With the emergence of GPT 3 and 4, you need to learn how to compete with AI for your job. AI is here to stay and will replace anyone who doesn’t keep up with the development.
Whether you find AI threatening or not, it will impact your career, hence the need to learn how to compete in areas where you can do better than these tools.
How Much Threat Does AI Pose to My Freelancer Job?
According to a report on the future of work by McKinsey Global Institute, about 73 million US jobs could be lost to automation by 2030. The same report eases your fears by proposing that the same technology will create new opportunities for skilled labor in the country.
One of the anticipated benefits of AI integration into the workplace is improving employee productivity. Think of how many repetitive tasks AI can help you eliminate as a freelancer.
That effectively translates into improved productivity on your part. If you think about it, you can fit more clients into your schedule and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
But as you may have heard many experts say, you cannot thrive until you adapt to the changes brought by AI. Here is how you adapt and remain relevant in the digital age.
Be Proactive In Capturing New Opportunities
The fact that you are already researching how to survive the rise of AI shows that you are proactive. Now it is time to translate this aggressive nature into capturing the new opportunities AI presents.
In reality, there is no way that the AI wave will swipe everyone's job overnight. For example, it will take AI much longer to perform tasks that require complex problem-solving like graphic design and direct response copywriting.
Being strategic for the future means not rushing into anything. Take your time to understand how the freelance landscape will shift with the growing trend of AI adoption.
You might also end up becoming an expert on the topic. You could be the next management consultant advising business owners about taking full advantage of AI inventions.
Learn the Specialized Digital Skills of the Future
The continued rise of AI adoption in businesses almost guarantees two things. First, job specialization will be vital to thrive in the digital age. Secondly, skills will be the new currency.
AI is increasing efficiency in how we perform our tasks through its practicability. AI is turning all what-ifs people have had in performing business more efficiently into a reality. For example, email marketing automation effectively solved "what if there was a way to reach more customers without a hassle."
Therefore, you can only compete with AI for your job if you learn the practical skills of the future. Even today, clients are only interested in freelancers who can effectively implement their skills.
Rarely will you find a client asking you where you learned how to use a specific automation tool. Instead, they will be more interested in how best you can use the various automation tools for more efficiency and cost saving.
On the other hand, there is no reason you cannot use AI tools to increase your competitive advantage as a freelancer. The secret is to learn the specialized skills you need to work with AI.
For example, as a copywriter, stop seeing ChatGpt and Copy.ai as threats. Instead, turn them into opportunities to improve productivity and efficiency in developing quality content. Copy.ai will help you create a blog outline in no time, while you can use ChatGpt to brainstorm the best topics and ideas to include in your blogs.
Perfect Your Soft Skills
While you are worrying about AI taking over your job, there is another group of professionals who are pretty relaxed and not even bothered about the AI talk. Such groups include lawyers, life coaches, and your shrink.
These professions have one thing in common. They all require a professional who has mastered human emotional intelligence skills. AI will take longer to develop human intelligence, if possible. Therefore, you can improve your soft skills to improve your competitiveness over AI.
Clients want to work with a freelancer who has mastered:
Communication
Persuasion
Empathy
Networking skills.
They understand that these skills are relevant for the freelancer to develop good customer relationships.
When clients hire you, you’ll join their teams that work towards specific business goals. That’s why you need to develop your ability to interact and communicate with others in your team.
Lack of human emotional intelligence is the reason chatbots like Facebook Messenger and Microsoft Azure bots have not replaced all customer service freelancers. The bots may offer 24/7 responses to business customers but lack full customer service support. It is why you still have to wait in customer support queues to get the full support or service you need from a human.
Don't Bother Fighting It
C. JoyBell C once stated, "Choose your battles wisely. After all, life isn't measured by how many times you stood up to fight. It's not winning battles that make you happy but how many times you turned away and chose to look in a better direction. Life is too short to spend it on warring. Fight only the most, most, most important ones; let the rest go."
A fight with Ai isn't worth it. The reality is that Ai will continue to grow and impact the job landscape. You are better off adapting to change and growing with AI. Increase your capabilities using AI and prove to your future clients that you can use the power of these tools to contribute to their business success. Embracing AI also demonstrates that you are flexible and can quickly adapt to change.
Use AI to Improve Your Competitive Position
Another reason you should probably not fight AI is that you can use the technology to better your job prospects. One of the reasons you are not scoring many potential clients is that you don't have a solid online presence.
The reason for this is that promoting yourself online can be pretty expensive. However, that narrative is about to change with the accelerated innovation of various AI tools.
There are enough social media management tools to ensure you create a strong presence on various social media platforms. The same can be said about the growing number of DIY website development tools. You can now develop your freelance portfolio website without requiring web development expert services.
All that remains for you is to fine-tune yourself using the various automation tools. And you will be ready to market yourself online most cost-effectively.
Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills
The simple definition of innovation may have been lost in the whole technological revolution frenzy. But it stems from the ability to provide the most creative and intelligent solution to a customer's current challenge.
A business owner may adopt all the technologies available, but until they understand their real business problems, all this automation will be useless to them. Business owners need someone to help them assess and identify their businesses' real problems and propose the most effective solutions to address these challenges.
A domain expert is best suited to help business owners face such situations. Domain experts possess in-depth industry knowledge, making them ideal problem solvers among business owners.
Clients are now shifting to expert freelancers who will first help them identify their business's challenges and threats. Clients will also demand your techno-functional skills to help them use the various automation tools to solve the challenges you helped them identify.
For example, a client will hire a business efficiency consultant to help them identify the inefficiencies in their business processes. The same expert will recommend and implement solutions to eliminate these inefficiencies and make their business more competitive.
What Are the Other Freelancers Saying About AI?
Are you wondering what others think about the current threat to the freelance industry? Find out today by joining the Royal VA Community. The community gives you a chance to pick the minds of various freelancers on the issue of AI and how they are coping with the competition.