 This might sound contrarian. As an IT Leader how often do you switch-off digitally? 📴 As a 30+ year veteran business/IT writer, I'm a huge tech fan. As, I expect, are you. 😍
I've also seen the encroachment of digital into every aspect of our lives. 👤 PDAs in the Nineties. Mobile in the noughties. Cloud apps after that. Then pervasive social media. Relentless algorithms. Smart watches. ⌚ Now, the vast majority of people go to sleep with their phone by their side. 🛌 Increasing numbers fall asleep with it in their hand. Yup. 😦 And if you’re wearing a smart device, you’re always connected. Transhumanists love the idea. 🤖 But is it mentally or emotionally healthy to be this connected? Available round the clock? Seven days a week? Living under immense pressure to respond to everything? 🔄 I suggest it’s time to discover, or rediscover, the art of solitude, silence and stillness. 🌸 The kind of digital switch off that switches us on again. We’re human beings, not human doings - right?! Burnout is a big and growing problem in tech – particularly among cybersec professionals. 😵 So, what if we give ourselves and our teams the encouragement, permission and opportunity to go tech free every so often? 🥳 Imagine the wellbeing benefits that will follow. 🎁 Takeaways for Tech Leaders 🌳 Switch off suggestion 1 Go out into nature at the weekend. Leave your phone behind. 🛌 Switch off suggestion 2 Charge your phone in the kitchen at night. Leave it there until breakfast – or after. ⏰ Switch off suggestion 3 Schedule when you do your WhatsApp or email replies. Be responsive instead of reactive. to edit.
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 I write this with some trepidation. It’s honesty time. I love writing. And I’m very good at it. But AI is eating my writing work. 😧 I thought I had longer. But no. ⛔
So, while I’m still copywriting when the work comes in, I’m pivoting to events and live moderating and interviewing. Which I also love. 🎤 With over 30 years’ experience as a tech writer, interviewer and presenter, I have a specific skillset. I enjoy people. I find tech fascinating. And live work is great fun! 🌟 But I do wonder how long it will be before I’m replaced by AI-equipped automatons - or life-size holograms – for even this type of work. 🤖 Could happen. Hate to think it will. 😱 Last October, Elon Musk wrote that in 10 to 20 years, “AI and robots will replace all jobs. Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store." 🍅 Cheers Elon. I happen to like working. If you were at the 2025 Foundry CIO Summit, you might remember Danilo McGarry predicting that in the next two to five years AI will dominate jobs including cashier, telemarketer, coder, accountant, graphic designer, and financial analyst. 🧮 McGarry also insisted AI counsellors will be in demand, because people feel safer confiding in a non-human replicant. 🤗 After all, 40% of workers fear losing their jobs to AI, up from 28% in 2024 (Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2026). Indeed, news stories regularly inform us of more work droughts. Layoffs. Job carnage. As for the CXO role, it will most likely be heavily augmented by AI going forward. Along with doctors, engineers and judges. So, how are you looking to pivot? Takeaways for Tech Leaders ⏩ Your role How are you planning to develop your role as a Tech Leader in the face of AI-augmentation? 💻 Your workforce How are you preparing for an accelerated rationalisation of your workforce? 🥕 Your choice Would you prefer to grow your own vegetables or buy them from the store in the future?  Noteworthy Books [Insights for Leaders: 2 min read] I love tech and find our industry endlessly fascinating. As an IT writer of 30+ years I enjoy eating books to fuel my knowledge. ⛽ You too?
Notable early reads of my career are: Being Digital (Nicholas Negroponte, 1995) - prescient. Accidental Empires 📈 (Robert X. Cringely, 1996) - hilarious. Inside Intel (Tim Jackson, 1998) - concerning. 💻 Here are three books I recently ate and enjoyed. 😋 📘 2084 and the AI Revolution, John Lennox (2025 edition) Lennox is an eminent Oxford Uni Maths Professor, philosopher and Christian thinker 🧠. He conscientiously covers AI and related issues such as ethics, transhumanism, autonomous weapons 🔫 and the AI-human relationship. His approach is balanced, considered and academic, whilst being highly readable. A fascinating study. 🍀 📕 The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future, Mustafa Suleiman (2020) Legislate, mitigate and proceed with caution ⚡. That’s the message of Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman. Like Lennox, Suleiman envisages a future where AI and synthetic biology proliferate. As co-founder of DeepMind he knows his stuff. He expertly covers security, politics, work & prosperity, global risk and other weighty subjects. Powerful. 💣 📗 Genesis: Artificial intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit, Eric Schmidt, Henry Kissinger, Craig Mundie (2025) Genesis takes a deep dive into the history of technology. 💡 It also makes some outlandish predictions about AI, with both hubris and panache. This detailed study argues that AI will help humans solve world problems and mysteries. 🌎 Meanwhile, it could challenge our relationship with the divine and spur a new phase in human evolution. 🤖 (In reality, Lennox is far more coherent and realistic on this.) A good read, nevertheless. Takeaways for Tech Leaders 📘 2084 and the AI Revolution A well-researched and provocative read. 📕 The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future Repetitive in places, but insightful and thought provoking. 📗 Genesis: Artificial intelligence, Hope and the Human Spirit Ambitious and a tad overwritten, but with many enjoyable historical analogies. |
Arif MohamedTechnology commentator, presenter and moderator with 30yrs+ experience ArchivesCategories |
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