When people talk about AI, they usually start with fear: Will it replace jobs? Will it make us redundant?

The truth is simpler – and a lot less dramatic. AI isn’t replacing people. It’s replacing bad habits.

It’s replacing the half-hour we waste rewriting an email that should have taken five minutes. It’s replacing the hours spent formatting reports instead of thinking about what they actually mean. It’s replacing the constant, low-level admin that stops small businesses from doing the work that really matters.

I’ve seen this first-hand. In my world – business, training, and ADR – people are brilliant at the human part of their jobs, but they lose time to repetition. AI gives that time back. It automates the clutter so we can focus on the craft.

The irony is that the people who fear AI the most are often the ones who stand to gain the most from it. When you stop thinking of AI as a threat and start treating it as a tool, you realise it’s just another step in how we get better at work.

The same way spreadsheets replaced calculators, and email replaced fax machines.

The trick is to use it with intent. Don’t automate everything – just the things that don’t deserve your attention anymore.