Adaptability Is the New Job Security: Ross Thornley on AQ, AI & the Future of Work

Employees with high adaptability are 2.5 times more likely to demonstrate high job performance and contribute meaningfully to organizational success, according to ETS, a global education and talent solutions organization focused on enabling lifelong learners to become future-ready. As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the workplace, perhaps we're asking the wrong question. Instead of asking, “Which jobs will AI make redundant?” should we be asking, “Which tasks can AI make redundant—and how can humans continuously adapt to create new value?” In this thought-provoking episode of Let’s Have This Conversation, Ross Thornley, entrepreneur, author, international keynote speaker, and pioneer of the Adaptability Quotient (AQ), joins us to explore why adaptability may become one of the most important competitive advantages for individuals, leaders, teams, and organizations navigating the age of AI. As Co-Founder and CEO of AQai, Ross has helped build an AI-powered platform designed to help people, teams, and organizations measure and strengthen their adaptability so they can thrive through accelerating change. A graduate of the Singularity University Executive Program, Ross has worked with leadership teams across Fortune 500 companies, governments, and UN agencies. He is also the host of the DECODING AQ podcast, where he explores adaptability, emerging technology, leadership, and what it takes to remain valuable in an increasingly unpredictable world. Ross brings an experimental, curious, and optimistic perspective to the future. His Massive Transformational Purpose is ambitious: “To unite, inspire and accelerate the best of all humanity.” At the heart of our conversation is a provocative idea: It’s time to shift the conversation from making people redundant to making tasks redundant in the age of AI. As AI begins reshaping the individual building blocks of work, our professional identities may need to evolve beyond protecting job titles. The future could belong to people who understand how to continuously learn, reinvent themselves, solve new problems, and rebuild the value they bring to an organization. Ross argues that there may be no completely “safe” jobs—but there can be adaptable people. So, what separates someone who merely survives disruption from someone who thrives because of it? Can adaptability be measured and intentionally developed? What exactly is the Adaptability Quotient? How should leaders prepare their teams for exponential technological change without allowing fear to dominate the conversation? And as AI takes over more tasks, which distinctly human capabilities become even more valuable? Drawing on his background in innovation, branding, technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership, Ross contextualizes complex ideas while challenging us to think differently about AI, adaptability, organizational change, lifelong learning, human potential, and the future of work. The question is no longer simply whether your job will change. The more important question may be: How prepared are you to change with it?   For more information: https://www.aqai.io/ LinkedIn: @Ross (The AQ Guy) Thornley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices