Is your company going 'AI-first'?
What the AI shift in business really means—and how it will affect your job
Last month, the unthinkable happened. People got mad at the owl. The Duolingo Owl, to be specific.
The Duolingo Owl is currently one of the most beloved brand mascots, especially among young people. Much has been written about Duolingo’s “brilliant” marketing strategy, which has resulted in 16 million followers on TikTok alone.
All was swell in the land of app-based language learning until the CEO of Duolingo ruffled some feathers by posting—not a TikTok—but an email on LinkedIn1 announcing that the company was “going to be AI-first.”
The AI shift in business isn’t about to happen—it’s already here
The fallout from this LinkedIn post led to angry users deleting the Duolingo app in protest. The company also decided to temporarily remove all its posts on TikTok and Instagram and the CEO walked back his comments about replacing contract workers with AI in press interviews.
While the backlash from Duolingo’s ‘platform shift’ to AI was swift, it signals a real shift in the workplace that we can no longer ignore. Many companies are going AI-first; they’re just not posting on LinkedIn about it.
But what does an AI-first business really mean? And how will this affect the average worker at their job (who probably doesn’t care that much about AI)?
A brief history of ‘people-first’ workplace cultures
I’ve seen a lot of people posting online about how if a company goes AI-first, that means they’re no longer “people-first.”
I hate to break it to ya, but very, very few corporations have ever adopted a “people first, profit second” mentality.
IBM was an early pioneer in designing a workplace culture that prioritized its employees. Post-WWII, it created the idea that workers belonged to the ‘IBM family’ in an effort to fight against unions.
Later, IBM adopted a ‘cradle to grave’ culture, offering job security and promising to take care of its employees for life. IBM was mostly able to keep this promise. For more than 70 years, the company refused to lay off any of its workers. This ended in 1993.
In the early days of the company, Howard Schultz, the founder and former CEO of Starbucks, adopted an “employees first” philosophy for his growing coffee shop business. Starbucks offered full-time and part-time employees full healthcare benefits, stock options, and tuition reimbursement. Schultz envisioned a company built on community and belonging, often saying that Starbucks was in the “people business”, not a coffee business serving people.
Why companies are really shifting to AI
Corporations led by a ‘people-first’ mission are rare. The majority still succumb to the demands of capitalism, globalization, and shareholder interests.
Most people in the workforce today are not working for a ‘people-first’ company. You’re probably working for a profit-first company that cares about its employees to varying degrees. Some saw how much their job valued them during the pandemic, in both positive (remote work) and negative (layoffs) ways.
In the age of AI, it’s important to understand that many companies are not shifting from a ‘people-first’ culture to an ‘AI-first’ culture. Companies that have always been profit-driven will continue to be. They see AI integration as a way to increase profits, cut costs, and stay in business.
How AI is changing the way companies do business
Companies that announce they’re going all-in on AI are often vague about what that really means.
Currently, I see three main ways that companies and organizations are using AI to change the way they do business:
1. Utilizing AI tools to automate processes
This one is the most obvious. Now that there are a plethora of GenAI tools on the market, companies are using them to automate tasks that were previously done by humans.
2. Building their own proprietary LLMs
Companies with the buy-in to develop their own LLMs are usually doing it because they want to use proprietary data that only they have access to. I see this happening more in highly regulated industries, like healthcare, insurance, finance, etc.
3. Experimenting with AI and figuring out what it can do
Honestly, a lot of companies don’t know WTF they’re doing with AI yet. In a survey of marketers, 40% said they’re in the “experimentation” phase of AI and actively testing AI tools.2 Some companies and industries are very slow to adopt new technology, while others are racing ahead into the future in an effort to stay competitive. A good percentage are in the middle: learning about AI, experimenting, and figuring out how to integrate these new AI tools into their existing workflow.
What you should do if you’re worried about your job being replaced by AI
Nearly everyone I talk to in the AI space understands that there is an AI shift (remember the vibe shift?) that can’t be ignored. Some jobs will be replaced by AI. I once had a job where I wrote SEO copy for product websites. Totally happy to have AI take that terrible job away from humans.
A lot of people are now saying things like, “You won’t be replaced by AI; someone using AI will replace you.” That’s not quite accurate. The more likely scenarios are these:
1. Some tasks that you do at your job will be automated by AI
Your company will also require you to use AI tools and learn prompt engineering (sorry, it’s true).
2. There will be new jobs focused on using AI and optimizing work with AI
In the near future (a.k.a. now), there will be a lot more jobs focused on prompt engineering, creating/editing content generated by AI, training LLMs, etc. Basically your current job + AI will be what companies are looking to hire for.
3. You’ll do pretty much the same job, but at an AI-driven company
If I were worried about AI replacing my job (well, I got laid off 6 weeks ago, so I guess I don’t have to worry about that! 😂), I would definitely look into the new AI/tech companies popping up in my industry. AI companies still need marketing folks with communication and content strategy skills. AI companies still need designers, HR professionals, managers, assistants to train the bot assistants, etc.
I know things seem pretty bleak right now, but the more that I learn about AI, the more I understand how I can use my creative talents and skills to navigate this emerging AI shift. Also, the deeper I dive3 into this world, the more I see the need for AI education and training for us non-tech folks.
On that note, an announcement about workshops coming soon!
Is this the one and only time a LinkedIn post has gone viral?! Wow, gotta hand it to Duolingo—they really are great at social media.
From the 2025 State of Marketing AI Report: This year, 40% of respondents (the highest proportion) say they’re in the Experimentation phase of AI, where they’re actively testing AI tools. Another 26% are in the Integration phase, where they’re embedding AI into their workflows and processes. And 17% say they’re in the most mature phase, Transformation, where they’re actively reimagining their jobs with AI. (By contrast, just 17% say they’re in the earliest Curiosity or Understanding phases of AI.)
You know I didn’t write this with AI because ChatGPT would have said ‘delve’ here.
SEO Graveyard 🪦 (this is where I put all the SEO keywords for each post to appease our content search overlords, aka Google)
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