Where have All the Innovators gone?
A case for getting started with the side hustle revolution in the age of AI.
The world stands at the precipice of the most profound technological disruption in human history. Artificial intelligence isn't just changing how we work, it's redefining what work means entirely. As we witness the rapid transformation of entire industries, the question isn't whether change will come, but whether you'll be ready when it arrives.
The Great Disruption: When Everything Changes, Everything Must Change
We are living through a technological revolution that makes the industrial-age look like a gentle breeze. AI is reshaping every corner of human activity with a speed and scope that would have been unimaginable just five years ago. The statistics tell a story that should wake us all from our comfortable slumber: AI is predicted to take 20% of jobs by 2050, with 300 million positions affected worldwide. But here's the thing, that's just the beginning., and I think that is a conservative estimate.
The transformation happening today isn't gradual. It's exponential. By 2025, AI is already expected to replace 85 million jobs globally, while creating new opportunities that didn't exist yesterday. This isn't about robots taking over factories anymore. This is about algorithms that can write, design, analyze, and even think in ways that were once exclusively human domains.
Every industry, every profession, every comfortable assumption about career security is being questioned. The old playbook, get an education, find a job, climb the ladder, is becoming as obsolete as the typewriter.
In this new world, the most dangerous thing you can do is nothing. The most powerful thing you can do is start something.
Innovation has always thrived in moments of disruption. When the old ways crumble, new possibilities emerge. And right now, in this exact moment, there has never been a better time to take small steps toward innovation. Something you can do on your own. Something that puts you ahead of the curve instead of chasing it.
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The Brutal Reality: When Ten Becomes One
Let me share something that will keep you awake at night, or inspire you to action. What once required ten people will soon be done by one. What once required one person will soon require none at all. Very few of us will become the ones who remain irreplaceable.
Take project management in large organizations. For decades, we've built entire career paths around coordinating tasks, managing timelines, and facilitating communication. Today, AI systems can track progress, predict bottlenecks, and optimize resource allocation with precision that makes human project managers look like they're working with stone tablets.
Consider junior software engineers, the traditional entry point into one of the most lucrative career paths of the past two decades. My friends who lead software teams have already stopped hiring junior engineers. Why train someone for six months when an AI can generate, test, and debug code faster than any human ever could? Similarly, over 7.5 million data entry jobs could disappear by 2027, and that's just the beginning.
The financial services sector faces particular vulnerability, with 47% of US jobs facing automation risk in the next decade.
But it's not just about numbers on a spreadsheet. These are real people, real careers, real lives that are about to be fundamentally altered.
Manufacturing isn't immune either. Two million manufacturing jobs could be lost to automation, continuing a trend that has already claimed 1.7 million manufacturing positions since 2000. The pattern is clear: routine, predictable work is disappearing first, but the wave of change is moving rapidly up the skill ladder.
This isn't about being pessimistic. This is about being realistic. The question isn't whether these changes will happen. They're happening right now. The question is what you're going to do about it.
The Tale of Two Workforces: Large Organizations and Startups in Crisis
I've spent years observing the employment landscape in both massive IT organizations and the dynamic startup ecosystem. What I see tells a story of two different worlds facing the same existential threat but at vastly different speeds.
In large IT organizations, the disruption moves like a slow-motion earthquake. These companies have built their success on armies of consultants, analysts, coordinators and specialists. But here's my stark assessment: approximately 70% of employees in large IT organizations are at risk within the next five years. If that sounds like a lot of time, remember how wrong most of us were about the speed of generative AI adoption. What we thought would take a decade happened in eighteen months.
These organizations are like oil tankers trying to change course. They have quarterly earnings to report, shareholders to satisfy, and bureaucracies that move at the speed of committee meetings. By the time they fully adapt to the AI revolution, most of their current workforce will have become redundant.
Startups face a different reality entirely. They're speedboats in the same storm, capable of radical course corrections but also more vulnerable to being swamped by the waves. The startup ecosystem is about to undergo a fundamental transformation. Success will no longer go to those who simply have good ideas, it will go to founders who understand how to leverage AI as a force multiplier and investors who truly comprehend what they're funding in this new era.
Smaller companies don't have the luxury of gradual adaptation. They live or die by their ability to do more with less, to move faster than their competition, and to find efficiencies that larger organizations can't match. In the AI age, this means that startups with AI-savvy leadership will destroy those without it. Investors who understand the new world will do justice to the money they deploy.
The change won't be gradual, it will be binary. You're either part of the AI revolution or you're its victim.
The Ultimate Hedge: Building Your Own Future
So what's the answer? Do you wait for your employer to figure it out? Do you hope that your industry will be the exception? Do you trust that someone else will secure your future?
Absolutely not.
The answer is to build something of your own. Now. Today. Before the full weight of disruption lands on your current reality.
This isn't just about having a backup plan, though that's part of it. This is about positioning yourself as a creator rather than a victim of change. It's about developing skills, networks, and revenue streams that make you antifragile in an uncertain world.
Over 36% of Americans already have a side gig, and side hustlers earn an average of $530 a month. But here's what's fascinating: almost 50% of people with a side hustle do it because they want to, not because of financial constraints. They understand something fundamental about the future of work: diversification isn't just smart, it's essential.
The global side hustle economy was valued at $556.7 billion in 2024. That's not small change. That's a parallel economy built by people who refused to put all their eggs in one employment basket.
Building something of your own isn't always about creating something entirely new. It can be about taking something close to your heart and doing it your unique way, through the lens of the AI-driven era we're entering. Everything, literally everything, will change. The question is whether you'll be changing it or it will be changing you.
This is your hedge against disruption. It's your way of adding value to society and the economy. It's your declaration that you refuse to be a passive observer of your own future.
The New Innovators: From White Collar to Any Collar, Powered by AI
Let me paint you a picture of what's possible when human creativity meets artificial intelligence.
For white-collar professionals, the opportunities are extraordinary. ChatGPT can assist with content writing, coding, and customer support, transforming anyone into a potential content creator or consultant. Jasper AI can generate high-quality marketing content, allowing professionals to start marketing agencies or freelance writing businesses with unprecedented efficiency.
Take Sarah, a marketing manager at a Fortune 500 company. Using Canva's AI-powered design features, she started creating social media graphics for small businesses on weekends. Within six months, she was earning $2,000 monthly and had built a client base that gave her the confidence to negotiate better terms at her day job.
Or consider Marcus, a financial analyst who used Pictory to transform text into engaging videos. He started a YouTube channel explaining complex financial concepts to everyday investors. The AI handled the video creation while he focused on the insights that only his experience could provide.
But here's where it gets really interesting: white-collar professionals can leverage AI to excel in traditionally blue-collar markets. Trash cleanup services (done the Japanese way, I must add) represent excellent opportunities with low startup costs and high income potential. Imagine combining traditional route planning with AI-powered optimization tools to build the most efficient waste management business in your city.
Landscaping and lawn care businesses can now use AI for customer scheduling, route optimization, and even drone-based property assessment. What once required years of experience can now be augmented with artificial intelligence that makes newcomers competitive from day one.
The beauty of AI tools is that they democratize expertise. You no longer need to be a professional designer to create stunning visuals, a veteran marketer to craft compelling copy, or an experienced analyst to interpret complex data. The AI handles the technical execution while you provide the vision, the relationships, and the human touch that machines can't replicate.
Gen Z is leading this revolution, with 70% having a side hustle, because they intuitively understand that the old employment contract is broken. They're not waiting for permission to innovate, they're using AI to build the future on their own terms.
The risk of doing nothing far outweighs the risk of trying something new. Jobs as we know them won't exist much longer. The template for how we earn and what we earn from is fundamentally changing. Starting now, before these changes solidify at scale, isn't just smart, it's survival.
Conclusion: The Innovators Are Still Here. They're Just Getting Started
The innovators haven't disappeared. They're evolving. They're the marketing managers launching AI-powered agencies, the software engineers building tools that make their own jobs obsolete, the financial analysts teaching investing through AI-generated videos, and the corporate executives starting lawn care businesses optimized by machine learning.
Innovation has always been about seeing possibilities that others miss and acting on them before they become obvious. Today, those possibilities are multiplying at an exponential rate, powered by artificial intelligence that puts previously unimaginable capabilities into the hands of anyone willing to learn and adapt.
Actually, the question "Where have all the innovators gone?" misses the point entirely! The real question is: "Will you become one of the new innovators?"
Because, in this age of AI disruption, the choice isn't between innovation and stability, it's between innovation and irrelevance.
The tools are available. The opportunities are endless. The only question that remains is whether you'll have the courage to start building your own future before someone else's AI builds it for you. The innovators of tomorrow are the side hustlers of today. The revolution has begun, and it starts with you.