Lead In 30 Podcast

The AI Robots are Coming! These Managers Should Be Scared...

• Russ Hill

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It's so clear which managers and executives are going to lose their jobs and who shouldn't be concerned as the AI army begins to deploy across the workforce. In this episode Lone Rock Leadership co-founder Russ Hill dives into how to stay ahead of the AI learning curve and how to know if your job is at risk.

• The growing prevalence of AI in business conversations 
• Importance of leaders understanding AI tools for career relevance 
• Job roles at greater risk of being replaced by automation 
• The need for professionals to articulate their unique contributions 
• Identifying industries offering resilience against AI disruption 
• Emphasis on lifelong learning and adaptability in one's career 

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The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



Speaker 1:

The AI robots are coming. Who should be concerned about losing their job and who's got nothing to worry about? This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill. You cannot be serious. Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

Speaker 1:

You literally like hear about it anywhere. If you've been to a business conference lately, you've been to a business conference lately you've been to a networking event, you've logged on to any kind of whatever linkedin or anything, you, you see all this discussion about ai and and the conversation goes like this um, yeah, we're really. Well, it depends on the industry, it depends on who's in the room, right? But typically it's like, yeah, man, we're concerned about it. Well, there are actually two things that happen. Number one like that is the best industry to be in. Like, if I it doesn't matter what company I own, I'm a plumber, I'm well, yeah, we're a plumbing company that uses the latest in AI. If I'm an air conditioning repair, yeah, we're, we're AC and heating and powered by AI. If I, if I like, make what do you call those things that they? They sell Tamales yeah, we're AI powered tamale factory.

Speaker 1:

Like you, you want your business to boom, you want to sound like totally tech savvy and innovative and whatever you just go, yeah, we're, we're fueled by AI. Like, there are so many bogus claims of that right now, and but, but you know what? It's brilliant in a lot of ways, and and and one of the industries that we work in right, leadership development. As far as training right, we've got the two sides of our business the consulting side, which we work with senior executive teams and different business units and organizations, and that's what we've been doing for 20 years and it's our passion and we love it and yeah, so, um, working, working with executive teams and and then and then we've got the training side, which is the scale side right, cause you can, you can, um, you can train 400, 500, a thousand, or I told you, I've told you all about, you know, the 2,800 managers in one global organization that they trained using our platform and our approach in just one quarter, which is just crazy.

Speaker 1:

They were just blown away. And the impact you all wait till we put out the case study results on that the effect on employee engagement, the effect on high-level financial performance insane, insane, insane. We've got to publish that because it's just going to fuel even more of our success over there Anyone that's engaged in it, anyway. So we've got the training side. So when you're talking to the folks in the training industry, they're all about AI. Like, oh, yeah, we're using AI technology and almost like these HR and L and D professionals view it as if they're not doing it, they're getting left behind. I think that's very real. Like there's this part of it where, um, so you see, two things with AI out there. One is people buying it, people using it, people talking about it because they want to, they want to sound contemporary, and so they're spinning, they're starting to spend money on stupid stuff that that is not that effective. But it's got an AI label on it's tamales made powered by AI. Oh gosh, we got to get those, you know. Well, what does it do? Well, we're not really sure, but it's AI, you know. Oh, okay, yeah, for sure, I understand you spent money on it, so you're seeing that in the training industry, which is crazy, because I mean, there are, there are legit products, right, and we use it in our in here I am talking about that. We use it a little bit in our training, but it's it's like a supplemental thing, it's not our lead thing and it's where we tap into it where it makes sense, but we're not powered by that. We're what are we powered by? We're powered by human beings who've got experience and know what the crap they're doing, who've got proven results. Like that's who you go be powered by AI. We're powered by humans who've got tons of experience and and know what they're doing and have unlocked the wisdom that comes with with with years and years of experience. You, and maybe the robots, will overtake that at some point, but I'm really like, not concerned about it in the next four minutes or four years. Now I'll get into a. I'll get into where I think it's going to be awesome and revolutionary and amazing in just a few minutes and just a few minutes. But and I want to talk to you about those who should be concerned about losing their job to AI, because it's obvious who those people are. It's so obvious who you like. Update your resume Now. Change industries, get in a different person, profession Like it's so obvious who that should be. And then the group that you got nothing to worry about. And it's obvious who those people are. Let's get into that in just a moment.

Speaker 1:

Welcome into the lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, each episode, we give you a framework, a model of best practice and observation, something to consider, implementing, thinking about in your effort to more effectively lead those who you, um, who you lead, and lead in 30 is a 30-day course that we've got. It's one of the courses that we teach. We've got other courses around decision making, around taking greater self-accountability how do you get rid of the blame game in an organization we've got. We've got a course also about um, change management. We call it adapt in 30, which, oh my gosh, I gotta. I gotta do an episode about that one. It's well, we were. We spent an hour yesterday meeting with um, some of the content team on that. It's just where that content is. Is is just unbelievable. It was good before, now it's like next level. So, anyway, um, that's what we do. You can find out more at lone rockio. Lone rock leadership's the name of our company and I'm Russ Hill. I've spent my last uh, however many years losing track man Um consulting with, coaching senior executive teams at some of the world's most amazing, biggest companies, and I share some of those experiences.

Speaker 1:

If you listen to enough episodes, you'll hear me tell stories about Amazon, lockheed Martin, cigna, general Motors, big restaurant chains, hospital systems, manufacturing companies. The list goes on and on. And just amazing, amazing companies. We uh a senior executive from what was johnson and johnson. He worked at johnson and johnson for a while and then they split into two companies right, with kenview being the new company. Kenview is a new one that none of you have ever heard about. They're the ones that make everything from band-aids to listerine to children's tylenol to um gosh half the lotions that are in grocery stores just a ton of different products. And um, we have one of the executives that just tells amazing stories. Um, we had about a uh at an executive retreat we did in Scottsdale invitation only capped it at 20 people. Amazing event couple couple weeks ago is so awesome. And um, perhaps a few of those that were there listening to this podcast and you'll agree with that just just a fantastic event.

Speaker 1:

So, anyway, executives like that, companies like that, are who we work with, okay, who should be concerned well, so. So two, two different ways that you're seeing ai having an effect on business right now. And I get to work in a leadership lab with leaders at all kinds of different organizations so you get you get this cross-section kind of industry or the marketplace, and so you get to be in the boardroom or the ballroom or in the zoom room with with folks as they're talking about these things. So AI comes up, comes up everywhere, everywhere, okay, doesn't matter whether it's a pizza restaurant or whether it's a hospital system or whether it's a pharma company or whether it's a manufacturer, it doesn't matter, everybody it's. It's like and and and legit.

Speaker 1:

If you're an executive that doesn't have the chat GPT app on your phone, like would you just submit your retirement now? Would you just like like it's it's time to step aside? And and if you're going well, I don't really have, no, you, you like that? That would be like, well, I haven't really gotten around to using google maps yet. Oh, really like, okay. Or that would be like one of you as a senior executive being like, yeah, I'm thinking about trying out text messaging. Oh, oh, okay, yeah, you, you let me know that, let me know how that works, and I don't have any interest in hiring you.

Speaker 1:

So, like, you got to be using this stuff a little bit and and I would suggest a more than a little bit like, and you got to read some articles and you got to listen to some podcasts and you, you got it, you got to be up to speed on. Doesn't mean you got to read some articles and you got to listen to some podcasts and you got it. You got to be up to speed on. Doesn't mean you have to be like, dive in and use it a ton, like I think you should, because the tools are amazing. I'll get into some of that in just a second. So there's the way you use it.

Speaker 1:

That's one aspect of it, and then the other aspect is how you're viewing it, potentially affecting your job or the leaders or managers around you. I want to get into both real quick, because I got strong opinions on both. Doesn't mean I'm right, but I'm going to take a position right, and the reason I'm taking a position is what good leaders do they take positions why? Because it's efficient. It drives the conversation forward. You know what slows an organization and a team down? A leader that's got no position. It's like, yeah, we're thinking about innovating and yeah, we ought to have that meeting. No, like that, that, like we're not going anywhere. I want the leader that comes in and I think we should invest about $3 million $30 million, whatever the size of organization you got in uh in in new product innovation this year, and I think it should be this I'm movable. I'm not sure, but that's what I think. You want to drive discussion. You want to drive movement in your organization.

Speaker 1:

Take positions. So I'm going to take a position in this podcast, which will cause you when I take a position. It forces you to take a position. That's just the way that it works, right, and so, or to think, gosh, I need, I don't. I think he's right, but I need to. I need to research that on my own more to know if I agree with him or I think he's wrong. And I got to research that a little bit more so I can back up my argument for why he's wrong. It's debate Any of you that ever took debate in high school or college or whatever else right? There's so much value that comes from that taking a position, and because you got to look at all the all the sides.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the position is this number one is my first. I'm going to take two, maybe, maybe three. The first one is around your use of AI, and then I'm going to get into whose jobs are affected. Number one um, you ought to be using it as an executive. I just talked about that. What does that look like? You need to know terms like deep research. You need to know how that's different from just a web search AI tool. Those are two fundamentally different things. So what does deep research mean and what's a typical AI tool do? Okay, and then you need to know terms like agents and operators what, what, what does that mean? As it pertains to ai, I'll give you the crash course. I'm not the expert at all. I don't pretend to be.

Speaker 1:

This is not an ai podcast. It's a leadership podcast, but this is obviously a huge issue or topic for leaders, so we got to be up to speed on it. Some of you again are going to be industries that are way more impacted than others, but you need to be on to speed on it. Some of you again are going to be industries that are way more impacted than others, but you need to be on the cutting edge on this. You need to be researching it, you need to be spending time reading stuff about it and um, and and and thinking about ways you could be using it in your organization. For some of you there, there's obvious use cases right now. For others it's not so much right now, but you're you're up to date on it. That increases your value, not only for your current organization but in the marketplace. Okay and so. So let's talk about a few of those terms real quick Again. I'm just going to go through them quickly.

Speaker 1:

So a typical AI tool, which is could be perplexity, it could be a clod, it could be. These are terms you ought to know. Clod Clod is an AI tool like C-L-A-U-D-E, it's like a competitor to chat GPT and it's got a little bit of nuance Grok, g-r-o-k, g-r-o-k. Grok. That's Elon Musk's AI tool that is built into X or Twitter. Okay, and you don't have to have a ton of experience and then chat GPT is kind of like the big the, the, the big dog right now, right, but being challenged a lot, lots of controversy around that. And and then you've got um, the you know the tool that's just coming out of China and different tools. So these are, these are.

Speaker 1:

There are four or five or six mainstream basic use AI tools, and what do they do? Well, they've got LLM, which is large learning modules, right, and so what that means is they're just pumping tons of data into these databases. And so, in fact, just a few miles from where I'm at, is the Meta AI I want to call it factory, but data center, that's the right term. So Facebook, instagram, all that, all those CPUs, all those hard drives are sitting most of them they've got multiple locations, but the main one is just a few miles from me, here in Arizona.

Speaker 1:

Why'd they pick arizona? Because we don't have much severe weather. It's pretty much sunny and hot every day, and we get a few storms a year, but not many. We don't have tornadoes rolling through here, we don't have hurricanes, we don't have earthquakes, we don't have any of that crap. We just get some really severe thunderstorms for like half a minute and less than like two inches of rain a year, and so they can rely on that, plus easy access in and out on airports and a good anyway. There are reasons for that. So those are the basic AI tools.

Speaker 1:

What do they do? So they pump all this data in, and there's a race right now between these companies to get as much data books, articles, research, things, search. Think about it like in the early days of Google and and and internet search engines and they were just trying to index, so they called it spider right, crawl the whole internet, crawl every website, and and, like, and, and, and then store this library of oh, you're looking for a good Mexican restaurant in your neighborhood? Well, here are all the websites of places by you or whatever else, right. And so think about how those internet search engines 30 years ago, 20 years ago, were in a race to crawl the internet to gain all that data. That's what's happening when it comes to content, whether it's science, books, coding for computers, whatever. They're trying to make these machines as smart as they can, and they're in a race to do it, okay, and there's pretty dramatic movement every two or three months. It's stunning, right? And then they're in a race. Now the second. So they've got the content library in all of these tools. They've all got similar content libraries, and then, and then they've got what's called reasoning, and so the more advanced AI tools that are coming out now, or that these same companies.

Speaker 1:

They have an additional tool you can use. Think about it like Google has three different or four different search engines. You can use this one to search, and they actually do. This one to search maps, this one to search images, this one to search the web. Okay, google's got those right and you just click on the different tab or whatever. That's what the AI companies have. They've got one that's got reasoning in it.

Speaker 1:

And what reasoning is? Now? You've got a computer that's actually going to use some thought. So you, you put into it and you say, hey, um, develop a strategy for a startup lemonade stand located in the Southern U S that's aiming to generate, um, a hundred dollars of revenue a day, um day, located on a, an intersection with about 5,000 cars that come by. Well, give me a marketing strategy, give me a whatever, whatever. And you type that in and it reasons. The computer says the AI tool says, okay, I'm going to go out and search the internet for that and I'm going to use my brain, supposedly like I'm going to use the rules I know, or what, what information I've got and I'm to kind of give you some, to take a position, to make some recommendations. That's an AI tool with reasoning. Now I'm making some recommendations. I'm not just returning to you the data, but I'm actually reasoning.

Speaker 1:

And then you, you add reasoning to a deep research tool. What is a deep research tool? Think about it like another tab on Google. You know, you've got, you've got regular AI, you've got reasoning, and now you've got deep research with reasoning. What's deep research? It means what it's going to return to you. It's going to utilize 20, 30 sources and it's going to it's going to go in depth. So, for instance, I asked it in the training industry to summarize the uh, the, the the content delivery, or the uh the training delivery methods um used pre pandemic for the five years leading into the pandemic, and then the, the, the the post pandemic era, the last five years, 2020 to now, here in 2025. And and give give me a 20 page research paper project that um analyzes what the most um, most uh used methods for delivery of of leadership training are meaning like in-person versus virtual, versus on-demand, versus hybrid versus whatever. And then give give me revenue numbers generated by each one of the yada, yada, yada.

Speaker 1:

I gave it all this with what they call the prompt right, and so you got to get good at writing prompts. Well, what do I ask it? It's not like Google. Well, actually, it's kind of like Google where you would say, okay, I need to put in these words Well, now, in a prompt, if you're doing like a deep research reasoning prompt, it's going to be a hundred words. Right, you're going to spend. I have an Apple notes and all it is is just prompts. So I've just one note that these are where I write.

Speaker 1:

I write my prompt that I'm going to give to the deep reasoning tool and then it returns it. What? These tools? Like a chat, gpt, and you have to pay money for some of these. Right, they're not free. Like, you want to go deep reasoning research, you got to pay. Like, with chat GPT, that's $200 a month, which when I first saw that, I'm like wow, that's outrageous. Then I then I uh read a lot of reviews and and then I thought for our business, I'm like $200 a month for a business is like nothing. Like a person, I'm like well, 200 bucks a month, you know, okay, we, you know people got that money. But is it worth that Like or whatever. But then, when I thought about it from the business standpoint. I'm like, why would we not like that's stupid, that we wouldn't pay, that that's absolutely dumb. And and then I started asking it to return these research papers and, by the way, it takes like 15 minutes to do it. It's like handing it off to a research agent and then they come back and they give it to you. I would say about 70% of the deep research reasoning reports that I get back are stunning. They're unbelievable. They're so valuable on strategic vision, on historical information, on market analysis, on recommend like it's stunning and they're just going to get better. So that's usage, like I'm giving you a few.

Speaker 1:

And then agents. Agents are where, uh, for instance, now an agent is where it completes a task. So, for instance, you could book a vacation right now using a chat, gpt, um, uh, ai agent. And an agent's not a person. Obviously it's a machine, but now it's power to go do something. For instance, an agent that I use, which agent is just a command. Think of it like a task. So, uh, an AI task. So don't get worked up on the word agent, cause you're thinking about like a person. No, it's just, this is a task. So now it's going and doing something. It can get onto um to Airbnb booked a locate, book a home or get back to you, put you know. You say, hey, give me recommendations for homes in Vail or within 50 miles of Vail that have at least four bedrooms, three bathrooms and um are available during this time and have at least a this star rating, and return to me my options and it will go. The chat GPT or other company agent chat GPT is leading the way in this area. Others will be right behind it. It will go do that. So then you go to your Zoom meeting and then you pop back in 30 minutes or an hour you've got a notification saying here's the recommendations or here's a list of 10 top properties and and we would recommend these two. Oh my gosh, do you know how much time you saved me? The agent will now, even if you want it to book it, it will. It will come back to you and say, okay, here's what we found, this is what we recommend. Would you like me to go make the reservation now? And, yep, go get that done. Thank you, I have it.

Speaker 1:

I have my favorite podcast. I have it summarized. So some of these podcasts, let's say, like a Joe Rogan episode, I don't have two and a half hours. I'm sorry but I don't have two and a half hours to listen to a Joe Rogan episode. But he interviews some people that I'm interested in occasionally. I'd say probably 2%, 5%.

Speaker 1:

So I have a chat GPT agent going out and analyzing, getting a transcript. It does this all behind the scenes. I put in the prompt go, get me the transcripts and summarize in a one page document with bullet points each of the episodes from Joe Rogan and then at the bottom of that report, give me any book, interview, podcast, um guest, whatever that was referenced, and it returns it to me daily or anytime Joe Rogan has a new episode. Then there's some other things religious or spiritual podcasts, other things that I have it on Sunday morning before I go to church. I want a summary of this kind of a podcast to get, whatever, because I don't have two hours to listen to that podcast. So but then I can read the bullet points and if I'm interested and if they, if the guest quoted a book or whatever, I got it all right there. So those are agents, okay, and then operators are real, similar to that, and we don't have time to get to it. I got to, I got to wrap up here.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so are you up to speed on all this? Some of you, I'm like you already know all this. Others you're like I'm totally lost. Well, this is the sort of stuff as an executive, as a leader, as a manager, you need to be up to speed on. You need to be using some of this stuff, investing some of your own money, investing some of the company's money and being up to speed on this.

Speaker 1:

Then there are specialized AI tools and those are industry specific and it's like the AI tool that counts the number of pepperonis, uh, through a camera for a pizza restaurant. That's a specialized AI product that's available to the restaurant industry. That's legit. Had an executive tell me that recently. Yup, we're using AI. We put cameras overhead of the pizza operators and people making pizzas in our all of our locations. This is a consultant or a client of ours and and the camera then counts how many pepperonis are on there and we know when, when we've got a store or an employee that's either not doing, not make, who's not making the pizza, right, too many pepperonis, too few, right? Crazy. So specialized hospitals, all this. So you got all these companies springing up with specialized AI tools. You got to be up to speed on what's happening in your industry with that. So the specialized tools. And then, um gosh, what else did I want to say about, about tools? Those are, those are the basic things, right, and? And it's changing dramatically. Now let me talk about who's going to lose their job. Okay, so we're, we're.

Speaker 1:

I've been in just so many conversations at conferences, different networking events, where AI comes up and people are they're spending money on stupid crap that that doesn't make sense, but they want to look like they're AI tech savvy. I get it. If I was an executive at one of these companies, I would. I would squash that and be like, no, like, especially like leadership training, like you're really. You think more content is the answer to what your leaders need. No, they actually need you to focus on fewer competencies and get serious about them and quit handing out a book every month the book of the month for our leadership club, like, cause I don't know which one of these you want me to actually implement, which ones we actually believe in as a firm, and not so like, pick your core competencies and stick with it. Don't go out and think, oh, you know, what we need is more content, because 17,000 courses on LinkedIn learning wasn't enough, like.

Speaker 1:

And then you wonder, well like, why your managers don't have basic core competencies? Because you aren't. Less is is more, okay, anyway. So just you be smart, okay. Now who's gonna lose their job? People who suck period? Any other questions not for real like.

Speaker 1:

So I've always viewed it, and and I hope you have too, that if I am easily replaceable, then I've got very little market value. So I might have the same title as the person before me in this organization, I might have the same position that all of our competitors have. They have somebody in this spot, but I am unlike any of them. They can't touch me. And I mean that in all seriousness and half facetious, not in an arrogant way like that's the value you get. I've got to differentiate myself from every other VP of marketing, from every other operations head, from every other CFO operations head, from every other CFO, from every other sales leader from ever. Like. I'm different. You get with me things you wouldn't get with them, and if you'd like to know specifically what they are, I can articulate them, because I'm not just trying to work harder, be smarter and and more effective, like that. Those words mean nothing. Buzzword bingo. You think you differentiate yourself because you work harder or longer hours. No, you're easily replaceable. So you've got to, you've got to come to the market with differentiated value.

Speaker 1:

So what is it? So, one area, for instance, that I've been describing this episode, one very small areas. I'm up to speed on trends. I'm aware of the ones that are actually going to impact the market AI Hello, like the internet. So we're in the we're in the dawn of the internet launching right now. It's just called AI and it's going to be. It's going to blow the AI, the internet impact on business out of the water. And so I'm reading, I'm consuming, I'm listening and I'm throwing 60%, 80% of it out. It's crap that I'm reading. But the other stuff, I'm experimenting. I'm spending some time digging around and playing with tools. So I could say everything in this episode. I'm holding back most of what I've learned, right Cause it did not take too long.

Speaker 1:

So you've got to have differentiated value. The managers that are going to be replaced are the ones that are just bodies in uniforms that are just clocking in and clocking out, the ones that a machine can. I promise you. You don't work 24 hours a day. The robot will. It does not need a break, it does not need to sleep, it does not need a food, okay. So if your differentiated value is working hard, you're replaceable by a robot.

Speaker 1:

Okay, if your differentiated value is well, whatever, like it's generic. But if your differentiated value is the way you process things, the wisdom you bring to the table, how you're able to, whatever like that you need to. You need to articulate that, get it down on paper and lean into that. The managers now certain industries and certain whatever. Yeah, you're going to be impacted more than others. So I'm looking at the industries that are going to be impacted less. I'm looking at the positions that I'm leaning into that, especially if I've got 20 or 30 years left of my career, if I've got 10, not going to impact you that much, you're going to be part of a declining group, but but yeah. So if I've got 20 or more than 10 years left, I'm looking for the industries that are not going to be completely obliterated by AI, where there's going to be there's 10,000 people working for that company and soon there's going to be um 500.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, I don't want to be in that industry, right and so. And then, as a leader, you don't think we want a human in there that's got great reasoning skills, that got vast experience, that's that's unlocked wisdom, that knows how to create alignment, that gets in and makes decisions and knows how to bring people along Like hello. Ain't no robot going to be replacing you anytime soon? So think about. These are things that we ought to be thinking about. How are we, how are we staying ahead of the trend or keeping up with it? What tools are we using in our organization that makes sense, not the AI-powered tamale? Stand right, come on. And then, how are you differentiating your value so that you can't be replaced by a robot? That's what's on my mind in this episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

Speaker 2:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.