The Digital Age: Technology, Innovation, and Society in Transition — Richard Golian

Will AI take my job? A certified Google trainer told me in June 2024 that my profession would cease to exist. Twenty-two months later, my job title has not changed — but ninety percent of what I do during the day is different. I have delegated more of my thinking to AI agents than I thought possible. I am not afraid. This is why, and what it means for anyone asking the same question.

One hour. Fifty-five minutes. That is how long it took to build what a Czech software firm had quoted at over €50,000. I built it with Claude Code. Not a prototype. Not a proof of concept. A working tool — the one the company actually needed. By the evening of the same day, it was running on staging. This is not about Claude Code. It is about what Claude Code exposes.

I have conducted roughly one hundred and fifty practical interviews over the past four years. Fifty for data specialist roles. A hundred for advertising and performance marketing specialists. Almost every one of them involved sitting down with a candidate over a practical task — something close to a real problem we actually need to solve at the company. Not theory. Not trivia. Applied problem-solving. Over time, I started noticing a pattern.

Before you can teach AI to understand anything, you need to see what it is hiding from you.

The moment other people needed access to it, the problem changed completely. It was no longer about whether the agent could learn. It was about who gets to teach it.

I wanted to build an agent that doesn't just assist. One that acts.

Manipulation without the feeling of being manipulated is the most effective kind.

It’s a strange feeling. I haven’t fully processed it yet.

We are heading toward a future where many things simply lose their value.

The more I talk with friends and acquaintances about AI, the more I notice something alarming.

When someone loses their job, their sense of security collapses—so they sell their stocks.

This exchange struck a chord with me—enough that I am writing this post.

He used words like “certainty” as if statistics were part of Newtonian physics.

When we hear artificial intelligence, many people imagine something mysterious. Something that thinks. Something that understands. It does not. I work with AI every day and the more I use it, the clearer the truth becomes: artificial intelligence is applied mathematics. It predicts what the next word should be. That is the entire mechanism.

The more I think about it, the more I realize what a fundamental issue this is.

You might say I am being too pessimistic, that I am fearmongering. Fear is useful.

Many believe they have broad knowledge because they follow multiple sources.

Performance marketing isn’t just about ads, data, and analytics.

No matter how I look at the future, I see very few answers and far too many questions and problems.

When this sense of meaning disappears, it leaves behind an emptiness that most people find difficult to bear.

The future of work will not be determined solely by new technologies but primarily by our needs.

It is real, growing, and potentially devastating.

Let’s focus on reducing these risks by improving how we work with data.

The future can be European, but only if we give it a chance.

This is a serious issue, and it is high time we start acting responsibly.

What do I look for in potential colleagues? Good chemistry, common sense, and internal motivation.

Do I still need to improve my skills if AI could outperform me so dramatically?

I strive to implement this mindset when making all managerial or investment decisions.

While it saved me a significant amount of time, it had an unintended consequence.