Will AI kill your job? What happens to your job as AI gets smarter and companies keep laying people off even while profits rise? Will you still have a job? Will the job you have change beyond recognition?
Scary questions, no?
In this episode of TechFirst, we sit down with Nikki Barua, co-founder of Footwork and longtime founder, executive, and resiliency expert, to unpack what work really looks like in the age of AI.
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Check out our conversation here:
Layoffs are no longer just about economic downturns. Companies are growing, innovating, and still cutting staff, often because AI is enabling more output with less capacity.
So what does that mean for you?
Nikki argues the future doesn’t belong to those who simply “learn AI tools,” but to agentic humans: people who lead with uniquely human strengths and use AI to amplify their impact. This conversation explores:
• Why today’s layoffs are different from past cycles
• How AI is compressing jobs before creating new ones
• What it means to move from doing work to directing outcomes
• Why identity, curiosity, and agency matter more than certifications
• How to rethink workflows instead of chasing shiny AI tools
• The FLIP framework: Focus, Leverage, Influence, and Power
This episode isn’t about fear.
It’s about reinvention.
If you’re wondering how to stay relevant, valuable, and resilient as AI reshapes work, this is the place to start.
Transcript: how to AI-proof your job
Note: this is an AI-generated transcript. It may not be 100% correct.
John Koetsier
What happens to your job in the age of AI? What happens to you?
Hello and welcome to TechFirst. My name is John Koetsier. There have been tens of thousands of layoffs in the tech industry and elsewhere in this layoff season, as they call it. Sometimes executives have said AI is part of the reason. Often they’ve said it’s not, but it’s been suspected.
As AI gets better and better, more and more of us are wondering: what’s going to happen to my job? What’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to the way I work right now? Is that all going to have to change?
We have Nikki Barua. She’s the co-founder of Footwork, which helps companies reinvent themselves with agentic AI. She’s a longtime founder and executive and a resiliency expert who says humans are still the most powerful technology on the planet. I like that.
Welcome, Nikki. How are you doing?
Nikki Barua
Great. Thrilled to be here.
John Koetsier
I am pumped to have this conversation because I think it’s super topical.
We’ve seen tons of layoffs, as I mentioned, but we also see the power of AI and how quickly it’s growing, how it’s getting so much better. We laughed at AI two or three years ago when it was trying to make sentences and was just bad. We even laughed a year ago when we saw all the hallucinations—lawyers putting the wrong things in briefs and getting threatened with disbarment. And it keeps getting better and better.
GPT-5 is really good. Gemini 3 is amazing. This is kind of scary. What’s happening to jobs as all this is going on?
Nikki Barua
Look, we may have been laughing at AI for the last couple of years, but let’s make sure AI isn’t the one having the last laugh. That’s why the choices we make as leaders and within organizations are so important—thinking about how we amplify people, not just replace them.
One thing that’s different about this season of layoffs is that in the past, layoffs were driven by macroeconomic conditions or stock market pressure to become more efficient and profitable. That’s not what’s happening right now.
Companies are growing, they’re profitable, they’re innovating, and yet the layoffs are significant. That signals more productivity, output, and outcomes with less capacity. Whether leaders admit it or not, AI definitely has a role to play in the future, if not already.
They’re seeing less capacity required for the jobs that currently exist. My prediction is that over the next 18 to 24 months, we’ll continue to see more of that. You’re already seeing bigger companies and leading brands do this, and that trend will continue across the board.
That’s not a good thing for society. It’s not a good thing for the individuals impacted or for the families hurt by the loss of income. There will be short-term compression until a new wave of innovation demands new skills and more capacity. That trough is going to be painful.
But I do see a future with expanded capacity and a need for new types of skills and mindsets. That’s what people need to prepare for.
John Koetsier
So the tunnel’s real, but there is light at the end of it.
You mentioned companies that are profitable and growing and still laying people off. Few things anger me more than seeing companies with record profits—billions of dollars—lay off thousands of people. You couldn’t repurpose them? You couldn’t find something else for them to do? You couldn’t kickstart innovation in a new area?
That’s frustrating.
I recently interviewed a teen who wrote a serious academic research paper on what AI will do to teenage employment. She predicts a 17% decrease. That’s interesting.
So you talked about compression and reigniting innovation. What should people be thinking about and doing in their jobs as this wave of AI washes over them?
Nikki Barua
The first thing is to think about who you need to become to be successful in the AI age. We can’t succeed in this era with an outdated playbook.
There’s a lot of superficial application of AI—using ChatGPT to write emails or memos. That’s surface-level. What’s required is becoming an agentic human: understanding how humans and machines collaborate and what your role is in that partnership.
What makes you exponentially capable? How do you redefine your value, worth, and outcomes? That’s true reinvention.
Unfortunately, employers aren’t providing much support for this.
John Koetsier
Because they don’t know either.
Nikki Barua
Exactly. Instead, we see certifications and AI training. But if you’re a marketer, learning to code an app won’t help you keep your marketing job. If you’re a copywriter, an AI certification alone won’t transition you into this new world.
Reimagining your identity, habits, behaviors, skills, and value creation will open new doors and help you stay relevant.
John Koetsier
There’s a lot to unpack there—like what an agentic human actually is.
Is this about understanding the ultimate value you provide and adapting how you deliver it? Is becoming an agentic human the way to do that?
Nikki Barua
Exactly. An agentic human leads with uniquely human strengths and leverages AI to amplify them while letting go of low-value tasks. You move from doing to directing.
Think of it as people squared—you plus your AI clone. Double the capacity, double the value. You stop competing with machines and focus on outcomes created together.
Agentic humans are also high-agency individuals. In a fast-moving, uncertain environment, you can’t wait for direction or permission. That’s an industrial-age mindset.
High-agency people have entrepreneurial mindsets, ownership mentality, and a commitment to continuous learning. That’s the profile organizations need and the kind of leadership that will succeed.
John Koetsier
Let’s make this concrete. How do you use AI? How are you an agentic human?
Nikki Barua
I use a framework called FLIP.
Focus is about identifying your unique zone of genius and grounding your identity in purpose. You stop competing with what defined you in the past and start building an AI-native identity.
Until you know what truly sets you apart, everything else is just a band-aid.
Leverage is about compounding capacity. Instead of proving worth through effort and hours, you rethink workflows, decision-making, judgment, and collaboration. You build leverage beyond automation.
Influence today is about trust, not status or titles. Authenticity scales ideas and impact.
Power is about sustaining momentum through continuous learning—upgrading your personal operating system as cycles accelerate.
Across all of this, the right use of AI makes you exponentially capable while preserving what no one else can replicate. There’s only one you.
John Koetsier
That historical perspective is interesting. Humans make tools, then tools change us. The risk is becoming a cog again.
Retaining agency means discovering your unique value. And I’m guessing many people have never really thought about that—across all roles.
Some people have, especially consultants, but for many this is new.
Nikki Barua
It’s basically scaled influence.
John Koetsier
Right. That mindset shift is the starting point.
Nikki Barua
Yes, and two things make this different from past tech revolutions.
First, AI democratizes infinite intelligence. What differentiates outcomes is imagination and unique input—wisdom, judgment, taste, creativity, compassion.
Second, in the past we learned technology. Now the value comes from teaching it. What you teach AI is what’s unique about you.
That’s why high-agency people who can synthesize experience and perspective create differentiated outcomes.
John Koetsier
Let’s talk tools. Do you use custom GPTs? Agents? Frameworks?
Nikki Barua
Custom GPTs are helpful, but the real breakthrough is reimagining workflows end to end. Not just doing things faster, but better.
Whether it’s a newsletter or any process, redesigning the workflow and building agents around it is the unlock.
Experimentation is rampant, but adoption isn’t. People hesitate to commit—tools may disappear, workflows are painful to change.
John Koetsier
And subscriptions add up fast.
Nikki Barua
Exactly. At enterprise scale it’s chaotic—millions spent on unused tools. ROI suffers.
The mistake is focusing on tools before purpose. Start with what you want to accomplish, then workflows, then tools.
John Koetsier
That’s the hard work. The easy thing is buying the shiny object.
Nikki Barua
Intent drives ROI. Otherwise you spend time stitching tools together without meaningful return.
This reminds me of the mobile app gold rush—millions of apps, little value. We’re seeing a similar phase now with AI.
Some chaos is good—it builds comfort—but results require clarity of intent.
John Koetsier
Trying things still matters. Learning by doing matters.
Nikki Barua
Absolutely. The biggest blocker is old identities, especially for senior leaders. Letting go of the playbook that made you successful is threatening.
But the future belongs to those willing to go from expert to explorer.
John Koetsier
Which is why curiosity is the ultimate superpower.
Nikki Barua
Absolutely.
John Koetsier
This has been a great conversation. We can’t give a step-by-step path for everyone, but you’ve provided a framework to start.
Nikki Barua
I’ll leave three steps:
One, question old identities and labels.
Two, lead with curiosity and an explorer’s mindset.
Three, amplify what truly distinguishes you.
John Koetsier
Steps four through N are still TBD.
Nikki Barua
We’ll keep figuring them out.
John Koetsier
Thank you so much for your time, Nikki.
Nikki Barua
Thanks for having me on the show, John.