AI is changing what we do. I'm here to ask what that does to who we are.
Exploring how AI is shifting the future of work for communications professionals in New Zealand. A 40-week research study on career transition and identity.
Most conversations about the future of work focus on productivity, reskilling, and new tools. But for those of us who have built a career on the craft of language, the shift is much deeper.
Generative AI does not just change our tasks. It targets the very capabilities that define our expertise, our voice, our judgment, and our ability to shape meaning. When a machine can mimic your professional superpower, it triggers a quiet erosion of confidence. It is the question that keeps you up at night: does what I do still matter?
I am conducting a practice-based research study in Aotearoa to understand how mid-career communications professionals are navigating this exact transition.
By studying the subjective, human experience of this shift, not just the economics of job displacement, we can build more compassionate, human-centric ways to lead people through the next era of work.
I have been part of too many restructures. Long before any announcement is made, the uncertainty starts to break a person's sense of self. With AI, that is going to be much bigger.
I want to understand that lived experience. Where do people feel the fracture, and what helps make the transition more whole? If I can learn that, I can help make change better and more human.