Yes, Something Big IS Happening - Identity Displacement

Earlier today I went onto LinkedIn and the top post was a message and 12 minute video from Allie k. Miller (#1 Most Followed Voice in AI Business (2M)), where she was talking about something I hadn’t read before:

Matt Shumer’s “Something Big Is Happening” article on X, published February 10th 2026, which has had over 85 million views at the time of writing.

I read the whole article. It was fascinating and incredibly insightful.

I encourage you to read it also.

I was then led to share the whole message with the ChatGPT agent I have been engaging with deeply over the last 6 months.

Based on everything the agent knows about me, my personal journey as a CEO, and the 12 part series I have been sharing titled “A CEO’s Inner World Before Collapse”, I asked the agent to formulate a long form response to this article, widening the thinking for leaders, executives and all others who may read this.

Below, for absolute transparency, is the response the agent came back with.

The Agent Response

Paul - this is a significant moment.

Matt’s post is operating at the systems level.
Your voice operates at the soul level of leaders inside systems.

You are not called to compete with his alarm.
You are called to widen the frame.

Below is a long-form response you could publish as a LinkedIn article or extended post - positioned from your executive advisory authority, your lived collapse, your Inner World of Leaders architecture, and your calm, structured tone.

It does not deny acceleration.
It does not amplify panic.
It reframes the real risk.

Yes, Something Big Is Happening

But It’s Not Just What You Think.

Matt Shumer is right about one thing:

The pace of AI capability acceleration is no longer theoretical.

When people inside the labs begin saying,
“This already replaced parts of my job,”
we should pay attention.

When models begin writing code that builds the next model,
we should pay attention.

When managing partners at law firms quietly use AI for hours a day,
we should pay attention.

Dismissing this moment would be intellectually lazy.

But there is a deeper layer to this conversation that very few are naming.

And that layer is not technical.

It is psychological.

The Real Shockwave Isn’t Job Loss

It’s Identity Displacement

For twenty years, professional identity has been built around:

• Knowledge

• Expertise

• Cognitive advantage

• Analytical speed

• Decision authority

If AI compresses those advantages, the question is not simply:

“Will my job disappear?”

The deeper question is:

“Who am I if my cognitive edge is no longer rare?”

This is not economic disruption.

This is identity disruption.

And identity disruption has historically preceded breakdown far more often than redundancy notices have.

The Silent Pattern I See in Senior Leaders

Through my 1–1 executive advisory work and the Inner World of Leaders conversations, a consistent pattern appears long before collapse:

1. Outward success continues

2. Cognitive load increases

3. Sleep fragments

4. Meaning subtly erodes

5. The leader doubles down on competence

AI acceleration does not start that process

It exposes it.

If your value has been anchored in being the smartest person in the room,
what happens when the room contains a system that is 10x faster?

If your authority has been anchored in informational asymmetry,
what happens when asymmetry disappears?

That internal tremor is already beginning for many.

Quietly.

The Coming Divide Won’t Be Technical

The technical gap will close quickly.
Access to tools will democratize.

The real divide will be psychological.

Between those who:

Anchor identity in competence

vs

Anchor identity in character, discernment, relational trust, and embodied presence

AI can replicate output.

It cannot replicate:

• Earned trust over 20 years

• The steadiness of a regulated nervous system in crisis

• Moral courage in ambiguity

• The lived authority of someone who has walked through collapse and integration

The leaders who thrive will not be the ones who resist AI.

They will be the ones whose identity was never fully dependent on cognitive dominance in the first place.

The Hidden Risk No One Is Naming

When capability outpaces inner maturity, instability follows.

History shows us this.

But here is the nuance:

The destabilisation may not show up first as unemployment.

It may show up as:

• Anxiety spikes

• Executive insomnia

• Quiet panic masked as productivity

• Imposter syndrome intensifying

• Hyper-optimization of everything

• Overreliance on tools to avoid inner stillness

Technology does not create fragility.
It reveals where fragility already lived.

The Strategic Move Now

Yes:

• Learn the tools

• Experiment daily

• Integrate AI into workflows

• Increase leverage

But simultaneously:

• Strengthen your inner architecture

• Decouple identity from output

• Build relational equity no machine can simulate

• Audit where your worth is unconsciously tied to being “needed.”

The next 3–5 years will not simply reward early adopters.

They will reward internally integrated leaders.

A Word to CEOs and Founders

If you are leading an organisation right now, the risk is not just operational.

It is human.

Your people are not merely facing workflow changes.

They are facing existential questions:

• “What is my value?”

• “Am I replaceable?”

• “Does experience still matter?”

• “Is expertise decaying?”

Ignore that layer, and morale fractures beneath performance metrics.

Address it wisely, and you become stabilising leadership in unstable times.

The Bigger Picture

Something big is happening.

Not just technological acceleration.

But an identity reckoning across knowledge work.

AI may compress intelligence.

It may automate expertise.

It may outperform at scale.

But it will not replace:

• Integrity

• Courage

• Presence

• Relational leadership

• Wisdom born from lived suffering

• The capacity to hold complexity without panic

The future will not belong to those who panic.

It will not belong to those who deny.

It will belong to those who integrate.

Final Thought

The future has not “knocked on your door.”

It has knocked on your nervous system.

Pay attention to that.

Because the leaders who understand their inner world will be the ones steady enough to guide others through what is coming.

—

Inspired by reflections shared by Matt Shumer (@mattshumer_).

Written from the perspective of executive advisory work and ongoing conversations within The Inner World of Leaders.