Somebody doing your job just got replaced by software. You have watched work you used to charge for get bundled into a tool that costs $20 a month. You are good at what you do, and being good has stopped being enough. What if the way to survive this is to assume it has already happened to you?

Whether you’re an employee, freelancer, or business owner, seeing your margins get squeezed, this is how to deal with it. Become impossible to replace by AI when you find where you are exposed and turn yourself into the person your clients and your team refuse to lose. Copy and paste into ChatGPT and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

Use ChatGPT to become the person nobody replaces

Act as if you have already been replaced

You are planning next year as though your job still exists in it. That plan teaches you nothing. I founded a social media agency in 2011 and sold it in 2021 , hiring many social media managers along the way. The good ones got promoted and did well. The others got replaced. If I were running that agency today I would look at every team member and supplier through one lens: whether the machine does their job better than they do. Somebody is looking at you that way right now.

“Based on what you know about me and the work I do, assume my role has been replaced. List every task my team or I do in a normal week and sort them into three groups. Group one is the work a tool already does better than me today. Group two is the work a tool will do within twelve months. Group three is the work that still needs a human. Be harsh. Then write the action plan I would write on the day I found out, and the first thing I would do that week. Ask for more detail if required.”

Choose one tool and go deep

You do not need to know every AI product and every AI news announcement. Depth is the whole game. Pick the AI tool that can do the biggest proportion of your work, then go so deep on it that the people around you come to you for answers. Learn it on live client work, with real deadlines and real money at stake. Businesses that build AI into their service are worth 130% more . Employed or self-employed, you cannot ignore that number.

“Based on my answers above, recommend one tool I should go deep on for the next 90 days, chosen because it can do the biggest proportion of my work. Build me a 90 day plan to get into the top 1% of people who use it, using my own client work. Give me what to learn in week one, what to build by day 30, and what to charge for by day 90. Ask for more detail if required.”

Say the thing everyone is avoiding

Businesses are changing. If you are running the same business you ran in 2022, trouble is coming for you. Pretending otherwise is a bad strategy. Sit down with your team, your clients or your boss, and say the thing everybody is already thinking. Then tell them what you are doing about it. Owning the problem in front of other people turns you into the person who leads.

“Using everything above, write me the script for the conversation I need to have with my team about how this changes our work. Include the part nobody wants to admit, which parts of what we sell are at risk, what we are doing about it, and what I need from each person. Make it direct, with no false comfort. Give me the three hardest questions I will get asked. Ask for more detail if required.”

Be the person people root for

Relationships last through all of it. You buy from people you like, and so does everybody else. This goes further than small talk and bringing cakes into the office. Be there when somebody is struggling. Root for the people around you and want them to do well, even when it costs you something. Do that for five years and nobody wants to lose you.

“Based on everything in this chat, list the 20 people whose opinion of me decides whether I keep my contract or role in my job, or with a key client. For each one, tell me what they are trying to achieve this year and one way I could be useful to them without asking for anything back. Then give me a weekly habit that keeps me in touch with all 20.”

Own the way things get sold

Anybody can build anything now. You can vibe code a product in an afternoon and have it live before dinner. The difficult part is having a list of people who will buy it on the day you launch. The difficult part is doing it before anyone else in the team does. But distribution is the unfair advantage nobody can copy from you. Build the relationships, the network, the list. Then you get to sell whatever you want.

“Based on everything in this chat, build me a distribution plan for the next six months, so that I own an audience of buyers who trust me and will hear about anything I launch. Tell me the one platform to go all in on, the weekly rhythm to keep, and how to move people from following me to a list I control. Include the formats I show up in, covering video, audio, written content, email, and the AI version of me, built with Coachvox.”

How to become the person nobody wants to lose

The people who keep their jobs and their clients decided to be impossible to replace before anybody asked the question. Act as if you have already been replaced. Go deep on one tool. Say the thing everyone is avoiding. Root for the people around you. Own the way things get sold.

You cannot control what the technology does next. You can control whether you are the person people fight to keep. Do the uncomfortable work now, while the choice is still yours, and the decision gets made in your favor.

Access all my best ChatGPT content prompts .