A Survival Playbook for an AI-first World

Most people are stuck in one of two states: panic or paralysis.

But survival in this new era won’t come from waiting it out. It’ll come from acting with urgency and clarity—not by fighting the machine, but by learning how to wield it.

This is your playbook—for those who’ve been displaced, those trying to stay ahead, and those just getting started. It's been divided between three sections: For those out of work, for those still holding onto their jobs, and for students or recent graduates.

1. For those out of work

The job market is brutal right now. Talent is flooding every open role. Recruiter ghosting is the norm. Roles are vanishing. Your résumé—no matter how keyword-stuffed for LLMs—feels like a relic.

But this is also the most unconstrained moment of your career. You have nothing left to lose—and everything to build.

CS unemployment among new grads hit 6.7% in 2024—nearly double the national average for college-educated workers.

3 in 5 recruiters now use AI screeners. Most résumés don’t even reach a human.

The question to be asked, is it even worth the pursuit anymore? Could you instead spend the same time in a more meaningful way?

There are two ways to look at this.

1. Create something only you can—with AI

Most tools we use today were built for a pre-AI world. Spreadsheets. CRMs. LMSs. ERPs. They were designed for human workflows—manual input, linear logic, siloed outputs.

Now those same tools are racing to bolt on AI assistants… but the foundation remains archaic. Instead of asking how to retrofit AI into old software, we should ask: what does it look like to build something AI-native from the ground up?

An AI-native tool doesn’t just automate—it collaborates. It doesn't live in the background—it leads the process. And it doesn't need you to micromanage inputs—it learns from usage, adapts to context, and completes tasks end-to-end.

So the question you should be asking isn’t if Powerpoint can be made smarter using AI. It’s should Powerpoint even exist in an AI-native world?

It’s also never been easier to build—and ship—something real.

AI has radically lowered the cost of starting. You don’t need to code or even know how to code.

You don’t need to hire. You don’t even need a deck.

New York Times reported, people with zero technical background are now building functioning apps—in hours—not weeks. From podcast summarizers to recipe assistants, the build phase has collapsed from months to minutes.

And according to Carta, 35% of new startups in 2024 are solo-founded—a historic high, driven largely by AI tools enabling founders to go further, faster.

The Wall Street Journal calls it a new kind of leverage: “AI lets individuals punch way above their weight. Whole teams can now be replaced by one sharp, fast-moving person with the right tools.”

But the unlock isn’t AI. It’s your context.

The most powerful thing you can do? Start with a process you understand better than 99% of people.

→ If you’ve worked in compliance, build a smarter audit checklist.

→ If you’ve run admissions, build a more human intake system.

→ If you’ve managed logistics, build an adaptive dispatch layer.

AI is the engine. Your experience is the map.

You’re not being asked to become a founder. You’re being handed a chance to turn deep insight into something that runs at scale.

You don’t need a CS degree. You need domain depth—and the willingness to ask:

“What if this process had never existed until now?”

b. Rebuild the real world

In an AI-first economy, being purely cognition-driven is a liability.

When machines think faster, cheaper, and more reliably than you, clinging to knowledge work becomes a shrinking game.

But the analog world? It's wide open.

While white-collar workflows get compressed, real-world systems remain underbuilt, unautomated, and wildly inefficient.

→ Laundromats still take quarters.

→ Fitness studios still run on paper waivers.

→ Clinic intake forms still get faxed.

→ Local bakeries still close at 4pm.

These aren’t minor annoyances. They’re billion-dollar inefficiencies hiding in plain sight.

This is your chance to decouple from the race.

→ Buy the unsexy business no one wants.

→ Modernize it with AI.

→ Keep the cash. Cut the complexity. Scale with systems.

Mattieu Gamache-Asselin, a former tech employee, acquired a laundromat and used software to streamline delivery, scheduling, and inventory. He turned it into a million-dollar business by making a boring operation extremely efficient.

Toma, an AI platform for car dealerships, wasn’t built by Silicon Valley royalty—it was built by someone who understood dealership workflows deeply. Now it handles customer engagement, lead management, and follow-ups better than CRMs ever did.

These aren’t unicorns.

They’re deeply useful, boringly profitable businesses—revived with AI.

Netic is a great example where they’re applying an AI-first approach to the service industries and modernizing them.

The stealth wealth playbook is hiding in plain sight.

According to the Wall Street Journal, America’s wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs overwhelmingly own unsexy businesses: HVAC repair companies, dry cleaners, mobile home parks, dental clinics, logistics firms.

What they share: recurring revenue, low glamour, and shockingly high margins.

And now they’re up for grabs.

Baby boomers are retiring. Owners are aging out. These businesses don’t need a new logo. They need a modern backend. Think like Buffett: cashflow > prestige.

Software didn’t eat the world. AI might eat software.

Real-world assets will matter again.

2. For those still employed

You made it through the last round of layoffs and restructuring. Maybe the last five.

But you have to ask yourself: how long is your job safe—and is holding onto it even the smart move anymore?

Especially, given the opportunity the folks being laid off have as outlined in the previous section.

Should you be chasing that instead; are you simply delaying the inevitable?

The people being laid off aren’t failing.

They’re being outpaced by those willing to reinvent faster—often with fewer resources, no headcount, and better tools. Hopefully, that’s you.

Meanwhile, companies are rewiring themselves for speed and scale, not loyalty.

In this world, your title won’t protect you. Your output will.

The question isn’t “Can you keep your job?”

It’s “Can your job keep up with the curve?”

The future belongs to employees who stop acting like employees—and start acting like operators with leverage.

People who are focused of generating and delivering asymmetric value in a machine-dominant system.

1. Become the replacer, not the replaced.

Every business transformation story begins with this question:

What no longer matters?

Don’t wait to be optimized out. Lead the optimization.

→ Audit your function/division/org like a product.

→ Identify what should be automated, replaced, or radically compressed.

→ Then propose that transformation—before someone else does.

Frame it not in fear, but in ROI:

“Here’s how we can do 10x more with half the cost.”

At any given time, your CEO should think you’re working on the most important problem that is irrefutably critical for your company to succeed in.

Develop that narrative and show meaningful progress.

b. Ditch people management. Ship value.

The mid-manager pyramid has collapsed. Or worse—it’s still standing, but hollow inside.

The number of people you manage is no longer the definition of a leader.

Being a conduit for other people’s output? No longer defensible.

In a machine-accelerated world, your ability to personally deliver high-leverage outcomes is what counts.

→ Can you do what your old team did—better, faster, cheaper—with AI?

→ If not, someone else will. And they’ll do it solo.

→ The new metric is: speed against measurable impact.

Adopt the mindset of the solo operator.

But apply it inside your org.

→ Build tools, not decks.

→ Close gaps, not loops.

→ Move revenue, not process.

You don’t need to start a company.

But you do need to start acting like your output will show up on an earnings call.

At Fortune 500 companies, this means tying your work directly to quarterly results.

No fluff. Just EBITDA.

The future belongs to builders, closers, and compounding soloists—who don’t just survive the reorg, but replace the need for one altogether.

c. Act like a team of one.

The old model said: build a team to scale output.

The new model says: use AI to scale you.

The brief? Written.

The deck? Designed.

The product? Prototyped.

The ad copy? Tested.

The funnel? Deployed.

The metrics? Live.

You’re no longer a single player in a giant org chart.

You’re a full-stack execution unit—with the right tools, the right taste, and the ability to move from idea to outcome in days, not quarters.

→ Don’t wait for headcount. Don’t ask for approval.

→ Prototype, publish, repeat.

→ Make noise that leadership can’t ignore—and metrics that speak for themselves.

You’re not optimizing for a promotion. You’re not even proving your job should exist.

You’re proving you are irreplaceable.

This is what leverage looks like now:

• Thinking in systems

• Executing in tools

• Delivering in results

No layers. No dependencies. Just velocity with precision.

3. For Students & Recent Graduates

Bad news first: The traditional on-ramps are gone.
Junior analyst? Entry-level PM? Research assistant? AI eats those roles for breakfast.

Sam Altman put it bluntly: today’s models already perform like junior-to-mid-level employees.

The résumé-building grunt work your predecessors used to climb the ladder? Now handled faster, cheaper, and more reliably—by machines.

And your competition isn’t just your peers. It’s laid-off vets willing to take a pay cut just to stay in the game.

In 2024, CS unemployment among new grads hit 6.7%—nearly double the national average for college-educated workers.

So let’s be clear: You’re not entering the workforce. You’re entering a void.

But that void can become your leverage—if you play it right.

1. Time is your capital.

You don’t have kids. Or a mortgage. Or a career to protect.

→ That makes you dangerous.

→ You can move faster, take bigger risks, and pivot without penalty.

Don’t waste this window waiting to be “ready.”

Use the next 2–3 years as your personal acceleration curve.

b. Live below the algorithm.

Most of your peers are busy chasing vibe jobs, festival tickets, and soft-launch relationships.

→ You need to cut burn and bank time.

→ Flexibility is your unfair advantage—don’t waste it on lifestyle inflation.

Austerity now gives you infinite surface area later.

c. Start something. Anything.

The credential treadmill is broken. Grad school won’t save you. And no, the return of consulting internships won’t either.

→ Most of the advice above in the previous two sections is valid for you.

→ Build something AI-native from scratch.

→ Launch a solo media brand. Train a GPT on niche workflows. Create a service no one knew they needed—until you showed them.

You don’t need funding, cofounders, or code. You need an insight or an observation nobody has yet and a will to build it using AI.

The cost of action has never been lower.

The cost of inaction has never been higher.

This isn’t just a shift in tools. It’s a shift in power. AI has redrawn the map—and the old coordinates no longer apply. Whether you’ve been displaced, are holding on, or just stepping in, one truth cuts through: the era of passive participation is over. What lies ahead isn’t a job market—it’s a proving ground. And in this new order, those who understand systems, move with velocity, and act without permission will define the frontier. You are not competing for a role. You are competing for relevance.