Most people outside tech don’t realize just how fast AI is advancing.
You can get whiplash trying to keep up with the speed of innovation, and how it’s reshaping almost every field, from manufacturing and healthcare to finance, agriculture, retail, and transport.
There’s no question that AI will disrupt your industry. The only question is how much, and what you’ll do about it.
Anthropic’s CEO (the company behind Claude AI) put it well last year:
“People have adapted to past technological changes. But everyone I’ve talked to has said this technological change looks different, it’s faster, harder to adapt to, and broader. The pace of progress keeps catching people off guard.”
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For a few years now, the common belief was that AI would only take low-skilled jobs. But if you’ve been paying attention, you know that even high-skill, specialized roles are no longer safe.
You can spend a decade and a fortune on education and training, and still see your job replaced and automated by a system that never sleeps.
Can your job be replaced by AI
Your job is really a series of tasks that produce a result. To know how much your work might be affected by AI, look closely at the kind of tasks you do every day.
Here are five factors to think about:
- Repetitiveness: Is your job highly repetitive? Do you follow the same process every time? If yes, it’s at higher risk. AI excels at repetitive, rule-based actions, the kind you can describe in a checklist.
- Predictability: How predictable are your inputs and outputs?
If the outcomes are routine and rarely change, AI can probably handle them. The more predictable the task, the easier it is to automate.
- Creativity and Problem-Solving: Jobs that rely on original thinking, creativity, or problem-solving are harder to replace. AI can assist, but it still struggles to generate truly novel ideas or make intuitive leaps. It imitates patterns, it doesn’t imagine.
- Social and Relational Complexity: Humans still prefer to deal with humans.
If your work depends on trust, empathy, or navigating emotions, like sales, leadership, negotiation, or care, your value is in the relationships, not the routine. That’s difficult for machines to replicate.
- Context and Judgment
Some roles are ambiguous and require you to read between the lines, weigh ethics, or make judgment calls in uncertain situations.
When responsibility and context matter, human oversight isn’t optional, it’s essential.
What “Antifragile Income” Really Means
The opposite of fragile isn’t strong, it’s antifragile.
A strong oak might resist an 80-mph wind but still snap under pressure. A bamboo bends, sways, and returns stronger after the storm.
To be antifragile means you don’t just survive the wave of AI-driven change, you grow because of it. While others are complaining about lost jobs or shrinking opportunities, you’re finding ways to benefit from the shifts.
Building antifragile income isn’t about staying rigid. It’s about learning to bend, adapt, and come back stronger every time the world changes.
To do that, you need to build moats around your income, protective layers that make you harder to replace.
To do that, you need to build moats around your income, protective layers that make you harder to replace.
Building moats to protect your income in the AI age
If you lived in medieval times, where enemies invaded and destroyed castles in a war, your castle’s survival didn’t depend only on strong walls, it depended on the moat that surrounded them.
A moat was a deep, water-filled trench around castles that stopped or slowed attackers. It bought you time to strengthen your defenses, regroup, and recover from mistakes.
Without a moat, invaders could march straight to your gates with battering rams or dig under your walls.
Today, the same idea applies to business or career.
In business, a “moat” means a durable advantage, something that competitors, or in this case AI, can’t easily copy or replace.
A moat around your income gives you breathing room. It protects you when change hits suddenly. Below are some ways to build yours.
Integrate AI
The saying “if you can’t beat them, join them” fits perfectly here.
AI isn’t something to fear, it’s a tool to master.
Learn to use it to automate repetitive tasks, analyze data, enhance your communication and personalize your work.
This frees you to focus on the creative, strategic, and complex parts of your job, the areas where you add the most value.
Those who adapt and integrate AI will stand out from those who pretend nothing is changing. When you can wield it effectively, AI becomes a force multiplier, not a threat.
Build trust and network
AI can copy your style, but it can’t copy trust.
If people already trust you, clients, colleagues, or your audience, you have an advantage no machine can replace.
To deepen that trust, aim to become a trusted advisor, not just a service provider.
The difference is as a service provider, you simply do what the customer or business need
But a trusted advisor understands how their work affects the bigger picture, the company’s goals, the customer’s success, the outcome that truly matters.
When you take responsibility for results, not just tasks, you become indispensable.
Build a personal brand
A strong personal brand is like a moat you carry with you. It makes you recognizable and trusted far beyond your local market.
When you’re known as the go-to voice in your field, new opportunities find you, not the other way around.
An idea popularized by Daniel Priestley, is called becoming a Key Person of Influence (KPI).
Becoming a KPI increases your visibility and credibility. It makes you the person people call when the stakes are high.
Build your intellectual property (IP)
You can only sell so many hours, time is a limited resource and if it’s all you can sell, that makes you fragile.
To become antifragile, turn what you know into assets that earn even when you’re not working.
That could mean licensing your expertise, building a course, creating digital products, or writing a book.
In the creative world, this could be music, movies etc. These let your ideas scale without your constant presence.
AI struggles to compete with original knowledge and perspective. It can remix what’s public, but it can’t replace your lived experience or your unique way of seeing the world.
Leverage ownership and take small bets
Whenever possible, exchange effort for equity, not just cash.
If you’re creating value, consider asking for revenue share, royalties, or ownership.
Not every bet will pay off, and you might give up some immediate income, but these asymmetric bets offer limited downside and massive upside.
Ownership turns short-term work into long-term opportunity.
Diversify your investments
Don’t rely on a single paycheck or client.
Reinvest what you earn into assets that can generate income on their own, property, businesses, or digital ventures.
Some people rent out their homes on Airbnb. Others lease unused cars through platforms like Tarlen, or invest in dividend-paying stocks.
The goal is to build income that doesn’t vanish when your industry shifts.
Approach AI with the Right Mindset
When new technology arrives, most people look away.
They tell themselves it doesn’t affect them, until it does. Then they say, “It came out of nowhere”.
AI isn’t coming out of nowhere. It’s already here. The question is how you’ll choose to respond.
Status Quo Bias
Don’t assume that because you’ve done something the same way for 10 years, you’re safe. That mindset can quietly make you obsolete.
Instead, assume the world is shifting faster than you think, because it is. Stay curious. Keep learning. Update your playbook often.
Overconfidence
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your job can’t be replaced. Stay open to the possibility that you might be wrong.
Experiment, test, and share your work publicly. Yes, it comes with small risks, the occasional mistake or minor embarrassment, but it’s the fastest way to learn and adapt.
Remember: The real moat isn’t around your job title. It’s around your creativity, network, and ability to adapt.
About Tarlen
Tarlen is a car-sharing platform that helps you earn from your idle car.
The South African car rental market is projected to double from $2.39 billion in 2024 to $4.62 billion by 2030, opening a wave of new opportunities for car owners and entrepreneurs.
Tarlen gives you the tools and platform to start earning with the car you already have.
Our platform handles the marketing, attracts customers, and guides you as you grow your revenue and expand your carsharing business.
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