible to users without technical backgrounds.

These roles combine technical knowledge with uniquely human skills like empathy, ethical reasoning, and creative problem-solving, making them resilient in the face of increasing automation.

How to Level Up Your AI Game

1. 🤗 Embrace the machines: Start using AI tools in your workflow. Start small and grow.

2. 📚️ Take an AI course: Coursera and edX have great options. Bonus points for cohorted learning programs for built-in accountability.

3. ❤️ Join AI communities: Reddit and Discord have active AI groups. Warning: prepare for both mind-blowing insights and terrible AI puns.

4. 🧪 Experiment: Try integrating AI into your projects. I put a sticky note on my monitor reminding me “Can AI do this?”

5. 📰 Stay informed: Follow AI news and developments. It moves fast.

The Bottom Line

AI isn't here to steal your job, it's here to make you superhuman. Embrace it, learn it, use it to your advantage. Because in the future, the most valuable skill will be knowing how to make AI work for you, not the other way around.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go train Claude on better dad jokes and puns before my supply runs dry.

What AI skills are you working on? Drop me a message with your fav new use case.

That’s all for now, pals. See ya next week.

Eryn