If you are employed right now, some version of this message has probably landed in your inbox: “We need you to start using AI to increase your productivity.” For a lot of people, that directive brings a quiet, specific fear – if AI can do parts of my job faster, what happens to me?
This is the seventh video in Allora’s 2026 series, and it is aimed squarely at people who already have the job. Earlier in the series we covered the outside game: what happens after you apply, how to use AI in your job search, how to network, and how to make referrals and introductions that get someone in front of a real person. This one goes inside. Kelly Kugler, Allora’s founder, and Chez Jennings, our US tech careers coach, talk through how to respond to an AI mandate strategically – so that AI increases your value, not your vulnerability.
The short version: the answer is not to resist AI, and it is not to automate everything you can. It is to be more thoughtful about how you adopt AI than your company is being about how they roll it out.
Why "just use AI" is creating so much anxiety
AI stopped being only a hiring-side tool a while ago. It screens resumes, yes – but now companies are mandating that existing employees adopt it, and many are measuring usage. The fear that comes with that is real and valid: if I automate my work, am I automating myself out of a job? For some functions, the honest answer over time may be yes. But most people have far more agency in the moment than they realize, and the response is not to resist – it is to be smarter about how you use the tools than the company is about deploying them.
From the recruiter and employer side, the approaches Chez is seeing sit across a wide spectrum:
- The AI-first end – the “AI-pilled” companies monitoring token usage, ranking employees by adoption, and cutting headcount aggressively. Sometimes that leaves one person doing the work of ten, and those same companies then run into retention, security, and product-reliability problems downstream.
- The more discerning middle – companies still early in adoption, trialing tools, working through build-versus-buy decisions, and rolling out internal enablement like webinars and lunch-and-learns. In practice, more companies sit here than you would expect.
One example is worth holding onto. A large tech company piloted an AI agent to run recruiter screening calls instead of a live recruiter. The feedback was clear: candidates overwhelmingly preferred a real person, because a live call lets them ask real questions about culture and next steps. The tool was pulled due to low adoption. The point is not that AI will not change hiring – it is that these rollouts are not inevitable or permanent, and user feedback still moves them. (~5:30)
The mistake most people make
When the directive lands, most people do one of two things: they resist AI entirely, or they race to automate everything they can. Both are risky, and the second one is the quiet trap.
Kelly put it plainly with a client story. This was someone she had worked with for over a year – new company, six months in, growing in the role, ready for the next promotion cycle. Then leadership arrived with a mandate: integrate AI into your workflow, then report back on the efficiency you gained. The client’s first message to Kelly was exactly the right question: “If I automate the things that I do, what’s left for me?” (~7:20)
That is the question too few people ask. If you automate everything you can, you may solve your company’s productivity problem while quietly eliminating your own role. Kelly has watched it happen – another client automated their way out of a job that was then cut. The goal is not to automate as much as possible, even when it is presented that way. The goal is to automate strategically: hand off the tasks that eat your time without adding unique value, so you are freed up to do more of what only you can do.
Start by auditing your role, not automating it
Before you touch a single tool, audit your role. It may have been a while – even if you have only been in the seat three to six months, the day-to-day rarely matches the job description you interviewed for, especially after a leadership change, a team change, or a stretch where nothing got documented. Take the time to see what you actually do and how it connects across the team. (~14:29)
Then sort your work into two categories:
- Repeatable, time-consuming tasks that do not require your judgment. This is where AI belongs.
- Work that draws on your expertise, relationships, institutional knowledge, and judgment. This is your value. Put it in its own column and protect it.
That second list is the human part of your job – how you think, how you communicate, how you build trust. You cannot automate that, and you should not try to.
Control the narrative: "AI handles this so I can do more of that"
Here is the framing to carry into every conversation with your manager: AI is handling X so that I can do more of Y – and Y is what makes my work high-impact. AI is not replacing you; it is supplementing you by clearing away what distracts from your highest-value work.
Which leads to the single most important line from the conversation: speed is not the goal. Speed with higher-value output is the goal. (~16:55)
Think about how that lands with a manager. “I automated three things and I’m 40% faster” is fine – but it hands your manager a number, not a reason to value you more. “I automated three things, I’m 40% faster, and I used that time to [close the deal, build the partnership, ship the thing only I could ship]” is a completely different conversation. When your manager repeats it, the story now includes why you have become more valuable, not just faster. That is the pitch that protects your job and accelerates your career. (~17:28)
Learn to read what is actually happening
Not every automation is a threat, and not every one is safe. Look at where in your workflow your employer is automating, and ask what it frees you to do. The phrase showing up everywhere is “automate the low-level tasks so you can spend more time with customers” – and every function has its own version of that question. If the automation makes you more consultative and strategic, that is “adding AI to your toolkit.” If it quietly replaces your toolkit, that is a very different signal. (~19:09)
Watch the tooling, too. Good automations keep a human gate. Chez uses Claude Cowork in her current work with approval steps built in – the agent runs a task, then waits for her to approve certain changes before they take effect. She stays at the point of judgment. Treat AI like an intern you are training: useful, worth developing – but you do not upskill your intern so much that it makes you redundant.
One story shows how to do this well. Chez spoke with someone whose company was paying a third-party vendor tens of thousands of dollars to transcribe and sentiment-score customer service calls – a low-level, repeatable task, run on data the company already had. She built the transcription-and-scoring pipeline in-house herself, saved the company roughly $10K a month, and became the owner and subject-matter expert for it going forward. She did not just automate a task; she used it to slide herself into a new role. (~22:00)
How we work through this with clients
Every Allora client gets access to our tools folder – a job search tracker, a networking planner, interview-prep worksheets, playbooks, and more. Two tools matter most here: the Career Growth Planner and the Career Transition and Pivot Planner. Both give us a structured way to map someone’s responsibilities, tasks, and the OKRs or KPIs they are working toward.
We have added an AI-alignment layer to them. Instead of only mapping someone toward a promotion or a pivot, we now provide the option to map their responsibilities against a simple question: which parts are low-level and judgment-free (candidates for automation), and which parts are the core of their value (protect and enhance)? It is a Google Sheet client’s brain-dump into between sessions – current title, functional role, and everything actually on their plate, since not all of it lives on a resume or LinkedIn. From there, we help them decide what to hold and what to hand off. (~23:31)
This is career-development work, not just job-security work. The people who figure this out now are the ones who will be leading teams and making decisions in the next few years. (~26:08)
If you are job searching, vet how employers actually use AI
The same thinking helps on the outside. Automations are moving fast; employers change goalposts, swap tools, roll back initiatives, and fire and rehire. You cannot control company policy, but you have real agency in how you evaluate an employer. Do not stop at what they say in interviews or on their careers page – go through a product demo, get a free trial where you can, and watch how they actually use AI in real time. It is a preview of what you would be signing up for. (~29:00)
Key takeaways
- Do not panic and do not automate blindly. Start by auditing your role.
- Sort your work into two columns: tasks that need your judgment and tasks that do not. AI lives in the second column; your career lives in the first.
- Automate the time-consuming, judgment-free work so you are free to do the high-impact work only you can do.
- Control the narrative with your manager: “AI handles X so I can do more of Y.” Speed alone is not the goal – speed plus higher-value output is.
- Keep a human gate on automations, and treat AI like an intern you are training.
- Ask for clarity when you get a directive: what are the goals, and what is the priority behind it?
- This is career growth, not just job protection – the people who master it now will lead later.
Quick answers
Q: I have been told to use AI to be more productive. What is the first thing I should do?
A: Do not start by automating. Audit your role first. List everything you do in a typical week, then sort it into two columns: tasks that require your judgment, expertise, and relationships, and tasks that are repeatable and do not. AI belongs in the second column. Automate there so you are freed up to do more of the high-value work in the first – and make sure your manager sees the value you added with the time you saved, not just the speed.
Q: Can automating my own tasks put my job at risk?
A: It can, if you automate indiscriminately. If you hand off the work that demonstrates your unique value, you may solve your company’s productivity problem while making your own role easier to cut. Automate the low-value, repeatable tasks and protect the work that draws on your judgment, relationships, and institutional knowledge.
Key terms
- AI mandate: a directive from leadership requiring employees to adopt AI tools in their day-to-day work, often with usage measured or reported back.
- Automate strategically: choosing which tasks to hand to AI based on whether they add unique value – offloading repeatable, judgment-free work while protecting the work that makes you valuable.
- Human gate: an approval step that keeps a person in control of an automated workflow, reviewing or approving outputs before they take effect.
Ready to work through this with a coach?
If you have gotten this directive and you are not sure what to protect and what to hand off, that is exactly the conversation we have with clients. A free consultation is a real conversation, not a sales pitch. You can also read the rest of the 2026 series on our blog, learn how we work on our coaching page, meet the team, or see what clients say in our testimonials.
Watch the Full Conversation
Video Timestamps
- 0:00 – Intro: who we are and today’s topic
- 3:14 – Why AI keeps coming up: mandates and a fear that’s valid
- 5:30 – A hopeful example: when an AI rollout got rolled back
- 7:20 – A client’s question: “If I automate my work, what’s left for me?”
- 9:00 – Why automating everything can quietly eliminate your role
- 11:21 – What companies actually expect (and who’s being thoughtful)
- 14:29 – Step one: audit your role before you automate
- 16:55 – Speed isn’t the goal – speed plus higher value is
- 17:28 – The manager pitch that protects your job
- 19:09 – “Adding to your toolkit” vs. “replacing your toolkit”
- 22:00 – How one person automated a task and owned a new role
- 23:31 – The Allora tools we use to map this with clients
- 27:46 – TLDR: the two-column exercise to start today
- 29:00 – For job seekers: vet how employers really use AI
- 30:58 – Closing: lead the tool, don’t fear it
