How AI Is Reshaping Jobs — and What Humans Must Do to Stay Valuable

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In this episode of the Habit Mechanic Podcast, Dr. Jon Finn is joined by Tougher Minds’ Head of Coaching, Andrew Foster, to examine new evidence showing how rapidly AI is reshaping the jobs humans have traditionally been paid to do — particularly in the UK.

Using recent research from Morgan Stanley, alongside insights from leaders in the AI sector, the conversation explores why many predictions about AI’s impact on work are already being exceeded, and why procedural, medium-charge tasks are being replaced faster than most people expected.

Rather than focusing on fear or headlines, this episode zooms in on what actually matters next: how humans can stay valuable in the AI era. Dr. Finn and Andrew explain why simply learning AI tools isn’t enough — and why the real differentiator will be Brain State intelligence: the ability to consistently access high-charge thinking, judgement, creativity, and problem-solving that AI cannot reliably replicate.

You’ll hear:

• why AI is disproportionately affecting certain roles and economies
• how medium-charge “busy work” is being automated at scale
• why high-charge Brain States are becoming the most valuable human asset
• and how AI can be used to free time and energy rather than drain it

The episode closes with a practical, empowering message: AI disruption is real — but so is the opportunity for those who learn how to manage their brain states and build habits that support irreplaceable human work.

As always, you’re only ever one Brain State habit away.

Transcript

Setting The Agenda: AI And Jobs

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hello, habit mechanics, Dr. John Finn here. Hope you're having a great week so far. Today we're going to be talking about how AI is hitting the jobs that humans have traditionally got paid to do. And we're going to think about the role of brain states within that. So we saw an article at the start of this week, which is titled AI is hitting the UK harder than other big economies. Um, and this was from a study by Morgan Stanley. So and I'm joined today by our head of coaching and our head of education, Andrew Foster. So Andrew's been looking at this story as well. So Andrew, what did you make of this when you read it? What were the headlines for you? Takeaways.

UK Impact And Morgan Stanley Findings

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Hi, John. Uh I I think it's another it's another data point. You know, I appreciate sometimes people can be a bit overwhelmed by the news environment today, but have a look at this. Then you've got an investment bank, Morgan Stanley, who are again putting some some of their reputation behind this research that's suggesting that uh AI is reduced, is resulting in job losses, uh, particularly in the UK. So if people there's there's a lot of people out there talking about how AI is going to change everything. There's a lot of people saying the exact opposite, that it's overblown, that it'll be shown to be hype. Well, if you're looking to decide, then you've you've got to look at stories like this and other stories that we've shared, and think these are some big heavy hitters who are on the AI will change things side of the argument.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah, and I think that it's important to point out why we're pointing this out is because we want to help people to realize what is going to happen. It's easy to dismiss things, but there's a pattern now and robust sets of compelling data showing that AI is changing the world, and what it's doing very specifically, it's changing how humans are valued. So, what this data really says is that businesses are deciding that many of the things they need to get done in their business every day that has only ever been able to be done by humans before now does not have to do and not have to be done by humans, it can be done by cheaper means via using neural network AI, and that's what's going on. So we're not saying that AI is gonna replace all of human uh jobs, what we are trying to point towards is that it's taking more human roles than anyone was predicting just 12 months ago, and the data's very clear and it's very compelling, and there's something we can do about that by learning about our brain state. So there's a good side of this story, right? But we just we're starting with what the data is telling us about what's going on for people.

Worry Versus Action On AI

SPEAKER_00 3:46

That's absolutely, I mean, the thing that most struck me that you know um in the article was in a way a sort of secondary reactive thing that it it says that 25% of workers were were worried about the impact of AI. And that got me thinking, well, what percentage of that 25% are actually doing something about it? Uh you know, worrying without action is you know just uh it's it's just unenjoyable and no positive outcome. We need some stress. The reason stress exists is to is to prompt action. And the people who uh are taking action now are finding themselves reducing their stress about AI, getting excited about the opportunities to to do more enjoyable work, more voluble, uh more valuable work, I should say, and and and and be more fulfilled in and out of the workplace.

Anthropic’s Warning And Fast Progress

Why The UK Feels It First

Government Skills Plans Critiqued

Brain State Intelligence As Edge

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Yeah, and there's another article I want to share, and I'm just seeing these things pop up, like I'm sure other people are as well, which has come from the the CEO of Anthropic. If anybody uses Claude, that's owned by Anthropic. The CEO of Anthropic is called Dario Amode, and he wrote a 20,000-word essay, which is explaining why AI is gonna cause what he describes as unusually painful disruption to jobs. Now, again, people would say, Yeah, but he would say that because he's selling AI. That's a counterintuitive point. I think actually, what he's doing, and I've I've heard this guy speak extensively, and he did a very interesting long-form BBC Radio 4 interview, where I think he really wants to be in a position where he's where he says, Look, you can't say that I didn't warn you about this. And what I found very interesting in his Radio 4 um interview was he sort of did a timeline of all the objections to AI over the last few years, which started by saying, Yeah, but it can't do this, and then he said we dealt with that within six months, and then yeah, but it can't do that. And every time um there's been this objection that AI tech evolves very quickly and it overcomes it. And what one of the things he's stating in that you can go read the 20,000-word essay if you want, or you can put it into AI and get the summary. Um he's saying that the best engineer in their company, and they are I'm not sure what the value is, but it's uh certainly tens of billions. The best engineer is Claude, they're their technology. So they've got engineers that have been uh working in the field for over 50 years, they are the world leading experts in what they do, but none of them um are as competent as the tech when they're kind of benchmark it. So this this data's here. I think what's then interesting, and again, it I think this this came out in reaction to the very specific UK story. And one of one of the reasons, and we did predict this when it happened about 18 months ago. One of the reasons that we think the UK jobs market is disproportionately right now affected by AI, but I just think that that that data's a blip because um as business leaders get more confidence in the tech, they'll follow what the UK companies are doing. So essentially, in the UK, we're seeing more jobs being lost to AI than are being created, so very different from the industrial revolution where the industrial revolution actually created a lot of jobs. Um so AI is reducing um jobs and actually massively increasing productivity. So productivity's been increased on average by 11.5%. And one of the reasons has been cited that uh UK businesses, I suppose, are lead are leading the way in replacing more human roles with AI is because the UK government made it more expensive to employ people. They increased national insurance and they increased uh things like minimum wage and other things. So UK business leaders have decided instead of employing people, we'll we'll find solutions with AI. So, in response to this new story of the tweet, the UK government put um a press briefing out that they are gonna give free AI skills training to about 10 million people in the UK over the next five years or so in partnership with big technology companies. I think that's something they'd said before, but I think I was just reminding the press that they were taking, they were trying to be proactive. But here's the kicker that's a counterintuitive move. It sounds logical, okay. People need to get better at using AI, but for me, that is not a first-order solution to the problem. Let's recap what's happening. Businesses aren't saying we're going to employ more people that have AI skills. What they're doing is they're looking at the tasks they have traditionally paid humans to do, and they are finding AI and training AI to do those jobs faster and cheaper. What businesses are looking for is humans that can do the things that AI can't think in a way that AI can't. So that should actually be the government's priority, is to say we're going to train people not only to understand AI, but to think in ways that AI can't. And that brings us back to the we know the main thing that we need to get good at, what we're calling science the main effect variable for thriving in the AI era for becoming irreplaceable, and that's brain state intelligence. So if the government had said this week, uh we're going to train 10 million people up in brain state intelligence, then that would have been amazing. Um, but they're going down the AI skills route instead, and it's very well intended, I get that, but it's not the right solution. Businesses are not looking for more people with basic AI skills, they're looking for more people who can do what AI can't do. Um, and that's essentially doing more means that they're looking for people who are really good every day at turning up and getting into their high-charge brain states. Um yeah, so that's my reflection, and I think from your work, Andrew, you're seeing that even people who are, you know, they look from the outside in as high performers, you know, senior professional people, the people you're working with are starting to realize that the the things that they've traditionally done to get to where they've got to are not the things that they need to be doing now to capitalise on the opportunities of the AI era, which I'm sure you can unpack.

High Performers Redefine Their Routines

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah, absolutely. Uh I I think that you know, I think of some of my clients who've really embraced the the brain state terminology and talk a lot about high charge and medium charge activities and how AI helps them maximise their medium charge time. Uh, they they as you say, the high performers, they're smart people, they always um knew you know a lot of these people knew that part of being successful is being comfortable with change and noticing when you're getting into a rut and and and um developing your own techniques to get through that. But what they they recognize when we work together is that our techniques are there and ready to go and so sharp, and particularly for this AI challenge, brain state management is exactly what they need in order to maximize what they're doing, um, in order to develop their use of these new AI tools the best that they can and ahead of competitors in the market, and also in order to be able to enjoy their time outside of work and feel fulfilled and be really present with their families. So, yeah, it's exciting, and it's just a continual vindication of the success cycle of the habit mechanic program of everything that we've been talking about for some time.

The Medium-Charge Trap At Work

Agents Automate Repetitive Tasks

Big Tech Job Cuts And Agent Force

Building Habits For High-Charge Work

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, and I think if we just go back to the basics, there are 24 hours in a day, that's all we've got. So time is the limiting factor. And in that 24-hour period, the average person who has a job or runs a business, they spend a chunk of that time working in the business, they spend a chunk of that time sleeping, hopefully, and then they spend some of that time doing the things they do outside of work, maybe with the family, um, and then you've got to fit some uh sleep and exercise, uh some uh exercise and eating in there as well. If we look at the the work patterns for most people, what has happened is that I think particularly with the digital age of email and phones and just constant connectivity with everybody, people have slipped into spending more and more of their 24-hour period doing busy thinking and executing busy work tasks, what we call medium charge work. So doing things that don't take a lot of cognitive effort, but you're replying, you're sending, you're um scheduling, your rescheduling, your um sometimes doing work in a way that you're not really paying attention, so you have to then fix mistakes that you've introduced into the workflows. And people have are just feeling more and more tired because they're doing more and more of that busy work, they're not sleeping as well as they'd like to, they're not getting as much downtime as as well as as much as as much downtime as they'd like, etc. And they're not able to get into those the brain states that are required to do the complex high charge thinking that are actually most valuable in helping them to make progress on the things they're working on to solve the problems that are coming into their inbox, to progress their business, to progress their career, unable to do that focused work because their brain is just drained, and this is why we think of the brain as being like a battery. So essentially, what where and if we just recap on the three brain states, we've got three brain states recharge, medium charge, high charge, people are spending more and more time in that medium charge brain state every single day. Where does neural network AI come in? Well, neural network AI superpower is doing medium charge brain state work, so much of the tasks that humans have been conditioned to spend more and more of their time doing at work no longer have to actually be executed by humans. We can now use neural network AI and specifically, and this is what we've seen a big push for already in 2026 in January, what we call agents. So agents are neural network AI that you can train to do specific procedural repetitive tasks. So we use some agents in our business and they're running right now, and they are executing um things that we would have previously had to have done manually. So reaching out to people, potential uh leads and customers, uh messaging those people, and then where the agents are going is that they can not just send a templated message to someone, they can start to have a real um conversation with them, just in the same way an expert human would, and that's just one segment of agents. And if we look at that specific particular use case, a company like Salesforce have actually this is uh go Google it, go look it up. Uh it's very well publicized. They have literally halved their workforce, so they have reduced their workforce by 4,000 people, and they've replaced those 4,000 people with what they call their agent force. That's a very clean example. You saw this week Amazon um made 16,000 redundancies, which is part of a bigger round. Amazon are one of the leaders in AI technology with um Amazon Web Services, and they are scaling a gentic AI across the business, and also they've got lots of this into robotics as well, so doing the manual tasks um in an intelligent way. That means that it's not just a robot who's just repeating something, it can actually make procedural decisions. So most of the work that humans have conditioned themselves to doing every day at work can now be done faster and cheaper by AI. And we're not just saying that this can happen, it's happening, and we're seeing it seriously impact the jobs market. So, what does that mean for humans? It means that we need to get good at doing stuff that AI can't do. So that means we need to build different habits, and the first habits we need to build are around making sure that we can get into the right brain states. So that for most people means more high-quality recharge, less medium charge, uh time, less time in medium charge brain states, and more time in high-charge brain states. And that's why we're at training brain for the evolution, that's why we have uh the Six Habit Life program to show people how to put that into practice. Um, but we're not just hypothesizing here, I think is what I hear when Andrew speaks. We're doing this in real time, and all the things that we're um teaching in in the book and in our programs, we've kind we've been kind of uh implementing those ideas with real people, and some of them, you know, 18 months ago were kind of the guinea pigs with this new approach. Um but and they were they were early adopters of AI, uh, and they got early benefits, you know. You've seen some of the success stories like EVA,$70,000 pay rise, um, etc. But now it's coming into the it's coming into everybody's life and it's here and it's real, but it's not something to be scared of because the solution, I guarantee you, is learning more about your brain states and actually building the habits to support better brain state management. I could see you're gonna come in there, Andrew.

Coaching Wins And Time Dividends

SPEAKER_00 20:51

So sorry, just that brains are funny things, aren't they? I'd I had just the thing to say and then and then it uh it escaped me. What was I going to say? Oh, it was that I'm thinking about the you know, the people you're talking about, these are all people again, like I said up at the top with Morgan Stanley, they've got skin in the game. You know, it's not of no consequence if they get this wrong. And so the same with my clients, these are people who um, you know, often have already been professionally successful, but they've got responsibilities, they've got they're very ambitious, they're often in highly competitive fields, and so they want to be known, they want to know that they're using their time profitably, and that includes the time they're spending with me. And so it is um, you know, very satisfying to see them taking what we're doing, running with it, and and realizing that um the time spent is a is actually a net benefit in time, you know. So so working with me for an hour a week is generating hours and hours of extra time to spend, whether that's on professional projects or whether that's uh being able to close the laptop and and spend some quality time with family. Uh and it's You know, you and I both know we're at a really exciting stage with this in terms in in terms of some of the people that we're talking to about next steps, but um anyone who's listening to this who thinks yeah, that sounds a bit like me, and I sound like the sort of person who might benefit. I think you just need to get in touch and let's let's have a chat sooner the better because um the opportunity to to to work with us um yeah you know it's it's how how things are now might not be how things are in six months.

Using AI With A High-Charge Mind

Mindset Shifts And Irreplaceability

Data Mounts: MIT And Market Impact

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah, I feel that um and I completely empathize with the fact that that the word AI and some of the headlines that we're seeing, they're just difficult to understand. What what does it mean? What are the what's the implication for me, or I'll be okay, this will impact my life. As soon as I started to properly use AI tools, but from the foundation of really well-managed brain states, and so using AI tools with a high-charge brain state, I could see the power of this technology, and it's for me, it's just like outsourceable brain power. So instead of using your own brain to do everything yourself, you can outsource some of that. And I could see how it could actually free us up from lots of these mundane, medium charge, busy tasks that we don't enjoy doing, but we've just been habitualized into doing, and it could free us up to do more high-quality recharge, but also more time in our best brain states doing the kind of clever thinking that makes us feel good about ourselves and moves us forwards and progresses us. And I feel like now in 2026, it's going to be the year when more and more people realise that. So, this technology, I believe, can be a massive force for good. And I hope that if that hasn't connected with you before, that you're starting to see what I mean. We also have to be completely realistic. Businesses have a fiduciary responsibility to make money, that is their primary objective, legal objective to their shareholders. So if they can do things cheaper and faster, they will. If you're thinking in that way, you're thinking about it the wrong way. AI is a tool that you can use to get things done faster and more effectively. Will it make mistakes? Yes, it will. That means you've got to fact-check it, you've got to make sure that you're comfortable with the information that it's giving you. So, and then other people are saying, Well, what if I get caught out using AI? What if I send an email that has an M-dash in it, which uh people call a long hyphen? That's okay. Uh, and that's actually the correct punctuation as well, by the way. So AI is improving people's punctuation. I'd be less, far less concerned about someone knowing I'm using AI, um, and be far more concerned about it being used to replace me because the work that I'm doing is replaceable. So I want to build the habits to allow me to do the work that I'm to do work every day that isn't replaceable by AI. That is the key, and it's completely achievable. And when you're doing that kind of work every day, that's what actually makes you feel good about yourself because you know, happiness is a three-part equation, it's getting your brain working really well, um, it's letting your hair down, doing some things you enjoy, but it's also delaying short-term gratification, rolling your sleeves up, doing things that are difficult. Because when you do that and you look back at the end of the day, you can see how much great work you've done and how much progress you've made. Uh, and that three-part equation is the components are harder and harder to get in the world that we live in because it's harder to get your brain working well, it's harder to get into the right brain states to do the kind of high-impact thinking that we need. But AI really helps us because um we can outsource all of that busy medium-charge stuff, which frees us up to do the kind of things that we need to do, to first of all recharge our brain, and then consistently get into those high-charged brain states. So I hope I'm not labouring the point here, but I just want to hammer it home that we are going to see more and more of these articles and these stories and this these data points um that show us how disruptive AI is being and the fact that it is displacing humans. But I think this is an opportunity, and the key to unlocking that opportunity is improving your brain state intelligence. Um, so if you've got a copy of Train Your Brain for their revolution, read it. If you've read it, read it again. Uh, if you haven't got a copy, get a copy because it's there. We've written you know the guide. And if you want expert help in supporting you putting this into practice, that's why we have Six Habits Live, that's why we have one-to-one coaching. Um, and if you want to go even further and set up your own business or just get absolute mastery, that's why we're training people to become certified mechanic coaches. So use the headlines as motivation to do something different, is the way that I would uh think about it. What about you, Andrew?

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah, I think you can look at articles like this and get discouraged. Uh, I I I appreciate that the last 10 years or so, a lot of people have found very uh very discombobulating, and and they sort of see AI as uh yet another thing in a long list um that makes them worried about the world and their future. Whatever, you know, and and some people are very optimistic about it. Uh wherever you are on the scale between those two positions, or maybe you'll you see it both ways, the thing to do is set about. Well, what am I gonna do? What's within my control to actually put myself in the best position to to benefit, uh, for my family to benefit, for the people I care about to benefit, for the things I care about to benefit. And so taking taking this approach, uh working working with us is the way to to do that. So so whether you are you know you're reading this article and it makes your heart sink, or you're reading this article and it aligns with what you you think uh already, um the answer's still the same. Let's get going, let's get doing something about it.

Opportunity, Playbooks, And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Yeah, so and from our perspective, you know, the reason that we wrote The Habit Mechanic and Train Your Brain for That Revolution is because they are the manuals, they are the playbooks. So if you don't ever want to go any further than the book, then it's just you know that that's fine. We're not trying to compel you to work with us. Uh we're just saying that we are here to help, and that includes this podcast and it includes the books. Just one thing that when I was looking at the um Anthropic article, I I just came across a study from uh Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, the world's most famous technology university. Uh and this was published in November, which I haven't read the study yet, but the headline is um a study by MIT in November found that AI can already do the job of 11.7% of the US labour market saving up to 1.2 trillion in wages across finance, healthcare, and other professional services. So again, this is not that if the tech doesn't develop any further, it can already do lots of what humans currently get paid for. But here's the other thing: it also means that these businesses can allocate more of their resources to creating the next product, to getting into a different sector, to do all those things that we want to do, all that strategic work businesses talk about. But they can't do that unless they have people that can do the things AI can't, um which can only be done in high-charge brain states. So I don't want to labour the point, but I just think that study is really, really interesting because you get to the point where the data is undisputable, so that shouldn't be a barrier anymore for taking action. So he covered a lot of ground there. The January 2026, I think, has been the most stark in terms of the impact that AI is gonna have on our society, and we are living through our unique, and I use that word very deliberately. Um, something is either unique or it's not, it can't be quite unique. It's this is unique, and um it can all sound rather scary, but I guarantee you it can be the biggest opportunity that you've ever had to improve your health, your happiness, and your performance. And we've got you covered. That's why we wrote Train Your Brain for the Air Revolution, that's why we wrote The Habit Mechanic. And if you want to get go further, you know, we're here to support you as well. One of the things I'm really excited about is that um we're now doing a live session every week as part of Six Habits Live, where we're you know going into this in real time with with real people, real humans, working with real humans. Um, and I know many people benefit much more from that kind of format than just reading a book. So if that's of interest, you'll be you'll hear more and more about Six Habits Live. So I just want to say thanks to Andrew for your precious time. Thanks to everyone for listening. And remember, you're only ever one rent that habit away.