Richard Golian

1995-born. Charles University alum. Head of Performance at Mixit. 10+ years in marketing and data.

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The Gap Between Professionals in the AI Era

How AI Is Changing Work and Widening the Divide Between Professionals
Richard Golian
Richard Golian · 250 reads
Hi, I am Richard. On this blog, I share thoughts, personal stories, findings — and what I am working on. I hope this article brings you some value.

A few days ago I interviewed a senior marketer. An experienced man, years of practice. I asked him about AI.

He said he barely uses it. Now and then he asks it how to set up something technical. Nothing more. He does not use it to simplify routine tasks. He had one bad experience with the output and decided he was too senior for it to add value when it is not perfect.

That caught my attention. This exact attitude can be observed across different fields, for example among some experienced programmers too.

I know the other side as well. Professionals who automate everything that can be automated. When they have something to do, the first thing that comes to mind is a question: can this be done through AI? And if it can, they build a tool for it. And they never click it by hand again, nor write that code by hand again.

Two senior people do the same work today, in the same field. But their working days look completely different. In ten years in e-commerce I have not seen such a difference.

That senior does the same task today, does it in a week, and does it in a year. Every time from the start. The other one solves it once, builds automation around it, and then comes back to it only when it needs tuning or fixing.

Both work equally hard. The difference is whether the result of the work becomes a foundation that the next day a layer is built upon, or whether a person does the same work from scratch every day.

I belong to the second group. I do nothing twice. What I solve once, I return to only as a built foundation on which I build something further.

And I enjoy it — for some it is hard to imagine how much. It is the same feeling I had when I learnt to program in primary school. Back then it absorbed me. Now, with AI and automation, I feel a similar flow.

I meet people, at interviews for instance, who do not have this at all. That senior rejected AI because the output was not perfect. But that is not how it works.

When it comes to a complex problem tied to the context of a company, the first version of the automation handles it at eighty, ninety per cent. That is not a failure. That is the start. It improves step by step.

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Summary

One senior marketer rejected AI after a single bad experience. Other professionals automate everything they can and never go back to finished work. They work in the same field, yet their working days look completely different. What decides it is not skill, but whether the work becomes a foundation for the next day or is done again from scratch. That is how the gap between professionals, and between firms, keeps widening — and it is wider than any I have seen in my whole career.

Common questions on this article's topic

Why do some experienced professionals reject AI?
Some experienced people have one bad experience with the output and decide they are too senior for AI to add value when it is not perfect. It is not about skill, but about an attitude to an imperfect first result.
Does AI automation have to be perfect to be worth it?
No. For a complex problem tied to a company context, the first version handles eighty to ninety per cent. That is the start, not a failure. It improves step by step, in some places up to one hundred per cent, in others to ninety-five.
Is using AI a question of skill or of character?
More of character. Technical and curious types enjoy going into a problem deeper and deeper. Others tire of it after five minutes. For one it is a game, for the other torment.
How much can AI automation save a firm?
It depends on the case. Some directors use AI to program their own accounting and operations system and save hundreds of thousands a year. Others barely use AI and do the same work over and over.
Why does the gap between firms in AI adoption widen?
Because it does not grow linearly. Whoever builds on what he has already built goes faster every day. Whoever always starts from zero stands still. The gap between them grows.
Does AI automation need maintenance?
Yes. It has to be tested, monitored and fixed when it breaks. It is not free and does not do everything on its own. The kind of work changes.
Richard Golian

If you have any thoughts, questions, or feedback, feel free to drop me a message at mail@richardgolian.com.

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