My 6 year old Ted talk is coming true

AI Isn’t the End of Humanity—It’s the End of Boring

Six years ago, I stood on a TEDx stage and said something that made a few people shift in their seats:

Artificial Intelligence will eliminate the repetitive, the predictable, the commodity work—the boring.

Some clapped. Some chuckled. Some cornered me afterward to say, “You really believe that’s a good thing?”

Not only did I believe it then—I’m watching it unfold in real time now. And yes, I still believe it’s absolutely a good thing.

We’re living through the most significant transformation in productivity since the Industrial Revolution. But unlike machines that replaced muscle, AI is augmenting minds. It’s not just changing how we work—it’s changing how we think, how we create, and how we define value in the first place.

Most People Are Still Using a Pen in a Jet Age

We’ve handed the world access to tools that would’ve seemed impossible a decade ago. AI can write code, generate art, simulate strategy, make music, draft contracts, and automate customer support.

And yet—most people are still manually typing reports and obsessing over fonts.

We gave them a rocket engine. They’re still adjusting the rearview mirror.

Why? Because this shift requires us to break with how we’ve always worked. We were trained to find security in repetition: do it again, refine it, scale it.

But AI thrives on what we don’t repeat. It grows in novelty. In uncertainty. In creativity. That’s a language many leaders haven’t learned to speak yet.

AI Doesn’t Replace You—Unless You’re Doing Replaceable Work

Let’s get this straight: AI isn’t here to take your job. It’s here to take the parts of your job that shouldn’t require a human.

If your work consists of:

• Reformatting the same spreadsheet every Friday,

• Writing boilerplate emails on autopilot,

• Creating predictable status reports just to “check a box,”

Then yes, AI is going to replace that—and fast.

But it’s not replacing you. It’s replacing the mundane. The mechanical. The soul-crushing busywork we’ve all been told is just “part of the job.”

If your value lies in solving problems no one else sees, building what doesn’t yet exist, or leading with courage in ambiguity—AI isn’t a threat. It’s a power tool.

What Happens When the Boring Work Is Gone?

Here’s the magic no one’s talking about: When you take the mundane off the table, you unlock capacity for what actually matters.

• You get time to mentor instead of just manage.

• You get space to design, not just deliver.

• You get energy back to think deeply, not just respond quickly.

We’ve spent years telling people to “work smarter, not harder. ”AI is finally the way to do that at scale. It’s not about doing more—it’s about doing what only humans can.

And the truth is, most businesses aren’t ready for that shift. But the best leaders will be.

Your Soft Skills Are Now the Hardest to Automate

We used to reward people for mastering hard skills—tools, platforms, policies. But here’s the truth:

AI can now outperform 90% of people in “technical skills.”

It can code faster. Analyze cleaner. Translate better. Write faster.

So what’s left?

• Empathy.

• Vision.

• Moral clarity.

• Curiosity.

• Strategic risk.

These are the real hard skills now. These are the ones that can’t be outsourced to an algorithm.

You can prompt AI with a thousand commands, but you still need a human to ask the right question in the first place.

Stop Bolting AI Onto Broken Systems

Here’s where most businesses will get it wrong: They’ll treat AI as a shiny add-on. A layer to slap on top of outdated systems.

But AI isn’t a bolt-on tool. It’s a redesign signal.

You don’t use AI to do what you’ve always done slightly faster. You use it to ask: “If we had this capability from day one, what would we never build again?”

That’s the question I ask every team I work with through Bisblox. And the answers are usually hard—but freeing.

AI gives you the chance to blow up old assumptions and rebuild leaner, smarter, braver. Don’t waste it.

This Isn’t a Threat. It’s a Test.

What we’re experiencing with AI isn’t the fall of civilization. It’s the collapse of busywork.

AI is going to expose the leaders who built their success on routine. But it will elevate the ones who’ve always been builders.

• It will reward courage.

• It will reward clarity.

• It will reward those willing to reimagine everything.

The ones who fear AI most are usually those clinging to control. But those of us who’ve been itching to disrupt the status quo—we’re thriving in this moment.

AI doesn’t take away your leadership. It forces you to earn it.

The Real Question: What’s Left When the Boring is Gone?

If AI takes 40% of your day, what will you fill it with?

If it writes the first draft, runs the report, and triggers the workflow—what will you choose to create in that space?

That’s the new frontier of leadership. Not working more. Not reacting faster. But building what couldn’t exist until now.

Because when you strip out the repetitive, you’re left with the extraordinary.

So no—AI won’t destroy us. But it will destroy the comfort of being mediocre.

And if you’re ready to let go of boring? You’re going to love what comes next.

Want help preparing your organization for this shift? This is exactly the kind of transformation we support at BISBLOX—from strategic DNA to system-wide redesign. Let’s build the future together.