AI and Your Next Chapter: What Should We Be Learning Now?
For people in their 50s and 60s, AI presents both challenges and opportunities. How can we use it to build on our experience and explore what comes next?
I recently hosted a discussion with a group of men in their 50s and 60s about a question I’ve been thinking about:
What should we be investing in today to make the most of the next 20 years of our lives?
We weren’t talking primarily about money. We were exploring wealth in its broader sense: our health, relationships, sense of purpose, freedom, professional networks and skills.
Perhaps inevitably, the conversation turned to artificial intelligence.
One participant, an experienced legal professional, talked about how AI was increasingly taking on work that had previously required years of training and expertise.
Another had returned to university to study machine learning and AI, only to discover that acquiring these new technical skills didn’t necessarily make finding employment any easier.
Others were using AI regularly but were concerned about its reliability and the dangers of accepting its answers without applying their own judgement.
It struck me that their experiences reflected something many people in their 50s and 60s are probably beginning to question.
We’ve spent 30 or 40 years building our knowledge and professional expertise. How much of that will still be valuable as AI develops? And what new skills should we be learning?
Are older workers really resistant to AI?
A recently published study by Kantar and Ageism Is Never In Style titled ‘AI & Longevity’, provides some interesting insights.
Based on research involving 3,000 people across six countries, it examines how different generations are adapting to AI and what this might mean for longer working lives.
The findings for Generation X, broadly those in their late 40s and 50s, are particularly interesting:
70% use AI at least occasionally, including 42% who use it regularly.
76% expect to work longer than previous generations.
44% are classified as AI Pragmatists: people willing to use the technology when its value is clear and reliable.
24% are concerned that AI could replace their jobs.
These findings rather challenge the familiar assumption that older workers are resistant to new technology.
Many experienced professionals appear quite comfortable with the idea of using AI, provided it does something useful and they can trust the results.
And that seems to me a fairly sensible approach.
After all, having spent decades making decisions, managing people, dealing with uncertainty and learning from mistakes, we’ve developed the ability to apply judgement based on experience.
But we also need to recognise that some of the specialist knowledge and skills we’ve relied upon throughout our careers are now becoming more readily available through AI.
So where does that leave us?
Could AI make our experience more valuable?
One of the interesting points raised during our discussion was that people with considerable professional experience might actually be well placed to use AI effectively.
An experienced manager, for example, could use AI to explore different approaches to a business problem while recognising some of the practical and human complications that the technology has overlooked.
Similarly, an experienced lawyer can use AI to analyse documents or explore legal arguments, but is also better equipped to recognise when its conclusions don’t make sense.
In my own coaching and business activities, I increasingly use AI to help organise information, research unfamiliar subjects and develop ideas.
But I absolutely don’t regard what it produces as the finished answer. It’s a contribution to the thinking process, which I then assess and develop using my own experience and judgement.
There are important limitations. AI can produce convincing but inaccurate information, reproduce biases and misunderstand context. Confidentiality and data security also need careful consideration.
Learning when to question an AI-generated answer, test an assumption or reject a recommendation is therefore becoming an important skill.
I suspect that the people who benefit most from AI won’t necessarily be those who know the most about the technology. They may be those who are best able to combine it with their existing experience and expertise.
What role could AI play in your next chapter?
For someone in their mid-50s to mid-60s, I think the importance of AI goes well beyond keeping up with technology at work.
Many people at this stage are beginning to consider different futures. They might want to continue working, but with more flexibility, pursue a portfolio career, establish a business or become an adviser or mentor.
Others may want to explore interests that they’ve never previously had the time to pursue.
AI could be useful in all sorts of ways.
It can help us identify and articulate the transferable skills we’ve developed over a long career. It can assist with researching unfamiliar sectors, exploring business ideas, developing proposals or acquiring new knowledge.
Someone who has spent 35 years in corporate employment might use AI to investigate different ways of applying their expertise.
Someone considering starting a small business could use it to research the market and test an initial proposition.
And someone who has always wanted to study history, learn a language or write a book might find that AI makes the first steps less daunting.
In each case, it can make exploration easier, quicker and potentially less expensive.
But there’s an important distinction.
AI can help us explore opportunities. It can’t tell us which of those opportunities will give our lives meaning or fulfilment.
That requires us to fully understand our motivations, interests and values.
Nor can AI replace the relationships and social connections that become so important as we move beyond established careers.
One participant in our discussion, who now works as a tutor, made an interesting observation. Although AI could help explain academic material, much of the value he brought to his students came from encouraging them, building their confidence and developing a personal relationship.
It was a useful reminder that providing someone with information and genuinely helping them are not necessarily the same thing.
So, do we all need to become AI experts?
I don’t think so.
For most people in their 50s and 60s, becoming proficient in AI probably doesn’t mean learning to code, studying machine learning or acquiring specialist technical qualifications.
A good starting point is simply becoming familiar with tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Microsoft Copilot.
Understanding how to ask good questions, refine responses, check the quality of information and apply the results to real situations can be enormously useful.
For those continuing in particular professions or industries, there may also be specialist AI applications worth understanding.
But rather than automatically enrolling on another course, I’d suggest starting with some practical experimentation.
Choose something you genuinely want to achieve. Use AI to help you tackle it. Discover what works, what doesn’t and where you still need your own expertise.
The Kantar research found that 65% of respondents were already learning about AI informally or independently.
Of course, employers also have a responsibility to provide older workers with access to training and opportunities, rather than assuming that technological development is primarily the preserve of younger colleagues.
Which assets should we really be investing in?
At the end of our Brave Starts discussion, I asked everyone to identify one personal asset they wanted to strengthen over the following month.
Interestingly, nobody chose AI.
One participant talked about finding a stronger sense of purpose in his life. Others wanted to develop new professional networks and relationships that would help them move forward.
I thought that was rather revealing.
We may need to become much more familiar with AI over the coming years. It will almost certainly change the way many of us work and may open up opportunities we haven’t yet considered.
But learning about AI is only one part of preparing for a longer, more varied life.
We also need to continue investing in our health, relationships, interests and sense of purpose.
And perhaps, above all, we need to remain curious and willing to explore unfamiliar possibilities.
AI may be able to help us discover and develop those possibilities. But deciding what we want from the next 10, 15 or 20 years of our lives is still very much up to us.
