"Showing up Every Day" in the AI World

You’ve heard the common wisdom that you have to “show up every day” if you want to achieve something.

Unpopular opinion: That’s not true.

Or at least it’s misleading.

It doesn't matter if you show up every day, if the thing you're working on doesn't make sense – you're just doing busywork.

In fact "showing up every day" shouldn't be regarded as an exclusive wisdom, or a habit reserved for those who excel. It should actually be viewed as the minimum required to do for any bearable existence.

It's like saying "brush your teeth every day" – that's obvious and you have to do it just to keep yourself healthy. It doesn’t guarantee you a six-pack or above-average lifespan.

In the same sense, "showing up every day" is the bare minimum you need to do to just keep yourself above the water. In any domain. It's not a guarantee for success.

That's why the saying is misleading.

You can show up for you job for 40 years, and never advance a single bit. You've still "showed up every day". But did it make a difference? No – if you’re not smart about what you're spending your time on.

You must know what you’re working on and how it helps you achieve what you want. Only then does “showing up every day” help.

It's exactly the same with Generative AI.

To "show up every day" means to already know how to use all the standard tools seamlessly – ChatGPT, Monica, GPT for Sheets, OpusClip, and so on. This has become as important as knowing how to read and write.

But reading and writing is already a given. You won’t get any promotion if you can read or write, because it’s the bare minimum to be employed (assuming you’re a knowledge worker). The Generative AI equivalent of that is to keep up with the state of the industry. It doesn't guarantee success anymore, it’s expected. You must know your way around these basic AI tools.

But what DOES guarantee success is understanding where in your business or job you can integrate generative AI in the best way. If you can find these areas, then you will truly gain a 10x time-saving.

Getting back to the original saying: it's all about knowing what to work on, and not just showing up and doing busywork. That makes all the difference.

This is what we're here to help you figure out.

You're the domain expert and we're the AI experts.

Combined, we can find those 10x spots that accelerate your business, that nobody else can find.

Especially in the chatbots and AI agents era.

Reply to this email if you want to talk.

By the way, we released a comprehensive market report based on all 2,165 Upwork AI job postings. It’s a “bottom-up” report, meaning the data was extracted from the postings first-hand. This is different from other reports that are based on industry leader surveys.

The report shows the most common AI use-cases for each industry. It’s what companies are paying real money for. No forecasts or vague statements. It’s what the market demands.

Click the link below to discover its contents and to get access to your own copy.

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Discover Our Market Report: AI Demand in Early 2025

Cheers,
Robert