A couple of weeks ago, I joined up with a merry band of my fellow bankers for the first day of my new Coaching Apprenticeship training.

Once we’d settled in, we were asked the question:

Why are you here?

Turns out my colleagues want to help other people, learn some new skills and get stuck into some personal development.

But a few colleagues gave a different answer that took me by surprise.

That answer?

To futureproof their career against the looming AI-pocalypse.

Now, anyone who says that AI will create a utopian paradise or conversely that AI is the end of civilisation either has an agenda to peddle or is one sandwich short of a picnic. No-one can say with any confidence what impact AI will have on jobs and society over the next 1, 10 or 100 years. 

Me included.

But I do think about AI.

For instance, I wonder if AI is coming for this newsletter.

If it does, I’ve decided I can live with that. I don’t write for the glory of boshing out daily email after daily email. I write because the joy is in the writing itself. So it doesn’t really matter if AI can churn out 1,000 daily emails at the click of a button. For me, there will always be joy in writing. So write I shall.

It makes me think about how the chess world has morphed in the last 30 years.

When the supercomputer Deep Blue took down World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov, the death knell for human chess players was well and truly sounded.

Nowadays, I have a phone in my pocket that could beat Magnus Carlsen in a game of chess in a few seconds.

But does it “matter”?

Hell no.

The chess world is booming like never before. There are roughly half a billion people on the planet tootling off to their local chess club, playing blitz games on the bus, tuning into their favourite chess streamer or sharing news articles about Grandmasters hiding cheating devices where the sun don’t shine.

For these people (like me), the joy of chess isn’t watching two digital know-it-alls play the perfect game.

The joy is getting stuck in with other humans.

So that's a long way of saying I’m not worried about AI replacing my newsletter.

My day job is a different story though.

Unlike my writing, I don’t rock up to my day job for the joy of it.

Yes, The Subtraction Method helped me find various ways to turn what used to be a soul-sucking drudge fest into a workday that’s much more fun, easy-going and satisfying.

But would I do my day job if I didn’t get paid?

No, I wouldn’t.

So I understand exactly why my colleagues are taking a coaching training to futureproof their careers. If AI does come for the bankers, it makes sense to have a back-up plan.

Of course, AI could come for the coaches too.

But I can't help think that coaching is a great back-up plan precisely because we don’t know what’s coming. Whatever shape the outer world takes, people will still be wrestling with their inner world. And when the future of work is wide open, having a bunch of transferable skills to help people think clearly, make wise decisions and navigate uncertainty is a good place to be. 

“But Tom! AI can do that better!”

Perhaps it can, perhaps it can’t.

Perhaps there’s room for both?

Whatever the case, if you’re curious what it takes to become a successful coach, look no further than the cracking new book I’ve been promoting this week:

Coach and business consultant Ankush Jain’s Awakening The Coach Within

My UK readers can find the book here

Other regional Amazons are available too.

To fulfilment,

Tom

p.s. if you pick up a copy of Ankush’s new book Awakening The Coach Within and send me your receipt (a screenshot is fine) by 7pm UK Time on Friday 12th December, I’ll send you a one-time discount code.

You can use that code on one of Ankush’s trainings, The Secret to Radical Transformation.

This training usually costs £19.99.

But with the discount code?

Squadoosh!

That’s right. You can get the training for free.

You can read all about this training right here.

To recap:

Buy Ankush’s new book Awakening The Coach Within and send me your receipt by 7pm UK Time on Friday 12th December. In return, I’ll send you a discount code that lets you grab Ankush’s training The Secret to Radical Transformation for free.

That's just over a day from now.

Time’s ticking…