Layoffs and AI: stay hard to cut, bounce back if it happens

Stage 4 of 7 · 7 lessons · ~6 weeks

Work with AI so it raises your value

Companies are now choosing people partly by how well they adopt AI. Use the tools daily on real work, measure honestly where they help, keep the skills they cannot replace sharp, and move towards work that builds with AI rather than work AI does.

Start: Use AI on real work, inside the rules

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

  1. 1Use AI on real work, inside the rules
  2. 2Measure where AI actually helps you
  3. 3Keep the skills AI cannot replace sharp
  4. 4Move towards work that builds with AI
  5. 5Depth in one area, range around it
  6. 6A learning system, not bursts of panic
  7. 7Show your AI skill where others can see itOptional

Do this

  • Read your company's AI policy and use only approved tools
  • Use AI daily on real tasks and log time and fixes for two weeks
  • Debug one problem a week without an assistant
  • Explain every AI suggestion before you accept it
  • Offer to help on one AI feature at work, or build a small one yourself
  • Pick one area for depth and one for range this year
  • Put a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly learning slot in your calendar
  • Share one honest AI result with your team

Start with· follow one of these

Practise

Also worth your time

Before moving on: Two weeks of honest notes on where AI helped and hurt in your work, one AI-assisted improvement shared with your team, one small feature or project that builds with AI, and a written learning routine in your calendar.

Tauseef's advice
The engineers who come out of this period well are not the ones who read the most announcements. They use the tools on real work every day, check the output properly, and keep doing the hard thinking themselves. Use AI to go faster at things you understand, never to skip understanding them.

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