By Sam in AI & Work — 02 Feb 2026

On Notice: Use AI or Lose Your Job

Blockbuster, Kodak, HMV and more...the cemetery of huge brands that blew it and died is huge. The dawn of AI presents another opportunity for a lot of businesses to "blow it". One company may have the blueprint to ensure this doesn't apply to them.

Photo by Growtika / Unsplash

PLUS: Two kinds of AI user and fake AI job applications.

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” - Harold Wilson

Afternoon All,

Blockbuster, Kodak, HMV and more...the cemetery of huge brands that blew it and died is huge. Every year the cemetery gets a little fuller. The companies, locations and industries may be different, but every single new resident in the cemetery shares this one common trait. The (slow) speed at which they understood and adjusted to new realities. The dawn of AI presents another opportunity for a lot of businesses to "blow it". The leaders at Amdocs might have the blueprint to ensure this doesn't apply to them.

Plus: the 2026 job market is bad enough without fake AI job applications, and are you the right type of AI user you need to be to stay relevant?

We explore all that and more next...

Today's dots:

If you can't keep up with AI, you can't work here
Can workers stay relevant in the age of AI
Two kinds of AI user - which one are you?
Fake AI job applications causing real problems

‘If You Can’t Keep Up With AI, You Can’t Work Here’

Here's the thing: Amdocs, a marketing tech company is laying out a blueprint for every company that wants to succeed in the AI era. To them AI isn't a tool or technology but it's fitness. An ability that has to be continuously conditioned and maintained. A basic requirement for every employee and manager.

In the AI era, employees are no longer viewed as a single unit. Amdocs' President of marketing Gil Rosen says “You’re [now] a small team: you and your intelligent agents. The expectations change accordingly. Someone who can’t keep up with this pace can’t work at Amdocs. That’s just the reality.”

That may sound harsh, but that mindset is coming to an office near you very soon.

Let's unpack that:

Amdocs makes a 2 way commitment to every employee at all levels. “This isn’t an HR program with a nice tagline,” Rosen says “It’s a deep, comprehensive program where expectations are clear: you’re expected to do more, because you’ve gained new capabilities"
At the same time, the company’s commitment is just as clear: they provide the tools, courses, guidance and environment for each employee's continuous learning. Employees are required to choose three AI-related courses a year, tailored to their role and career goals.
“Today, if you want to stay relevant, you have to be constantly up to date with new technologies and tools. It’s no longer enough to take a course once a year. This is something [all] employees have to do all the time.” That includes middle management and the C-suite. Rosen continues, “You can’t have employees trained in AI while their managers don’t understand the tools. A manager who doesn’t understand AI can’t evaluate work properly or lead teams.”
In my opinion, an employer has a responsibility to make sure their employees stay relevant. Not just for the company's benefit, but for the employees benefit in the job market as a whole. And employees are responsible for their own continuous learning. That’s why I love this concept of AI Fitness. There is no end point.”

If you remember nothing else: The adapt or die mindset is coming to an office near you very soon. Treating AI like fitness is a very apt rubrik to understand what is happening. AI fitness can be a safety net for some but for many it will also be a filtering mechanism. In reality not all employees will be able to keep up, and as with all things in evolution, it'll be the survival of the fittest.

Can human workers stay relevant in the AI era?

Here's the thing: Hate it or love it the AI momentum is non stop. So whether you're optimistic about it's future impact or not, it will be impossible to ignore. Will it make us all incredibly productive that machines do all our work while we sip flat whites at the Brooklyn Coffee House. Or, will it eliminate billions of jobs and lead to mass unemployment and more inequality across the world? That's the question being asked in the corridors of power at the UN.

Let's unpack that:

The UN System has been consolidating work on the ethical global governance of AI, building on the guidelines and recommendations contained in the landmark Global Digital Compact. Here are some key guidelines:
Embrace the change - "the way that work is performed is likely to significantly change, putting the onus on workers to be highly adaptable, and open to the idea of constantly learning new skills and training throughout their working lives."
Education is key - "This is not just about plugging AI tools into the education system but making sure that students and educators are AI-literate."
Make AI available for all - "A handful of tech giants are driving research into AI and dominating the creation of new tools. Unless access to the technology is widened, inequality between countries and within societies will grow."

If you remember nothing else: AI will be the new frontier for geopolitics. It will have knock on effects on everything that touches our lives, energy bills, water bills, cost of living, job security, which other countries our country go to war with. We may not be able to control it, but we can stay relevant by understanding it as best we can.

Two kinds of AI user - which one are you?

Here's the thing: I'm going to list some words. How many of these words you're familiar with will determine which group of AI user you're in. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Claude Code, n8n, Cursor, Antigravity, MCP, Agent Skills and Open Claw. "Power Users" and "Regular Users". Out of those 10 things I just listed, if you know/have used more than the first 3, then congratulations you're one of us, "Power Users". The gap between the capabilities of power users and regular users is growing by the day BUT, we're so early in this whole thing that gap can be made up really quickly.

Let's unpack that:

I don't think there's ever been a time in human history where a tiny team can compete with a company one thousand times bigger as easily as they can today. And win. If you can explain what you need, give effective feedback, and design ways of evaluating work, you are going to be able to work with agents...and consequently have an army of superintelligent coworkers at your disposal.
In general, enterprise corporate IT policy results in a combination of limitations being put on access to 'cutting edge' AI tooling. Commonly, this would end with a company being unfortunately locked in to using Microsoft Copilot...which is so good Microsoft itself gives it's own employees Claude Code instead.
Through research and observation, a lot of "Power Users" are non-technical people. The ones making the biggest impact are those working at SME companies. Smaller companies can absolutely fly with AI. They're not hamstrung by enterprise contracts, have the ability to be more agile, and test cutting edge products as quickly as they're released.

If you remember nothing else: The future of work might be uncertain, but the real leaps are being made organically by employees, not from a top down AI strategy. Where I see the real productivity gains are small teams deciding to try and implement AI assisted workflows for existing processes. The future belongs to the "Power Users"...there's still time to be one!

Fake AI Job Applications, Real Problems

Here's the thing: Looking for a job in 2026? Hiring freezes, company reorgs, layoffs. You'll know better than anyone it's a bloodbath out there. Now on top of all those real obstacles, is a growing accessibility crisis. More and more job seekers are finding themselves shut out of the job market - not because there are no jobs to be had, but because torrents of AI slop are crowding them out.

Let's unpack that:

Tech publication The Markup, recently posted an opening for an engineer role. “Within 12 hours of posting the role, we received more than 400 applications. At first, most of these candidates seemed to be genuine. However, as the person who had to read them all, I quickly saw some red flags, which were all clear indicators of inauthenticity.” - product director and editor Andrew Losowsky
The “red flags” in question included repeating contact information, broken or nonworking links to LinkedIn profiles, repetitive CV formatting, and non-residential mailing addresses. Losowsky continued “In the most extreme case, one person claimed they had built our website and Blacklight [web privacy] tool (they hadn’t),”
After just one day, the Markup removed its ad from job platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed. Instead, they opted for internal outreach and word-of-mouth. A much slower process that ultimately worked.

If you remember nothing else: If you extrapolate this story out to the rest of the job market, it’s no wonder job seekers are calling 2025 the year of the “Great Frustration.” Unless something drastically changes, 2026 could be even worse.