Is AI Coming for Your Job? Run This Simple Audit to Find Out
There is no shortage of discussion right now about AI taking jobs. The question is not "Will AI Replace Me?" but rather “How much of my recent work actually required me specifically?” To determine how at-risk your job could be, run the following audit: Review your last 10 business days. Look at your calendar, sent emails, Slack or Teams messages, documents, tickets, spreadsheets, memos, reports, and any other place where your actual work shows up. Then tag each task, meeting, document, or deliverable with one of four labels: T = Theater C = Commodity L = On the Line D = Durable The point is not to judge your entire job title. The point is to examine the specific units of work that fill your week. T = Theater Theater is work that exists because the organization performs it, not because it creates meaningful value. This includes things like: Status meetings where nothing changes. Decks nobody really reads. Alignment calls that create no real alignment. Reports that continue because someone asked for them 18 months ago. Reviews that exist mostly for political cover (large organizations often create rituals because rituals are visible, socially safe, and easy to point to as evidence that work is happening). If a large portion of your week is theater, your job may look busy without being especially defensible. C = Commodity Work Commodity work is real work that produces value, but does not require you specifically. Examples include: Summarizing meetings. Routing information. Writing routine updates. Applying known rules to familiar situations. Creating first drafts where the structure is already obvious. Turning meetings into next steps. Coordinating decisions that have already been made. This work matters. Companies run on it. But the risk is that it becomes less scarce. If someone else — or an AI tool guided by a decent prompt — could produce a similar output, then your personal claim on that work is weak. Just because a skill took years to develop does not mean the market will continue to reward it in the same way. A skill can be real and still become less scarce.