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You've been tasked with driving AI adoption.

But every time you touch it, the same thought creeps in: "Am I building the system that eliminates me?"

Your boss sees productivity gains. Eight hours saved per week, according to the surveys. Meanwhile, you see something else entirely.

You see your replacement getting trained. You see manual work disappearing. You see the writing on the wall.

And no one, not one person, has told you how this helps YOU.

THE ADOPTION DILEMNA

Here's what the data actually shows: 4 out of 10 employees would be fine never using AI again.

Not because it doesn't work. Not because they can't figure it out. But because "use this tool" without "here's your mandate" feels like unpaid R&D for your own pink slip.

The executives? They see the future. Two-thirds credit AI with saving them 8+ hours per week. They're thinking deployment. Systems. Scale.

The employees? They see 2 hours saved, maybe. And a growing list of tasks that no longer require a human.

The gap isn't about AI capability. It's about who owns the thinking.

THE OLD WAY OF WORKING IS CHANGING

The old approach was simple: Implement something for the org. Build faster automation. Complete your compliance training. Use the new tools.

The problem? Every step forward raises the same question: "What happens when this works?"

You automate the proposal process. Great - now what? You streamline client intake. Wonderful - and then? You build the system that does in 20 minutes what used to take your team 6 hours.

Success looks like elimination.

So you resist. You slow walk it. You find reasons why "it won't work for our specific situation." Not because you're difficult - because you're rational.

THE NEW WAY: EXTRACT YOUR THINKING

Here's what changes everything:

Step back from the tools. Step into how you extract better thinking for yourself. Then use AI to execute it - or do it in a way you never had time to do before.

You're not using AI to replace yourself. You're using it to finally BUILD what your expertise has been trying to become.

The Digital Employee Definition Card gives you the structure. Fifteen minutes to extract ONE task where your thinking is currently trapped.

Not the company's automation project. YOUR thinking asset.

WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE

I'm working with someone who is taking on a new university role. Accomplished track record, but anxious. The position typically goes to patent attorneys, people with very specific credentials she doesn't have.

First conversation: "Can I do this?"

We stepped back from "what they usually hire" and looked at what she brings.

Turns out, she's not a patent attorney. She's a network architect who uses her skills to execute

Her skillset:

She didn't use AI to become a patent attorney. She is using it to extract her expertise and build what patent attorneys CAN'T create:

Coalition-building frameworks. Funding strategy playbooks. Research acceleration systems. The entire infrastructure that the university needs for the startup ecosystem.

She's not using AI to replace herself. She's using it to deploy her strategic thinking into territory she owns.

That's indispensable. Not because she learned the tools, but because she deployed the thinking.

THE ECONOMICS

Passive compliance gets you 2 hours saved, the same paycheck, and growing fear about what comes next.

Active extraction gets you ownership of intellectual property that makes you irreplaceable.

The person who "drives AI adoption" by implementing what they're told? Replaceable the moment the implementation is done.

The person who extracts their thinking and builds what only they can see? That's career and income-advancing territory.

HOW CAN YOU START DOWN THIS PATH

Complete one Digital Employee Definition Card this week.

Pick ONE task where your thinking is trapped. Not the biggest task. Not the most impressive automation opportunity. The one where you keep saying, "If I just had time to build this properly..."

Extract that thinking. Define what decisions you make. Capture what good looks like. Document the knowledge that lives only in your head.

Don't build their automation project. Extract YOUR thinking.

HOW TO CREATE A DEFINITION CARD

“I need to extract my thinking from a task I currently do manually. Walk me through creating a Digital Employee Definition Card by asking me these questions one at a time:

1. What's the task? (Be specific - not "client research" but "qualifying inbound leads from website form submissions")

2. How often do you do this task, and how long does it currently take?

3. What questions do you ask yourself while doing this task? (The if/then logic that lives in your head)

4. What decisions do you make? (What determines whether you proceed, escalate, or stop?)

5. What does good output look like? (Give me an example)

6. What knowledge is required? (What do you know that makes this work?)

7. How do you validate that it's done correctly? After I answer, tell me: - Whether this task is ready to extract (3-4 YES answers means build it, 0-1 means pick a different task) - What I should build first - What thinking I'm actually deploying (not just what I'm automating).”

Run the prompt. Answer the questions.

You're not building their automation. You're extracting YOUR expertise into assets you control.

THE SHIFT FOR YOU

You're not "the AI adoption person."

You're uncovering what you actually are by being open to a new way of working.

Stop implementing tools. Start extracting thinking.

The bosses see 8 hours saved because they're deploying systems. You see something better: expertise you own, deployed into assets that make you indispensable.

That's the fix.

Marvin