[K-Women Talk]Who Gets Laid Off and Why Do Some Survive?

AI: A Tool for Survival, Not a Threat
Time to Respond to Change with the 'ADAPT' Strategy

"I thought I would be fine. My team, my career as well." This is the story of a manager at a major corporation who was recently notified of a recommended resignation. As a headhunter, I have seen people who were highly sought after by the market just a few years ago now being encouraged to find a "different path" by their organizations within only a few years.

Microsoft has laid off tens of thousands of employees in three rounds of layoffs just this year, and most recently announced an additional 9,000 job cuts. In particular, middle managers in their 40s and 50s are said to be the primary targets.

In South Korea, the telecommunications industry has seen thousands of employees take voluntary retirement, and a major game company has carried out restructuring affecting around 900 people. According to a job portal, IT and telecommunications job postings in the first half of this year decreased compared to the previous year, with entry-level hiring down by 5% in particular. A sense of crisis?"This really isn't someone else's problem anymore"?is spreading rapidly among office workers.

According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Jobs Report, 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce in AI automation fields by 2030. The CEO of IBM said that 30% of 26,000 support roles could be replaced by AI within the next five years, and the CEO of Anthropic stated, "AI is already writing 90% of code, and within 12 months, AI could essentially write all code."

On the other hand, a story I recently heard from a team leader at an IT company is a successful case of using AI as a tool rather than seeing it as a threat. When the team made it mandatory for members to learn how to use ChatGPT, report writing time was reduced by 30%. By using the saved time for more client meetings, sales increased by 20%. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said, "You won't lose your job to AI, but to someone who uses AI."

I have summarized concrete survival strategies for the AI era into five keywords using the acronym 'ADAPT.'

A (Apply immediately): Start as soon as tomorrow. Ask ChatGPT about Excel functions, or draft emails with AI. The important thing is not to use AI-generated results as they are, but to develop a habit of reviewing and editing them.

D (Develop workflow): Redesign your work processes so that you can handle more than 30% of your tasks with AI assistance within three months. For example, if you are a marketer, establish a system for sharing tasks with AI at each stage?competitor analysis, insight extraction, and strategy development.

A (Amplify human skills): Invest your time in areas where AI cannot compete. Increase the number of client meetings and become more active in internal networking. Human capabilities such as conflict resolution and team motivation are your competitive edge.

P (Practice continuously): Spend 30 minutes every week testing new AI tools and attending AI-related seminars or online lectures. Developing a habit of fact-checking to address AI hallucination errors is also essential.

T (Think strategically): Establish a differentiated strategy that combines your expertise with AI utilization. In an interview, one candidate said, "I leave data collection to AI, but my 15 years of industry experience allow me to spot market changes that AI misses," which made a strong impression.

The World Economic Forum predicts that while AI will replace 85 million jobs by 2025, it will also create 97 million new jobs. Change is daunting, but the direction is clear. Now is not the time to fear AI, but to 'ADAPT' to it.

Moon Sunkyung, Executive Director at Unico Search