Work is changing. Are you?

Will AI take your job? Maybe. Maybe not. But this shift didn’t begin with ChatGPT.

Not long ago, the average S&P 500 company needed eight employees to generate $1 million in revenue. Today it’s just two.

That’s not because everyone suddenly got four times more productive. It’s decades of pressure from software, outsourcing, automation.

And now AI is just the latest force continuing the trend.

And while nobody can predict what white-collar work will look like in 5, 10, or 20 years, one thing’s certain: it won’t look like how we work today.

Instead of just asking “will a robot take my job?”, it's worth taking a moment to dig deeper.

If you're an employee, it’s worth questioning how relevant the idea of a linear career path really is.

In most industries, the idea of working your way steadily up the ladder feels increasingly outdated. Some people are optimising for flexibility, others for fulfilment, others still for financial gain, and very few are treating those priorities as fixed.

You might have once been told to specialise early. Now you’re just as likely to be rewarded for range. And the lines between employee, freelancer and founder are already blurry. In the next few years, you might cycle through all three, or do them all at the same time!

If you're building a team, different questions emerge.

What do you actually need humans to do? Not what you’ve always hired for, but the actual value humans deliver that AI tools can’t.

That requires a different approach to headcount planning.

It means getting comfortable with having AI agents in the org chart, while also thinking about culture in a new way by asking new questions.

For example - how do you maintain morale, shared purpose, and creative energy with a hybrid team of humans and AI agents?

These are the questions we’re thinking about at Topham Guerin in our strategy sessions as we plan for our next phase of growth. And they are hugely exciting conversations to have!

Because this isn't about robots vs people.

It's about what does it actually mean to do good work, create value from your time, and enjoy what you do.