The Honest Conversation About Jobs
Every person in your organization is asking the same question: am I going to lose my job because of AI? Here is the honest answer.
AI is not going to take your job. A person using AI is going to take your job. The question is: why are you not the person using AI?
The threat to every employee is not a machine. It is another human being who has learned to leverage that machine better. A developer who uses AI to ship three times faster will outperform one who does not. A marketer who uses AI to test fifty variations will outperform one who tests three.
The Manifesto's Position
Invest in making every person an AI-powered person. That is the commitment. That is the competitive advantage. Not through job guarantees. Not through denial. Through genuine investment in every person becoming more capable, more valuable, and more secure in their ability to thrive in a world where AI is not the future. It is now.
How Organizations Must Respond
1 Make Every Person an AI-Powered Person
The company's obligation is not to preserve every job as it exists today. It is to invest in every person so they can thrive in the AI era.
- AI fluency training appropriate to role, not one-size-fits-all ChatGPT tutorials
- Dedicated time to experiment with AI tools and workflows, embedded in the workweek
- AI proficiency as part of performance evaluation, not optional upskilling
- Reskilling budget funded BEFORE AI deployment, not after roles are eliminated
2 Exit with Dignity When Roles Are Eliminated
Some roles will be eliminated. The AI era is not frictionless. How a company handles those exits defines its character and whether its people will trust it during the transition.
- Severance: minimum one month per year of service, not a bare legal minimum
- Active outplacement for 90 days with dedicated career coaches, not a list of job boards
- Portable credentials and certifications the person can take with them
- Alumni network access and referral programs for future opportunities
3 Share the Productivity Gains
If a team of five does the work of eight because of AI, those gains do not go exclusively to the margin. The people who made that productivity possible must benefit from it.
- Compensation adjustment for teams actively leveraging AI to achieve superior outcomes
- Development investment funded from cost savings, not reinvested purely as margin improvement
- Workload sanity: productivity gains do not automatically mean higher output expectations
- Career acceleration and expanded scope for those who master AI-powered workflows
4 Communicate Before, Not After
The CEO's hardest job is honest communication about which roles are changing. Not vague town halls. Not surprised employees reading restructuring news in internal Slack. Real communication, early and often.
- Before deployment: communicate the plan, the timeline, and the support being provided
- During transition: regular direct conversations with affected teams about what is changing and why
- After transition: 90-day retrospective on what worked, what didn't, and what comes next
- CEO visibility: the leader owns the conversation, not HR or a memo
The companies that earn the loyalty and performance of their best people in the AI era are not the ones that avoid change. They are the ones that invest in their people becoming the best AI-powered versions of themselves.
This is not sentiment. It is strategy. A workforce that believes it will be invested in, treated with dignity, and rewarded for growth will move faster, learn faster, and perform better through transformation. A workforce that fears displacement will resist change, hide problems, and leave at the first opportunity.
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