Episode 229: AI Will Lead to a Post-Employment World (...and That's Good!)

An interview with Matt Maier, Product Marketer and AI Enthusiast

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Who is Matt Maier?

Matt Maier is a product marketer and AI enthusiast from Irvine, California, with a background spanning the Air Force, aerospace, healthcare, and startup consulting. He reached out to me having heard a few of my other “AI hot takes” and was glad to provide his own predictions for the future of work in an AI world.

Episode highlights:

1. Employment as we know it is going away in 5 years thanks to AI

Matt believes that AI-powered automation is going to fundamentally change the rules of the game, and automate away all of the “grunt work” that people don’t even really want to do (but never had a choice before). This means there will be fewer employees, and companies will be less inclined to hire full-time people when they can use AI and targeted contractors.

2. But this isn’t all doom and gloom - it will give people time to pursue their passions

Matt says that we’re all traditionally trained to be employees, and this can stifle our ability to do the things we really care about. What could humans do with themselves if they had time to follow their passion and didn’t have to clock in for a 9-5 every day? This is an opportunity for us all to re-evaluate what we really want to do with our lives.

3. Even though AI can’t “think”, it can still unlock creativity

Whilst it’s true that the current generation of LLMs and diffusion models aren’t actually thinking, and they don’t know whether their ideas are good, Matt says they can still come up with valuable ideas. There’s an infinite possibility space based on all of the knowledge humans have generated, and no one has time to explore everything. AI can speed that up so that humans can make the final call based on more options.

4. People need to adapt, and change is coming faster than they think

Matt likens the upcoming changes to the fabric of work as akin to a tsunami, which starts off with some gentle waves and birds flying off before everything is suddenly underwater. Matt believes we’re at the stage of AI adoption where the metaphorical birds are flying away, and that now is the time to plan for the water rushing in.

5. These tools are only going to get better

Despite some predictions of model collapse and exorbitant energy costs stifling AI progress, Matt believes that these things are only going one way. He believes that we will find new sources of energy and new approaches to make generative AI smarter. AI-driven tools will increasingly be compressed and optimised, making them cheaper to run and accessible to more users.

Contact Matt

Find Matt on LinkedIn or drop him an email at Solo Scale AI.

Related episodes you should like:

• Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua)

• Embracing Change to Innovate in Product Management (Greg Coticchia, CEO @ Sopheon)

• The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful)

• Debbie Levitt's Hot Take - Democratising our Work Means AI is Going to Steal all our Jobs Sooner (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck")

• Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer)

• Andy Walters' Hot Take - We’re Soon Going to be Living in an AI-Assistant-First World (Andy Walters, CEO @ Emerge Haus & Generative AI Expert)

• Bjarte Rettedal's Hot Take - AI Models Should Be Under Public Ownership or Completely Transparent (Bjarte Rettedal, UX Designer)

• Reinventing the Future of Customer Success with Human-First AI (Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight)

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