If Your Business Can’t Compete With AI, Then Quit

Make no mistake. AI is going to take some jobs. It might even take entire industries and revolutionize the way we do business. If you’re worried about how your business will hold up in the coming era of machines, you aren’t alone. Your business isn’t immune, but it will require you to reconsider what you offer your customers. If your business can’t keep up and compete with AI initiatives and you aren’t willing to pivot with the times, it could be time to call it quits.

A lot of talk about AI borders on hysterical, but the good news is that machines don’t do everything better than humans. In fact, some see the coming days as “augmented intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence, forcing us to reconcile how we can stay relevant and what humans still bring to the table.

[Related Article: ML Operationalization: From What and Why? to How and Who?]

If you’re ready to reconsider your business operations, you could be in an excellent position to ride out the transition and come out just as competitive as ever. Let’s consider three industries that could become extinct to demonstrate how you could pivot in your own product or service.

If Your Service Involves Advice, Become a Teacher

Traditional advisory positions are set to disappear as the big data processing of machines becomes more widely available. Machines can take that data and present it directly to your customer without you ever having to crunch a number or enter a field on a spreadsheet.

If your business revolves around this type of advisory role, you’ll need to transition to teaching. No, that doesn’t mean you join a university or set foot back in your elementary school. Instead, your product will involve helping your client understand how machines came to the conclusions they did.

For example, think of insurance. AI has made risk management easier, but we still need a human to help us understand those conclusions and to offer advice for implementation. A fancy dashboard does nothing if someone doesn’t understand how to take those conclusions and run with them.

Humans also need to be present to form the right question. Big data processing won’t help if a business can’t find…