Karen A. Gilhooly believes the real challenge of AI is not replacing work, but preserving the human experiences that give work meaning.
Over the past several years, AI tools have drastically redefined work across multiple industries. Though the technology was initially met with skepticism and even outright resistance in some circles, AI has gradually proven its worth to businesses the world over, thanks to its capabilities relating to cost-saving and fast-paced work completion. However, to embrace these new tools blindly is to court disaster. Instead, noted author, executive advisor, and AI strategist Karen A. Gilhooly advocates for staunch re-evaluations and clear-eyed assessments.
About Karen A. Gilhooly
Gilhooly is the author of The Three Bucket Leader, from Post Hill Press, as well as the host of the Make Minutes Matter podcast. She has more than 25 years of global leadership experience and has spent the last several years serving as a professional advisor for numerous organizations navigating human performance and AI-driven transformation.
The Role of AI in Work
AI is not just changing how work gets done. It is forcing leaders to confront the question of whether their human workers have meaning, judgment, and relevance beyond the tasks they perform. If someone’s value to a company is solely that they can complete mundane tasks, then their job can likely be completely automated. However, there are undoubtedly multiple workers within any professional team whose true value far exceeds that of the literal tasks they complete; it’s the energy they bring and the outlook they provide. This has proven much more difficult to automate, and it is the kind of thing that is getting lost in translation amidst so much of the AI revolution.
To this end, Gilhooly advises her clients that the real leadership challenge is not automation itself, but rebuilding the human proving grounds that help people become capable, purposeful, and necessary. She argues that organizations should not measure success only by efficiency gains but also by whether they preserve and rebuild the human experiences that create judgment, engagement, and purpose.
How AI Has Altered the Status Quo
For workers across many industries, their method of proving their value to a given company has long been their work. These individuals show up on time, complete their tasks, and are able to feel like a useful, contributing member of the team as a result. However, if AI systems are capable of doing those same tasks in a much shorter span of time at a fraction of the cost, then how can human workers prove their worth in comparison?
Job automation is one thing, but Gilhooly’s real concern is the risk that even valuable workers will lose the structure, identity, and sense of usefulness that work once gave them in the wake of AI’s integration. After all, it’s critical to remember that the tasks being automated have existed for a reason; they served as a valuable training ground for new employees. Without these systems in place, Gilhooly has routinely found that organizations may lose the pipeline that creates future leaders.
Leaders, Workers, and Emotions
Gilhooly’s “three buckets” system, which her book explores in-depth, identifies employees as being in a want-to state, autopilot, or have-to state. She encourages leaders to protect motivated people, re-engage those on autopilot, and recognize that they cannot force someone out of deep resentment or disengagement.
As AI removes tasks, leaders can no longer rely on work itself to create structure and purpose. They must deliberately create learning, ownership, reflection, and connection so people understand why their work matters and how they remain necessary. Through her writing, content creation, and advising, Gilhooly is working on the front lines of these issues, attempting to help leaders and workers better understand how to adapt amid the AI revolution.