Welcome to the Open to Work Newsletter
In a moment when technology dominates the headlines, conversations on LinkedIn keep coming back to one very human question: What does AI mean for my job and my career?
Aneesh Raman and I wrote Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI to help people navigate this moment of profound change. It’s a guide for anyone trying to make sense of work right now. For every person asking what comes next for their job, their career, their company, or their community. It explains what AI changes, what it doesn’t, and how each of us can find our edge.
The book launches on March 31.
Between now and then, we’re going to use this newsletter, Open to Work, to share what we’re seeing and learning in real time. The goal isn’t to repackage the book chapter by chapter. It’s to have an ongoing conversation about how work is actually evolving, informed by what we see across the global labor market and inside the tools millions of people use every day.
From where I sit, I have a somewhat unusual vantage point. I run LinkedIn, which gives us a real-time view of hiring, skills, and career mobility around the world. I also lead Microsoft Office, where we see how AI is reshaping day-to-day workflows inside companies of every size.
What’s striking is this: The anxiety is real. The opportunity is real too. But clarity is rare.
So, each week, we’ll share one story, idea, or framework from the book, along with something practical you can apply immediately. Something that helps you build leverage instead of reacting after change happens.
And let me start with the core idea...
The most dangerous career strategy right now is standing still.
For decades, many of us were taught a fairly linear career formula: work hard, stay loyal, and get promoted. That advice wasn’t wrong. It just isn’t complete anymore.
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AI isn’t eliminating the need for human contribution. But it is compressing the timeline of relevance. Skills evolve faster. Roles change faster. The distance between being highly valuable and being outdated can close quickly.
The people who thrive in this environment aren’t necessarily the most technical. They’re the most adaptive.
In the book, we call this building career optionality.
Your goal isn’t just to have a job. It’s to always have options.
Options come from skills that travel across roles and industries, like the uniquely human skills of communication, storytelling, problem framing, decision-making, and managing stakeholders.
Options come from investing in your reputation before you need it. Don’t just network when you’re job hunting but invest in your relationships consistently. Small gestures - a quick note, a congratulations, a personalized message - build meaningful goodwill over time.
Options come from staying curious even when things feel stable. Volunteer for a cross-functional project, proactively explore adjacent skills to build, or simply start playing and experimenting with the emerging tools.
If this newsletter is useful to you, subscribe. Forward it to someone thinking about their next move. We’ll keep it practical, grounded, and honest.
And if you want to go deeper, you can pre-order Open to Work here
Next week, we’ll dig into what AI actually changes, and what it doesn’t, about building a durable career.
When conversations on LinkedIn keeps coming back to one very human question: What does AI mean for my job and my career? I googled AI Overview for an answer to the following question: What does AI mean for my job and my career? The answer was great to say the least about over-all one page answer. Short quote from it you can read below: "AI is driving a transformation of tasks, where AI handles routine, data-heavy, or repetitive work while augmenting human roles in creativity, strategy, and complex problem-solving."
I love it. Now we can be out with the nitty gritty and embellish what we're really good at and meant to do. Can't wait to read the book!
Spot on, Ryan. As a founder of SNH, I believe the real magic happens when we use AI to amplify—not replace—human craftsmanship. We are using these technologies to revive traditional Egyptian resources like Linen and Cotton, turning heritage into global luxury brands. The 'human question' is our biggest competitive advantage.
Transitioning from "Messaging Apps" to "Secure Data Infrastructures" 🛡️🌍 Body: The digital world is evolving faster than its security. While we celebrate the rise of the Multi-Trillion Smart Economy, we often overlook the fragile backbone it runs on. Trusting a central server with your strategic vision is a risk no leader should take in 2026. At xMessenger, we are moving beyond traditional "encrypted chat." We are building a Zero-Trust ecosystem designed for the high-stakes reality of modern business: Serverless Sovereignty: We remove the middleman. By eliminating central servers, we eliminate the "single point of failure" that hackers dream of. 3-Way Encryption Logic: We don't just lock the door; we redefine the key. Our architecture ensures that data integrity is mathematically guaranteed. AI-Era Resiliency: In a world of automated threats, xMessenger provides a manual-override for privacy. Your data isn't just "safe"; it's invisible to the wrong eyes. Sustainability is not just about resources—it’s about the longevity and security of our information. We are building the vault for the next trillon-dollar era. Are you communicating on a platform built for the past, or an infrastructure built for the future? #xMessenger
Great initiative, and the title truly reflects the times we are in. We really need to be “open to” continuous skill upgradation, dynamic changes in the way we work, and the overall shift in the macro environment. Wishing the initiative all the best.