Back in September I sat down with Karan Bahri for his podcast, Big Decisions, and we talked for the best part of two hours. It went live on 23 October as “Will AI Take Your Job? Futurist Morris Misel’s Honest Answer”, and I wanted it written up here with the links, so it sits in the archive with everything else.

Karan’s an accountant, and his show is for people early in their working lives, students and young professionals mostly, plus a lot of people who’ve moved countries or just started their own business.

A lot of them have been living with the AI headlines for a while now, so I wanted to tell them what I actually see coming.

A job is becoming a set of tasks

Karan asked me straight out whether people like him will still have work, and my answer started like this. “Do I have a job? My answer’s no. Do you have somebody that will employ you to do a series of tasks because you’re the best person to do it? Absolutely yes, because nothing else, not AI, not technology, can do what you do.”

I told him about Lynn, a stenographer I worked with in the 80s, who could take dictation at 120 words a minute and have the notes typed before everyone had finished their coffee. Today a phone on the table does it while we’re still talking.

If you break a job into tasks, each one goes to whoever does it best, a person, a machine or AI, and I call that HUMAND, human and machine, and I think most of us have a few tasks in there that only we could do, so I’d start with those.

Who becomes senior?

Then Karan asked what happens next. If AI does the junior work, how does anyone learn enough to become a senior?

I told him there’s another piece to it, because the managers who used to teach the juniors are thinning out at the same time. “All those places where I could make safe mistakes are gone.”

Nobody has the whole answer yet, but “even though we don’t have an answer, it doesn’t mean we can’t ask the question.” I wrote more about where a business learns now earlier this month.

One idea I put to Karan is older than any university. It’s the guild, where the people who practise a craft take apprentices on and stand behind them, the way a hallmark stands behind a gold ring.

Give me the verb

For anyone choosing a degree right now, my advice was old-fashioned: work out what you actually want to do, and say it as a verb. “Please don’t tell me you’re an influencer. Please don’t tell me you want to make a million dollars.”

I said to Karan, “Don’t give me the noun, please. Give me the verb,” because influencer and millionaire don’t tell me what you’ll be doing all day.

Karan said nothing feels safe any more, and I pushed back a little. Safety used to come from an employer and a 40-year promise, and these days I think you have to build a fair bit of it yourself. “The safety comes from you, not from somebody else.”

I think it pays to think a bit like a solopreneur even when you work for somebody else, so you’ve got more than one skill and maybe more than one way of earning.

Three things, then a direction

Karan asked for a 90-day plan to finish, so I gave him the shape of one, which is three small immediate futures out of what we’d talked about that you can start now, and a direction you’re heading in, your inhabitable future, so the ripples don’t knock you off course.

I told the dinner story in full this week, in You Won’t Make It by Six. Ring Mum., if you’d like the longer version.

Near the end Karan told me he was less anxious than when we started, which is a lovely thing to hear after two hours. Thanks, Karan, I enjoyed every minute of it.

I told him I’ve rebuilt my business in the last three years around this new world, and that lately, for the first time in my career, I’ve wished I was starting out now, because there’s so much opportunity ahead for anyone willing to go looking for it.

Choose forward.

P.S. If you’d like to work out your own three with a pen and a coffee, my year-end guide, Before the Year Turns, walks you through it, and it’s also in paperback on Amazon. And if you’d like a short read from me every Tuesday, it’s free to join.

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Morris Misel is a foresight strategist, keynote speaker, and trusted adviser. He works with organisations to interpret what’s changing and make better decisions about what comes next. Heard by more than a million people a year on stage and in the media.

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Questions people ask

Will AI take my job?

Morris Misel’s answer to Karan Bahri: a job is becoming a set of tasks. “Do you have somebody that will employ you to do a series of tasks because you’re the best person to do it? Absolutely yes.” Break the job into tasks and each one goes to whoever does it best, a person, a machine or AI.

What is HUMAND?

HUMAND, human and machine, is Morris Misel’s name for giving each task to whoever does it best, a person, a machine or AI. Most of us have a few tasks in there that only we could do, so start with those.

If AI does the junior work, how does anyone become senior?

Nobody has the whole answer yet, and the managers who used to teach the juniors are thinning out at the same time. One idea Morris puts forward is older than any university: the guild, where the people who practise a craft take apprentices on and stand behind them, the way a hallmark stands behind a gold ring.

How should I choose a degree or career now?

Work out what you actually want to do, and say it as a verb. “Don’t give me the noun, please. Give me the verb.” Influencer and millionaire don’t tell anyone what you’ll be doing all day.

Where does job security come from now?

Safety used to come from an employer and a 40-year promise. Now you build a fair bit of it yourself. “The safety comes from you, not from somebody else.” Think a bit like a solopreneur even when you work for somebody else, with more than one skill and maybe more than one way of earning.

What should I do in the next 90 days?

Pick three small immediate futures you can start now, and a direction you’re heading in, your inhabitable future, so the ripples don’t knock you off course.

Sources

Big Decisions podcast with Karan Bahri, Will AI Take Your Job? Futurist Morris Misel’s Honest Answer, YouTube, 23 October 2026 (recorded 26 September 2026).

Morris Misel, Where Does a Business Learn Now?, morrisfuturist.com, 12 October 2026.

Morris Misel, You Won’t Make It by Six. Ring Mum., morrisfuturist.com, 26 October 2026.