What if I told you that in three years, 15 percent of all business decisions will be made by AI? Not suggested. Not assisted. Made. Completely. By AI.
That’s not science fiction. That’s a prediction from Gartner, one of the world’s leading research firms. And in 2024, that number was just one percent. So here’s the question that’s keeping a lot of business owners, coaches, and consultants up at night: If AI is taking over decisions, writing reports, and handling entire workflows, what’s left for us humans to do? And more importantly, how do we prepare for a world where our old playbook doesn’t quite work anymore?
Whether you’re a solo coach building your first online program, a seasoned consultant managing client projects, or a traditional business owner wondering how to stay relevant in a digital-first world, this article is for you. We’re talking about the skills you need to lead in an AI-powered world. Not the technical stuff—you don’t need to learn Python or build algorithms. But you do need to understand what makes you irreplaceable when technology is doing the heavy lifting.
The Elephant in the Room: What’s Actually Changing?
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: AI is coming for a lot of tasks we’ve been doing for years. But before you panic and start Googling “AI-proof careers,” hear me out. This isn’t about robots stealing jobs. It’s about a fundamental shift in what work looks like.
For decades, being good at your job meant mastering a specific set of skills. If you were a consultant, you learned how to analyze data, create reports, and present recommendations. If you were a coach, you mastered frameworks, designed programs, and delivered transformations. If you were a business owner, you juggled operations, sales, marketing, and customer service.
But here’s what’s changing: AI can now handle a lot of that execution. It can analyze data faster than you can open Excel. It can draft reports while you’re still brewing your morning coffee. It can even create marketing content that doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it.
So what does that mean for you? Well, if you’ve been relying on your ability to “do the tasks,” you’re going to feel the pressure. But if you’ve been focused on the human stuff—the creativity, the relationships, the critical thinking—you’re about to become more valuable than ever.
Let me give you a real example from my own business. A few months ago, I was helping a client streamline their content creation process. They were spending hours every week writing blog posts, designing graphics, and scheduling social media. We brought in some AI tools to handle the first drafts and visual templates. And you know what happened? They didn’t suddenly have nothing to do. Instead, they had time to focus on the parts that actually mattered: refining the message, connecting with their audience, and building relationships that turned readers into clients. The AI did the grunt work. They did the magic.
That’s the shift. AI takes over the routine. You take over the remarkable.
The Four Skills That Actually Matter in an AI-Powered World
So if AI is handling the execution, what skills do you need to master? Let’s break it down into four categories—and I promise, none of these require a computer science degree.
1. Resilience: Staying Steady When Everything’s Changing
First up: resilience. And I’m not talking about the motivational-poster kind of resilience. I’m talking about the ability to stay steady when everything around you is changing.
The business world is about to go through a massive transformation. Jobs will change. Some will disappear. New ones will emerge that we can’t even imagine yet. And if you’re leading a team—even if that team is just you—you need to be able to navigate that without losing your mind.
Resilient leaders don’t pretend everything is fine. They acknowledge the discomfort, lean into the uncertainty, and keep moving forward anyway. They can handle their own fears and help others manage theirs.
Think about it like this: when your toddler learns to walk, they fall. A lot. And as a parent, your job isn’t to prevent every fall. It’s to help them get back up, dust off, and try again. That’s resilience. In a business context, resilience means you can test a new AI tool, watch it fail spectacularly, and still show up the next day ready to try something different.
2. Adaptivity and Curiosity: The “Always a Student” Mindset
Next: adaptivity and curiosity. Or as I like to call it, the “always a student” mindset. Here’s the thing: AI is going to make implementation faster. Way faster. Need a landing page? AI can build it. Need a sales email sequence? AI can draft it. Need a client proposal? AI can structure it.
But here’s what AI can’t do: come up with the original idea. Spot the opportunity no one else sees. Connect two seemingly unrelated concepts and create something new. That’s where your curiosity comes in. Your ability to ask “what if?” and “why not?” and “how could we do this differently?” becomes your competitive advantage.
Let me tell you about a client of mine—let’s call her Sarah. She’s a traditional business consultant who’s been doing things the same way for 20 years. Proposals in Word docs. Client meetings in person. Follow-ups via email. When I first suggested she explore AI tools, she was skeptical. “I’ve built my business on personal relationships. AI can’t do that.” And she’s right. AI can’t replace the trust she’s built over two decades. But you know what it can do? Free up her time so she can spend more of it building those relationships instead of formatting proposals.
Once Sarah got curious—once she started asking “what if AI could handle the admin work so I could focus on strategy?”—everything shifted. She didn’t lose her edge. She sharpened it.
3. Critical Thinking: Becoming the Contrarian in the Room
Number three: critical thinking. And this one’s huge. Here’s the problem with AI: it’s really good at giving you answers. But it’s not always good at giving you the right answers.
AI can analyze data, spot patterns, and make recommendations. But it can’t tell you if those recommendations make sense in your specific context. It can’t catch its own biases. And it definitely can’t question its own assumptions. That’s your job.
Think of yourself as the “contrarian” in the room. The person who looks at the AI’s output and says, “Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Let’s dig deeper.” This is especially important because, unlike traditional media or reports, AI doesn’t come with built-in fact-checkers. There’s no editor reviewing its work before it gets to you. So you need to be that editor. You need to ask the hard questions.
For example, let’s say you use AI to draft a marketing campaign. It spits out a beautiful email sequence with compelling copy. Great. But have you checked if the tone matches your brand? Have you verified the claims it’s making? Have you asked if this message will resonate with your actual audience, or is it just generic fluff?
Critical thinking isn’t about being paranoid. It’s about being intentional. It’s about using AI as a starting point, not an endpoint.
4. Data Curation: Ensuring Quality Inputs for Quality Outputs
And finally, let’s talk about data curation. This one sounds technical, but stay with me—it’s simpler than it sounds. AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on. If you feed it garbage, you get garbage out. If you feed it biased information, you get biased recommendations. If you feed it outdated processes, it’ll just automate your inefficiency.
So your job is to become a “data curator.” Someone who ensures the information going into your AI systems is high-quality, balanced, and relevant. Let me give you a practical example. Say you’re using AI to help with client intake forms. If you train it on forms that only worked for one type of client, it’s going to miss the nuances of your other clients. But if you curate a diverse set of examples—different industries, different pain points, different communication styles—your AI becomes way more useful.
This doesn’t mean you need a statistics degree. It just means you need to pay attention. What information are you giving your AI? Is it complete? Is it accurate? Is it fair? Think of it like teaching a new team member. You wouldn’t just throw them into the deep end with no training, right? You’d give them context, show them examples, and correct them when they get it wrong. Same thing with AI.
What You Can Stop Doing (Finally)
Now, here’s the good news. While there are new skills to learn, there are also a bunch of things you can stop worrying about. Remember all those tedious tasks that felt like busywork but you did them anyway because “that’s just how it’s done”? Yeah, those are going away.
- Reports that take hours to compile? AI can do that.
- Compliance checks that require meticulous attention to detail? AI’s got it.
- Data entry, formatting, scheduling, follow-up emails? AI, AI, AI.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 15 percent of business decisions will be fully automated. That means you’re not just delegating tasks—you’re delegating entire decision-making processes. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But Julia, doesn’t that mean I’ll be less in control?” Actually, no. It means you get to focus on setting the guardrails instead of micromanaging every step. You define the “what” and the “why,” and AI handles the “how.”
Think of it like driving a car with adaptive cruise control. You still decide where you’re going. You still steer. But the car handles the speed adjustments so you can focus on the road ahead. The same goes for your business. You set the strategy. You define the values. You build the relationships. And AI handles the repetitive execution.
For coaches and consultants, this is a game-changer. Instead of spending hours creating slide decks or drafting client reports, you can spend that time actually coaching and consulting. For traditional business owners, this means you can finally stop drowning in admin work and start focusing on growth, innovation, and customer relationships. And for the tech-savvy entrepreneurs out there, this is your chance to scale without sacrificing quality.
Three Practical Steps You Can Take This Week
Alright, let’s bring this home. You might be thinking, “This all sounds great, Julia, but what do I actually do with this information?” Fair question. Let me give you three practical steps you can take this week.
Step 1: Audit Your Time
First, audit your time. Take a look at your calendar and make a list of everything you did last week. Then, categorize each task into one of two buckets: “Only I can do this” or “Someone (or something) else could do this.” Be honest. How many of those tasks actually required your unique expertise, creativity, or human judgment? And how many were just busywork? That second bucket? That’s where AI comes in. You don’t need to automate everything overnight, but start identifying the low-hanging fruit.
Step 2: Start Small
Second, start small. You don’t need to overhaul your entire business in a week. Pick one task—just one—and experiment with an AI solution. Maybe it’s drafting email responses. Maybe it’s creating social media captions. Maybe it’s organizing client files. Whatever it is, test it. See what works. See what doesn’t. Adjust. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is progress.
Step 3: Invest in Your Skills
And third, invest in learning. Not just about AI tools, but about the skills we talked about today. Resilience. Adaptivity. Critical thinking. Data curation. Read articles. Take courses. Join communities. Talk to other business owners who are navigating this shift. The more you learn, the less scary it becomes. And here’s the thing: this isn’t a one-and-done. This is an ongoing process. The world is changing fast, and the leaders who thrive are the ones who stay curious, stay flexible, and stay human.
Ready to Lead with Confidence in an AI-Powered World?
The future of work is changing. AI is taking over tasks, automating decisions, and reshaping entire industries. But that doesn’t mean you’re becoming obsolete. It means you’re becoming more valuable—if you focus on the right things. Resilience, adaptivity, critical thinking, and data curation. Those are your superpowers. Those are the skills that will set you apart in a world where technology can do almost everything—except be human.
If you’re thinking, “Julia, this all makes sense, but I have no idea where to start,” I’ve got you. My program NAVIGaiTE is designed specifically for business owners, coaches, and consultants who want to integrate AI into their work without losing their soul. We’ll help you identify the processes worth automating, set up the systems that actually work, and train your team (or just you) to use AI confidently and strategically.
You can book a free NAVIGaiTE strategy session at this link. No pressure, no sales pitch—just a conversation about where you are and where you want to go.
Because progress beats perfection, one prompt at a time.
