How AI Is Changing Work and What It Means for You

We share takeaways from the International Franchise Association conference and why we see AI as a tool that amplifies people rather than replaces them outright. We dig into what automation means for white-collar jobs, why service-based work may grow, and how real human connection becomes the advantage.

• reflections from IFA and where leaders see AI going 
• AI as a productivity multiplier that turns employees into managers of tools 
• why AI targets tasks and repetition more than entire roles 
• stats and projections on job automation and shifting knowledge work 
• slowing hiring for some entry-level roles and underemployment concerns 
• the split between AI power users and those who avoid it 
• why human interaction and experience-based services may become more valuable 
• staging and interior design as examples of deeply human work 
• virtual staging versus in-person emotion and buyer conversion 

Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com/franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you.

Transcript

White-Collar Anxiety And IFA

SPEAKER_02 0:00

If you are in a white-collar job today, what does this mean for you and what do you do and how do you handle that? So we just got back from a trip a couple weeks ago to IFA, the International Franchise Association.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Um Good Time in Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Good time in Vegas.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

I it's Do you like Vegas?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Uh it's not the place that I is my favorite per se. I like the outdoors more than the indoors. Um it's interesting, and this is like kind of embarrassing, but I get just as excited about going to conferences for work and like meeting other business owners and geeking out over like data and stats as I do going on like real vacations.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

That's very weird.

Why AI Feels Like Leverage

SPEAKER_02 0:48

It is. Um, but conferences are my happy place. So we had such a great time just building relationships, learning from veterans in the industry. Um and I think one of the things that I loved about it too is it gave us a cool chance to hear about where they foresee things going in the the next five years, 10 years. Um AI, of course, was a hot topic at the convention and just learning and understanding what impact it's gonna have in these different industries, um, which is exciting, um, honestly, in a lot of ways. And so we thought it'd be kind of cool to share some of our big takeaways, um, not just from the convention and conference, but things that we're hearing as we're doing our homework and our research of where we're going as an economy and how AI is gonna play into our our roles.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah. What do you think of AI in general?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

I I'm um a fan.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

You're not scared?

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Uh no. Terrified? Not not in this early season. Um, I think in today's world, AI is a really beautiful thing. I have watched it firsthand take my existing team and amplify the output of what they do that there is no way they could have done five, 10 years ago. And so for me, I'm like, there has to be a human element that is coordinating, orchestrating, managing. But I see it as like I'm able to now take my team and turn them instead of being employees, I turn them into managers and they are managing AI and resources to be able to output and produce something so much greater than they could do on their own. Um, I also love the simple fact that like information now is so much more readily available. So learning is something that is honestly effortless. Like you get really old school and you think about 30 years ago, like you would go to a library and you would look up books about a topic to learn something. And now it's like I can go on a walk with Grok and we can have a back and forth conversation, and he can tell me about AIO or teach me out about some specific new technique that I know nothing about, and all of that information is getting fed to me. Um, and there's something really beautiful about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I like what you said about the efficiency factor. I think just maybe for those that just hear about it generally or maybe have their head in the sand or what have you, they look at AI and they hear the horror side of it, right? It's coming from my job. What am I gonna do after that, like kind of thing? And and really the reality that we've learned is that AI is the people that don't use AI and they have the ability to do so, like that's who AI is coming for, right? Um, it's not coming to completely wipe you out uh from the beginning, it's not gonna do that. It's to your point, let's be efficient, right? Um, and it has the the ability to five, six, 10x somebody's productivity by using it. And I think just my view of AI in general, personally, is you know, uh every civilization goes through turnover like this as technology increases, right? Um think back to the early 2000s, that small business that wanted to write invoices on carbon paper and didn't want to send them via email, right? That's very hard to run a business that way today. Everybody sends things electronically, you know, and I think AI is just the next version of that to help make us more productive and so forth, right? So certainly key there. I learned a lot at IFA about that, um, and particularly as it as it pertains to franchisees, franchise owners, um, but specifically in our business, you know, with our employees and our teammates, you know, we want them to use it. We encourage them to do so. Um, you know, we challenged a member of our team this last week to say, hey, utilizing all the tools that you have, if you could 10x your performance, right? What would that look like? And we you and I both know, and so does she, that AI is a component of that, right? Because it has the ability to multiply her efforts tenfold.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. You said you there was a season where businesses would write down their invoices instead of emailing them. Um, there was a season where, you know, you'd have an office full of people that would like do the math before computers came and calculators came, but that job doesn't exist anymore. And so we think there's a very real, honest conversation that needs to be had about a shift that we are probably about to see in terms of what jobs exist and which new ones are potentially being created. Um, do you want to share a little bit around the stats of like what we see and and where projections are with um job placement?

Automation Stats And Knowledge Jobs

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yeah, I think I think you know, point number one, as we talked today, that AI is automating tasks, not just factories, right? It's it's really the the day-to-day things that people do. Think about what you do on a day-to-day basis, right? Think about um the repetitive tasks. That's what AI is most beneficial for. Um, it's really affecting the white-collar and administrative side, you know. Um, recent research suggests that 30% of current US jobs could be automated by 2030, right? So that's not all of them, right? It's 30% of them, but roughly 60% will see significant changes in their day-to-day tasks because of AI. So it's going to have a positive impact on productivity, right? So embracing that um is key. As much as 70% of tasks can already be automated by AI tools today. I would challenge people if they're not using AI for those tasks on a consistent basis, like use AI to help make yourself better, like dive into it. Don't put your head in the sand, right? Get into it, challenge it. I like to use AI. Um, if I have a specific train of thought on a topic, I like to use AI to challenge what I'm thinking. Like maybe find the holes in the scenario that I haven't thought about yet. Um, and it makes me, as the human, more creative. It really challenges those muscles, right? Um, I think that's really key.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

You know, I think if we're gonna hit it a really high level, one of the big shifts that I see from an occupational standpoint is like great use AI, anything that exists to a degree. Um, but there is a very real conversation that needs to be had about the fact that white-collar jobs in general um are going to see a really massive transition. There is not nearly as much of a need today as there used to be for all of these white-collar positions. I know we're seeing that right now with college graduates. Yeah. We are at an all-time low in hiring college grads because the roles that they would maybe fulfill on day one when they step out of school are often replaced by other individuals in a combination with AI. And so what's interesting is, you know, when factories came about and there were these mechanics, it was a lot of blue-collar positions that suddenly got eliminated. With AI coming in, it's kind of the reverse. It's we're seeing a lot of these white-collar positions being eliminated. We're seeing more efficiencies with um, you know, the way that attorneys can do their work with medical practices and how things are done at a corporate level, HR marketing, you name it. And so there's less of a need for those individuals and those people, um, which creates this interesting tension of if you are in a white-collar job today, what does this mean for you and what do you do and how do you handle that?

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, that's our second point. Hiring is slowing in certain knowledge jobs, you know. So those entry-level positions, those data analyst positions, right? I saw a stat the other day that somewhere around like 45% of college graduates are underemployed. You know, so they're in other words, they're taking jobs um for lesser pay that are not in the profession that they got their degree in. Yeah. Right. You know, so really those, again, that are embracing the ability of AI and learning how to utilize it will be the ones that'll be sought after most because they're gonna make organizations more efficient. Timelines are gonna shrink um for deliverables. Like that's really, really key.

Service Work And Human Craving

SPEAKER_02 8:09

So I think, you know, the other thing that I find to be really interesting is AI is creating sort of this divergence. Like, either you know how to use AI and you are optimizing things and you're super efficient and you are very much needed. Um, there's kind of the middle world of like where we're all living right now that's probably gonna fall apart. And then there's this other extreme that a lot of people are projecting that they're gonna see, and that's this desperate need for human interaction. Um, because everything can be so automated, because the images you see, the text you see, all of that, you kind of question its validity. We as humankind start to crave other humans and that human interaction. And so a lot of projections around this right now are that service-based industries are actually going to continue to grow. Anything that you can do that creates an experience for a potential person is something that gets really exciting. And as individuals start to have more free time because AI frees up your time and all of these details, then the question is what do you do with your free time? Like Netflix is only going to get you so far. So, what else are you filling your time with and how can you deliver those services? Um, and I think that's something that gets me really excited as I reflect and think about our design and staging business, is because so much of what we do is a customer-based experience. Correct. The secret sauce behind our business that I've said again and again is relationship building and the ability to deliver something exceptional, not just as a physical product of pretty spaces, but building those relationships and having that interaction. And even within interior design, and we were talking with one of our designers yesterday, and she said, Listen, being a designer is not just decorating a space. Like I'm a therapist sometimes more than I am a designer. And she's absolutely right, but it's those interactions and experiences that are going to grow in this season because we as humans are craving that.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah. Funny story for you. So I was in line at one of my favorite coffee places uh the other day and was standing there, and it's kind of funny. COVID kind of pushed us all to be a little bit more isolationist, unfortunately. And I'm I'm standing in this coffee line, and there's about 12 of us in line. Um, and right next to me was, as you would say, a sweet 80-year-old man. And 11 of the 12 of us have our header phones out. And he says out loud, kudos to this gentleman, says out loud, he goes, Well, I'm the idiot that left his phone at home. And I felt like convicted. So I put my phone in my pocket and I started engaging this gentleman. And he was very kind. Um, and he just started laughing, and he's just like, you know, like people don't talk to each other anymore. Um, and I think for the next 45 seconds, you know, until I placed my order, I got a chance to talk to this guy. I learned about his grandkids, um, I learned about his wife, uh, how long they've been married and all that kind of stuff. And um, I think people like to be seen. Yeah, um, that's innate in all of us. Uh, they like to be heard. And so it was just cool to interact with him on a real cordial level. But he kind of struck that note of, you know, human interaction is still something that AI cannot replace and it won't. Um, so let's use AI as an asset, as something to complement us as humans to help us get places faster, more efficiently, and be more productive. You know, um, that's so key.

Franchise Plug And Owner Mindset

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com slash franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you.

Virtual Staging Versus Real Staging

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Aaron Powell One of the areas that we see AI kind of impacting our business a lot would be in the virtual staging world, right? And you know, you can speak to this as well. My general opinion is that virtual staging sucks. It just does.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Um, I don't I don't agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Oh, okay, that's fine.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Um, I I've seen some virtual staging lately, honestly, that's really good and really impressive. And I look at it and I'm like, kudos to that. But I know where you're gonna go with this, so I'll let you continue your sentence. Just because the photograph looks good and it makes me want to go in the home, now then there's a different experience.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Yeah. Okay, maybe let me retract my statement. It doesn't all suck, just a majority of it does. Some of it, you know, um, and and so forth. But like again, when you're talking about staging a property for sale, the impact in person when somebody walks through that front door, right? Because maybe they they get excited because they see a photo online and they're like, I love the way that's laid out. They go visit the property because everybody does that by and large when they're going to purchase a home. They walk through that front door and what do they see? They see nothing, you know, and so then the emotion goes down. And you spend all this time trying to get the emotion to get back up to where it needs to be so that people can make a buying decision. Yep. You know, so the benefit of what we do really is this in-person feel, what you and I are sitting on right now, you know, um, that is so key and that's so important.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, absolutely. It's it's all about creating an emotional experience, about creating memories. Um, and the other challenge is like just from a practical standpoint, you walk into an empty house, you notice every imperfection in the home, and the home looks smaller. Like those two fundamentals are automatically a challenge. There's less for your eye to look at. So you're spending less time in the home. Like there are all of these challenges that unfortunately virtual staging can get you in the property, but once you're in, it's not making that conversion that real staging does.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, for sure.

Finding Deeply Human Roles

SPEAKER_02 13:13

AI has already changed the way we do life and business. I think it's gonna continue to evolve. Um, we know that it's impacting white-collar positions so much faster than any other industries. Um, and so I think it's just a matter of embracing what the today is, um, looking into the future and seeing where you go next. But positioning yourself in a service-based area where customer interaction and engagement is so key and valued is something that to me is really crucial in this season as we see these big transitions.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

So I think what it comes down to is as AI is reshaping um our culture and who we are and the work that we do, it's not a matter of like what jobs are AI replacing. The con the question comes down to which jobs and roles are deeply human and matter in that way. And when you answer that question, I think you find a lot of success. This is in good space.