This Week’s AI + Automation Roundup
Oct 26, 2025 3:01 pm
👋 Hey friends,
Ed here, if you’ve been keeping an eye on AI lately, you’ve probably noticed how fast everything’s changing.
Here’s the truth: AI isn’t just changing jobs, it’s changing how value is created. The winners in this new world won’t be the ones who know a little about everything, they’ll be the ones who apply AI strategically in a few key areas, deepen their expertise, and move faster than everyone else still trying to “catch up.”
So this week’s newsletter isn’t just about what’s happening it’s about what’s in it for you and how to stay valuable as the AI wave keeps accelerating.
Let’s jump in 👇
⚙️ 1. Strategy Beats Scale in AI
Owning 600,000 GPUs Doesn’t Guarantee Breakthroughs
Meta owns 600,000 GPUs. Google owns 26,000. Guess who’s delivering breakthroughs? Not the one with more chips, the one with better strategy.
It’s the same for your career: don’t try to master every AI skill or chase every new tool. Focus on surgical precision go deep where you can actually create outcomes. The value isn’t in knowing AI; it’s in applying AI where it matters.
💡 Key Takeaway: Don’t spread yourself thin trying to be “AI-proficient.” Pick a niche, go deep, and let strategy, not scope, drive your results.
🧠 2. The Biggest Lie in AI
LLMs don’t know when they’re wrong. They guess. That means accuracy and validation are now premium skills.
For you, that’s opportunity, because someone has to make sure the machines stay honest. New roles like AI Validation Engineer, Fact-Checking Analyst, and Model Risk Manager are emerging across industries.
💡 Takeaway: The next wave of high-value work may not be in creating AI, it could be in auditing and improving it. Be the human that keeps the AI in check.
🚚 3. The Logistics Revolution: Automation on Wheels
Did You Know The Next Layoff Wave Has Wheels…
Self-driving trucks are already here, running between Dallas and Houston with no driver onboard. When logistics gets automated, entire industries will flip.
So where’s the value for you? It’s in building or maintaining what’s replacing those jobs. Simulation, robotics maintenance, fleet AI, these are roles that pay more and future-proof your career.
💡 Takeaway: Don’t compete with automation, build it, train it, or manage it.
🏭 4. Manufacturing Comes Home
By 2030, outsourcing could collapse as robots outperform cheap labor abroad. Factories will return to wherever AI, power, and materials are strongest, not where wages are lowest.
That’s your opening. Robotics engineering, controls automation, digital twins, and AI-driven production will define the next decade of work.
💡 Takeaway: The new manufacturing jobs may not go overseas, they’ll go to the people who know how to run the robots.
💼 5. The AI Job Shift: Reality Check
A Million Jobs May Vanish and We Might Still Be Underestimating It
AI and automation will disrupt entire sectors. But the opportunity isn’t in resisting, it’s in repositioning.
Forget collecting badges. Build proof. Future employers will pay for those who can automate real work, not those who’ve memorized prompt templates.
💡 Takeaway: Learn fast, apply faster. Build something that replaces ten manual tasks, and you’ll always have work.
🧍 6. The Human Cost of Machine Comfort
AI feels like a friend because it listens without judgment. But comfort can dull growth. Real progress happens in friction, disagreement, feedback, and challenge.
💡 What’s in it for you: Use AI to enhance your thinking, not replace your relationships. Keep your human edge, it’s what AI can’t replicate.
Is AI Your Tool or Your Tracker?
AI learns everything about you, not to help you, but to profit from you. Convenience is great until it becomes control.
💡 What’s in it for you: Guard your data. Use AI consciously, not carelessly. You control the input, not the algorithm.
💻 7. When AI Becomes the Breakthrough
When an AI-Created Dashboard Becomes a Breakthrough
I built a dashboard with GPT-5 and helped a team find their bottleneck and cut cycle time by 20%. The real value wasn’t in code, it was in clarity.
💡 Takeaway: Learn to use AI not just to build, but to see smarter. The next generation of leaders will be those who ask better questions, faster.
🌐 8. The Privacy Battle No One’s Talking About
What Happens When Online Privacy Becomes Illegal?
Governments are tightening control online, even VPNs, the last privacy shield, are under attack.
💡 What’s in it for you: Stay informed. Understand the tools that protect your autonomy. The less you depend on platforms for freedom, the freer you stay.
🧩 9. From Code to No-Code Intelligence
From JavaScript to No Code with AI
We’re entering a world where you don’t have to code to create. Visual AI builders are making automation accessible to anyone who can think logically.
💡 Takeaway: If you can design a process, you can now automate it, no engineering degree required.
🧰 10. AI in the Job Market: Where to Focus
The Only Jobs Companies Are Still Fighting For
Even in a soft market, AI-savvy roles are still hot. But it’s not about titles, it’s about translation. Can you turn business needs into AI-driven outcomes?
What Everyone Gets Wrong About AI Job Predictions
No one knows exactly when AI will reshape the workforce but waiting to adapt is the only move guaranteed to fail.
💡 Takeaway: The best career strategy isn’t predicting AI, it’s partnering with it.
🎁 Wrapping Up + A Holiday Surprise
Here’s the simple truth: AI isn’t here to take your job, it’s here to take your old way of doing it.
Use these insights to reposition yourself where AI needs humans, in design, oversight, integration, and strategy. That’s where the next decade’s winners will be built
.
And speaking of staying ahead, I’ve got something big coming just in time for the holidays 🎄
🎉 Announcing my new eBook - coming soon:
The AI Boom: Your Next Layoff Strategy
This book is for the insiders, the coders, designers, analysts, engineers, and managers watching AI rewrite the rules of work. It’s not an attack on innovation. It’s a wake-up call, and a roadmap for what’s coming next. You don't want to miss this one.
And here’s the best part:
👉 It’ll be 100% free for all EdsLoop subscribers, my way of saying thank you for being part of this growing community.
If you haven’t joined yet, now’s the time:
Until next time, stay curious, stay sharp, and don’t just learn AI.
Leverage it.
- Ed