90% of What You Do Will Be Eliminated

The Good News? This is a Huge Opportunity.

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Wandering Around Sparks Street and Parliament Hill After the AI Event

I was in Ottawa last week for an AI event with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

A full day of panels, breakouts, huge thinking, and honestly … pretty great food.

At some point during a session, this quote appeared on a slide.

90% of your skills just dropped to zero

Kent Beck is a super smart software engineer. The guy who invented Extreme Programming. When ChatGPT launched, he tried it and said:

“The value of 90% of my skills just dropped to 0. The leverage for the remaining 10% went up 1000x.”

I can’t stop thinking about this.

It’s terrifying.

And exhilarating.

When you think about it, a lot of that 90% is probably the grind (and not fun) anyway.

It’s the stuff that drains you. The tasks you do on autopilot.

Losing that part might be good news.

So what should you do?

There’s a lot of pressure right now to use AI.

On everything. As fast as possible.

Like AI fairy dust, you sprinkle on your problems and hope for the best.

But the smartest move is going back to basics first.

I know… not super sexy, but stick with me.

Try this

Grab a piece of paper and map one process.

Something simple, like how a new connection finds you on LinkedIn:

1. They see a post

2. They click your profile and connect

3. You reply and a conversation starts

4. You track them in your CRM

5. They opt in to your newsletter

6. You share frameworks, tools, ideas - at scale or one to one

See what’s actually there. Then figure out what each step needs:

• The reply: You or an assistant. Human. Always. (LinkedIn doesn’t like external plug-ins, plus this is the best part and opportunity. Connecting with new people.)

• The CRM tracking: Automation possibilities

• The newsletter: A content system to capture and send.

• The frameworks and tools: your 10%.

Then the biggest questions of all

If you offload the 90%... what do you do with that time?

Do you do more? Or do you do less?

Do something different?

And what’s that 10% that’s your super power? The one you can 1000x?

As I said, I can’t stop thinking about this and am still working through mine.

Do you know yours? Maybe you know both.

Either way, start brainstorming and let’s keep the discussion going.

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✈️ Carry On
with Pamela Wilton

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