Reinvent Yourself Before AI Does It For You with Nikki Barua

Full Episode Transcript

This is the full recorded conversation from The Human Protocol Podcast, published by The Human Protocol Group. © 2026 The Human Protocol Group. Please link to and attribute the original episode when referencing this conversation.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (00:01.6)
AI is not only forcing us to reinvent our work, but to really look into ourselves and see how we can reinvent ourselves. Welcome to The Human Protocol, the podcast about staying human while building the future. I am your host, Mykel Salomon. Today's conversation is about reinvention, but not the kind you see people posting about, the kind that you have to survive, that you have to live it through, right? Because AI is not only

transforming companies, it's really transforming people, our roles, our confidence, our sense of value. And here is the uncomfortable truth, right? What got us here will not take us forward. My guest today is Nikki Barua. Nikki, welcome to The Human Protocol.

Nikki Barua (00:47.183)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki Barua (00:52.847)
Thank you for inviting me. I'm so thrilled to be here.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (00:56.13)
Same, same, I'm very excited. I know that you're someone that is very passionate about this whole topic of reinvention and us human beings. So I'm very much looking forward and thanks for taking the time to be with us today. And then, you know, before we kick things off, Nikki, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you have been and where you're heading next?

Nikki Barua (01:01.039)
Yes, sir.

Nikki Barua (01:21.135)
Yeah, well, the true line of my life and career has been all about reinvention. Every stage has been about reinventing the next version of me and whether it was coming to America as an immigrant and needing to reinvent to fit into the society and figure out how to master the rules of success here.

to building my corporate career in digital transformation and tech and innovation and all of these pieces, really getting the opportunity to work with some of the world's most iconic brands and helping them reinvent with technology. And then building my career as an entrepreneur and starting and scaling multiple businesses, that too required another reinvention because when you learn how to make it big in corporate, that doesn't make you a great entrepreneur. In fact, there's a lot of unlearning you have to do.

to gain entrepreneurial success. And so every phase has really taught me not just how to build the next level skills and competencies, but more importantly, build the right mindset and habits and behaviors that propel you into the future. And the most important lesson I've learned through all of that is it's not about what you learn, it's about what you're willing to unlearn. That's honestly the hardest part.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (02:37.026)
That's it. And for the most part, because we are human beings, on learning and detaching, it's not something that we are naturally used to, right? So I love that part. And thanks for sharing that, Nikki. And when we talk and we look at reinvention, and part of your story was trying to fit into rooms, right, and that maybe the door wasn't opening.

So from fitting into room, you kind of get into this reinvention phase, right, of becoming who you are today. What can you share a little bit about those times and that version of yourself where you were trying to fit in? How does it feel like?

Nikki Barua (03:06.075)
Yeah.

Nikki Barua (03:25.359)
This is something that anyone listening in would relate to. We've all experienced that at some point in your life, where you want to be part of something, but you feel like a total outsider. You don't feel like you belong. You don't feel accepted. People can relate to you. And in those moments, it's very easy to lose your confidence to question your self-worth.

And the coping mechanism often becomes that the way you'll try to fit in is to literally become like someone else. You just copy them, right? Because you feel like that's the formula to success. If I'm not being accepted, let me just become like them and then I'll be more accepted. And that's how belong. The problem with that, though, is that the more you become like someone else, the less there is of you to see. Because when you shed your own authenticity and you simply copy someone else,

you become a photocopy of other people and lose that special something that is uniquely you. And so the most important thing about finding your way from being on the outside of inner circles to building your own table is to find strength from what makes you uniquely you. Never lose that part. Make authenticity your superpower.

and build from there because when you show up truly as yourself, you will attract the right people to you. You may not find your way in those circles you're chasing, but you will build your own circle in the ways that actually are far more meaningful and lasting.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (05:08.108)
I love that because sometimes as we go through our careers, some doors open, others don't. And depending on where we are in our trajectory, when a door closes on you, for some people it's hard to overcome that. And I love that part that you talk about, which is build your own table.

Nikki Barua (05:31.236)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (05:31.38)
and especially in times of AI, in times of this new future that demand us to reinvent ourselves to maybe unlearn what we have learned all this time into things that are gonna be new to us. I'm curious to hear from you, Nicky. How do you see building your own table in this whole new era with AI, in this whole new future that we're about to get into ourselves?

Nikki Barua (05:59.493)
You know, the most exciting part of the times we're in right now is that AI is the great equalizer. You know, as much as people focus on the divide, right? And like some people are getting left behind or even in the past, we've talked about the gender gap or the race divide and all of that. The exciting thing about AI is that if you learn how to co-evolve with AI as your teammate,

you can actually leapfrog ahead and create generational walls and have massive impact on the world in ways that were never possible before. And so it doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter where you might have been, but it does matter what you're doing right now to build towards your future. And to me, the most important aspect right now is don't be a bystander.

You've got to get in the arena. You've got to roll up your sleeves. You've got to get your hands in the dirt because unlike a lot of other skills, this is not something that you can master with theory and reading a book or listening to a podcast. You literally have to build. And when you build, that's when you gain an entirely new perspective of what is possible. And it's going to blow your mind in what is not just possible for you professionally, but who you become personally. And to me, that's the greatest gift of

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (07:25.11)
I love that, and I see that as a multiplier of many of the skills that you were not born with, but AI as your co-pilot, it allows you to become and to go to places that until now without it, maybe we were limited for, right? Maybe we were limited because physically we didn't have the skills or the strengths depending, maybe mentally, maybe we didn't have those capabilities.

Nikki Barua (07:33.828)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (07:54.05)
But AI, as you're saying, is the greatest equalizer, right? It's giving for all of us those additional skills that can get us as far as our dreams allow us to dream for, right? It's allowing us to create those places that before maybe we did not have the door open for us.

Nikki Barua (08:16.346)
Well, if you think about what historically has held back so many people or communities, it really comes on to access. When you don't have access to specialized knowledge, when you don't have access to the right resources or the right relationships, those doors just remain shut. No matter how hard you try, they're not going to open for you. What is so incredibly powerful about AI is that it has democratized access.

It has made made intelligence so accessible that you don't need to knock on those doors anymore. But you do have to open your own mind and, you know, elevate your own skills and shift your mindset from worrying about fear and uncertainty to embracing change and to be comfortable around trying out new things. And that

mindset is of someone who operates with high agency, someone who has the mindset of a builder, someone who's a maker, not a manager, someone who's excited about pioneering new ideas and refuses to be put on a box. I think if you're built like that, this is truly the golden era.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (09:41.014)
Yeah, it's as you're saying, it's opening the door for a world of opportunities. I used to say that AI is giving so much of access, as you're saying, to many of the opportunity that historically for a lot of people, maybe the opportunities were not there as far as we are able to build and create. Right. And this is just back to to your point is that the builders hat must be on.

This is the era for everybody to try to build, try to think, and try to dream of what's possible. Not about what is impossible, but really to dream about what's possible with AI.

Nikki Barua (10:22.042)
Exactly right. And that's where one of the most dangerous things right now is career advice that is outdated. there is, you you look at your LinkedIn feed and it's filled with advice from people who are relevant in the pre-AI era and they build their credentials, their reputation, their, you know, expertise in the decades before.

and are still giving out advice that is frankly irrelevant today. And so that's dangerous, know, and I think it's important as much as we push ourselves to unlearn to also like unfollow and make sure that you're looking at advice and following the playbooks that actually matter today. And today the most important thing is curiosity over credentials.

If you are still telling people what your title is, how many degrees you've got, what companies you worked in or how much money you have, it doesn't matter. Most of those things are irrelevant. What matters is how curious are you? How creative are you? What things are you building today that are shaping the future? And that's what you need to lead with.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (11:38.912)
Yeah, you're touching on a very valid point, which is the experience that you come with, the baggage that you come with from decades, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that it's relevant anymore, but everything that you learn, everything that you have applied doesn't necessarily be something that you want to follow in this new feature.

Nikki Barua (11:54.042)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (12:04.288)
It's about learning what you have learned. And I know for some people, especially if you have decades doing something and being good at something, I'm sure you also agree that it's hard to leave things behind. Exactly.

Nikki Barua (12:16.44)
Yeah, well, because it becomes your identity, right? identities are very hard to change. When you gain your sense of worth and you've achieved a level of power or status or wealth because of that identity, you and then you say, OK, I'm, you know, a C-level executive at a major company and look at my title, look at my resume and look at all these things I did in the past. That identity becomes a trap.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (12:27.085)
Yeah.

Nikki Barua (12:45.634)
And it keeps you stuck in the past because until you shed that, you're never going to adopt a curious mindset and say, I'm willing to be a rookie. I'm willing to try new things. I'm willing to fail at it. I'm willing to struggle at it. but I know that if I keep building on this, I will be future ready. I will be someone who stays relevant instead of becoming outdated.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (13:09.718)
And this is what this conversation is going to be trying to amplify, trying to give you a path forward. But for that, back to what you were saying, Nikit, we need to reinvent ourselves. need to, for the most part, sometimes unlearn what we have learned. And I'm going to use this as a way to get into our nest.

next segment, which is exactly what is human reinvention? And I would like to ask you, Nikki, from your point of view, all your experience and your builder mindset, what is it that we call human reinvention, from your point of view?

Nikki Barua (14:00.261)
Look, reinvention as a concept is not anything new, right? You know, throughout history, we've seen the most relevant leaders and icons in society have continuously reinvented themselves. Think about, you know, even music artists, right? Like the ones that stay relevant, they're constantly reinventing who they are, what kind of music they make, you what kind of audiences they serve. That's what allows people to not become obsolete.

What's different now though, is that AI, the speed and scale is so rapid that reinvention is not a one-time event. It needs to be continuous. And so if reinvention needs to be continuous, the most important thing is you have to remain detached from any identity. And that's a very hard thing to do, right? Because it doesn't matter what stage you're in, there is an identity that we all carry. And so to almost have it like a, you know,

loose armor that is not something you get attached to and you're willing to let it go and take on something new. That's a pretty threatening concept. And in the past, we'll...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (15:06.702)
It's like telling people, forget about everything you've done and get into the unknown with open arms, right?

Nikki Barua (15:13.538)
Exactly. And you have nothing to protect you with, right? Like, none of your credentials, not past success, none of the things that, you know, suited your ego, right? Like, you're, that, like, all of those things. So you've got to let that go. And, you know, what's also interesting in this process is in the past, when we thought about reinvention, we thought of reinvention in context of

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (15:16.632)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (15:20.824)
Hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (15:27.175)
Title, experience, you know.

Nikki Barua (15:42.433)
other humans, right? So if I am Madonna, I'm thinking about, you know, other pop stars in my peer group, and how am I reinventing against them so I can stay relevant, right? If I'm Cher, if I'm Michael Jackson, or whatever, you're thinking in context of your human peer group. What's different today is that that's not enough. Yes, you got to reinvent against your human peer group. And more importantly, you got to reinvent against AI capabilities.

Because every week those AI models are getting smarter and more capable and faster and cheaper. And so something that only you could do six months ago, AI can do pretty well today. So the reinvention is, well, if the machine can do that, then what is left for me to do that's still considered valuable, that's still irreplaceable. That is a continuous process. You can never say, you know, I figured out the answer and now I'm set for the next 10 years.

whatever your answer is going to change over and over again.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (16:45.024)
And it's scaling very fast. And it's not that we're trying to scare anyone, but we're trying to make sure that people think about this. Because what you're saying is you're not competing or you're not putting yourself against only another human beings, right? Which we are putting ourselves for the most part against other human beings, sometimes looking for the same things that we are. But now we have AI getting better every week.

Nikki Barua (17:12.868)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (17:14.818)
taking on the many tasks that we have. And that's what we need to think about. And sometimes I feel like there is not a lot of time for people just to sit in and just wait.

Nikki Barua (17:29.082)
Yeah, and that's one of the most common experiences that people share is how overwhelming the pace of AI change feels because there's constant barrage of news and developments and, you know, or layoffs or, you know, other things that are turning our world upside down. So it's not just about mastering AI. It's also like

the cognitive overload of constantly dealing with the news and a lot of it can be like difficult news. So the way I think about it is rather than feel overwhelmed about all of this stuff, you know, if you apply a sense of play and adventure, it looks totally different. Because if you, you know, like if you think about a five year old going into like, you know, a fair or circus or something like that.

Everything's new and a lot of it could feel scary, but like because of the curiosity and sense of play, it's like a fun time, right? They're not afraid to try things out and everything new is just a new experience. So if you shift your mindset from this is new, so it must be bad or it's scary or it's taking away my stability, switch your mindset to this is new.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (18:38.766)
Exciting.

Nikki Barua (18:48.044)
It's a new area of adventure for me to try new things out, build new skills, figure out new ways to be successful. That's the mindset that makes it exciting.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (19:00.076)
And that's exactly also what I tell my team. We as humans, we have been used to be very task-driven. Our jobs, our roles were historically just tasks. You complete one task and you keep doing. Now with AI, we are given an opportunity to build something greater, to build something better, to think and be part of the conversation instead of following those specific tasks. And that's the type of mindset and reinvention that we're pushing.

that you're talking about, that I'm talking about, it's that we are really given an opportunity to think this time and to create the future that we want ourselves. And this is an opportunity that we all should embrace in a way.

Nikki Barua (19:42.872)
Yeah. I mean, if you ask yourself the question of, know, if you could get 50 % of your time back every day, how would you allocate that? What could you do with that time that you're not able to do today? And it doesn't have to be something work related. Maybe that's time you get to spend with family. Maybe that's time you get to work on a side hustle. Maybe it's time you get to do something creative that you couldn't do before.

That's the real power is let it take your job, but don't make the old work your job anymore. Reinvent what your job is about so you fill it with things that are actually valuable.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (20:27.214)
I would like to pick your brain and following this same topic, because I see, let's say, if you are an entrepreneur, a creative artist, of course you own your craft. You own your time. For that, yes, it's easier for you to say, if AI is doing many of the things that I've been doing, maybe I can think about enjoying life with the rest of the time. Let's say on the other side,

Nikki Barua (20:52.355)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (20:57.036)
We have corporate world people working for a business that may be scared, afraid with what happens if I have more time available. What happened with my worth and how I'm going to be seen from leadership, for example, if AI is taking more of my job on the tasks that I've been doing and I have more time available. Just curious what the message for maybe leaders.

Nikki Barua (21:09.699)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki Barua (21:14.777)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (21:27.294)
and should be, Nicky, from your point of view.

Nikki Barua (21:29.241)
Yeah, that's a great question. And I can share three observations that I've seen firsthand in this exact scenario. Number one, if you are someone who's a corporate employee and you're suddenly questioning your worth because AI can do your job in minutes instead of what used to take you days or weeks to do, the most important thing you have to do is shift where you attach value. If your value was attached to hard work,

And now you're no longer needing to work hard because you can press a button and get the response. You got to shift your value from hard work to making, you know, from effort to impact because your impact is still the same, even if it's taking a fraction of the time along with AI to achieve that outcome. But if you don't shift your core values and you're still focusing on like effort, effort, effort.

One, you're going to resist the tools because it's not going to give you that dopamine hit of the satisfaction of putting in the effort. So it's going to stall your own progress. So make sure you're fully aware that when these feelings come up, what is the root cause of that? Is it values that need to be upgraded and you're holding on to old values that no longer apply? Number two, if your time is freed up and you get 50 % of your time back in the current job,

What that actually means is 50 % of your job was open to disruption anyway. And you disrupted yourself before someone else could disrupt you. So now think about what do you want to fill that 50 % with? What are new ideas you can bring to the table? What are higher value tasks that only you can do? Whether it is developing your team members, whether it is serving customers, things that require the human touch. So how can you reallocate that time to higher value activity?

that produces even greater impact. And number three, if as a corporate employee, you're still thinking of your success and your job security in context of keeping that job and that one paycheck, you're in for a rude surprise. Because today, it's not about that linear career where you go from one job, one title, to the next promotion, to the next job. You have to think of it as a portfolio of competencies.

Nikki Barua (23:44.603)
that you're mixing and matching over time depending on what's most valuable in the market, but you're constantly adding to your skillset and you're constantly building new portfolio of competencies that you can apply in different ways. And if you're not thinking, think of it just like your 401k portfolio, right? Like there's different asset allocation, different asset mix, depending on how the market does, you change it up. Well, you have to think of your own career the same way. It's a portfolio.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (24:03.118)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki Barua (24:11.328)
It's not a line. It's not a stack of steps that you keep adding to. It's not a ladder anymore. It's a portfolio. So that takes a very different mindset of even how you look at time and that freed up time. How much of that can you invest in building the next level competency that will keep you relevant?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (24:30.2)
I love that. It's kind of building your portfolio of competencies and services, right? And based on the demand, what is the demand? Then that's what you have to learn. Then that's what you have to adjust.

Nikki Barua (24:42.138)
And that also, that makes everybody think with an entrepreneurial mindset, right? Any entrepreneur knows that. It doesn't matter how great your product is. If there are no customers, if there's no market demand, you're not going to have a business. But employees aren't used to thinking that way, right? They have a title, they have a job description, they have a boss, they have a team, and they have a big company brand that protects them from like...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (24:47.98)
Exactly. Yeah.

Nikki Barua (25:07.682)
facing the realities of the market. So you get busy just keeping a head down and working hard on whatever you're doing. And one fine day you wake up and you realize you're completely obsolete. So don't think of your career that way. Think of the market realities and where their demand is and keep building skills that way. And if you figure that out, you will never be reliant on just one salary income. You will earn, you know, different multiple streams of income because you will make yourself valuable.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (25:16.792)
Yeah. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (25:34.966)
And we know it's not easy for people to visualize this new reality and this new future that Nikki and I are talking about today. I also think that this new future is going to be more entrepreneurial. It is. AI is pushing us to think from an entrepreneurial mindset. We are, and we will continue to be, the greatest and the best product we offer to other people. But this best, think about you being the product.

Nikki Barua (25:42.724)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (26:02.946)
by adjusting to the market, knowing what the market needs and having to learn and do the different things from time to time, depending on what the need is. But it will require for us to embrace that because I also think, Nikki, as you do, that this new future is more about being an entrepreneur, right? You own the doors that open for you and you knowing that you have to put in the work and trying to understand and learn market trends, trying to see where

the skills that are gonna be needed, who's needed it. And I think about as well, for example, in social media, social media is changing algorithms all the time. We keep learning, right? We have to learn on what is it that is needed out there so we can continue to adjust. And I see this new feature also with AI going in that same direction for sure.

Nikki Barua (26:56.046)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, the entrepreneurial skills that previously only founders needed to have is something everybody needs today, right? You have to really focus on how to be useful. It's as simple as that. How can you be useful to more people? And, you know, the only way to be useful is to solve problems that they're facing today and not focus on what you achieved yesterday.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (27:05.71)
Yeah.

Nikki Barua (27:25.466)
And beyond that, the other exciting part about why the trend is towards greater entrepreneurship is that the barriers have been removed or reduced quite a bit. If you think about, and I remember my first business from years and years ago, I needed startup capital. I needed to hire people. I needed all this infrastructure and experts.

that I didn't have the skills to do. Today, starting a company, even a one or two person company team can build a pretty large size business with no capital, with no team, just by leveraging AI. And that's pretty breakthrough opportunity.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (28:10.646)
It is. The barriers to entry in a way have been lowered because, again, AI is giving a lot of the infrastructure, a lot of the starting knowledge that people needed sometimes to hire and have many different people to start a company. Now all AI is asking and Disney Future is asking is create. Think about what is it that you want to do? Who do you want to become?

Nikki Barua (28:31.479)
Yeah. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (28:36.11)
and try to brainstorm all these ideas and keep creating and keep evolving. It's got that evolving and evolution will continue to be a constant as we go.

Nikki Barua (28:49.612)
Absolutely.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (28:51.074)
Yeah, great. And Nikki, there is a topic in all these AI conversation in all these transformation, reinvention conversations that people talk about out there. But there is one topic that not a lot of people are discussing a lot. And and I would like to ask you about really the emotional reality, right, of of going through AI understanding that we need to change or the standing.

that we need to evolve, that we need to transform. But there are valid concerns also for people getting into this new era, that we're asking for people to embrace and say, am I still enough? Am I still enough today? Am I still gonna be enough tomorrow? For some people, may be seen and felt that they will have to be constantly changing.

Nikki Barua (29:41.506)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (29:48.642)
not only who they are, but what they offer. And it's valid, right? So people have concern about when enough is enough. So curious to see how you see all these from a very human perspective.

Nikki Barua (30:04.963)
Yeah.

So that desire and need to have stability is one of the biggest things to unlearn because there is going to be no such thing as total certainty and stability going forward. if AI is evolving at such a fast pace and we are evolving in this linear way, that gap is going to keep getting wider and wider. And every week that you wait,

the distance between your value and relevance and where AI models stand, that's getting bigger. And so there is no such thing as, me master it today. Let me get this AI training certification, and then I'm good for the next 10 years. There is no such thing. It's changing so fast. Continuous learning is the only way that you will be relevant in this new age. One of the emotional implications of this

is that imposter syndrome is on the rise. Historically, most professionals experience imposter syndrome in some shape or form, questioning what their worth is and feeling like frauds. But AI has increased that feeling because everybody feels like no matter how much they've achieved, that even if you're at the top of your career, you suddenly feel like the ground beneath you moved. You don't have

past credentials and titles to like hold on to for safety. Everything is changing so fast and it's hard to learn it. Like cognitively, it's a lot to take on where you're, you might be a senior executive and suddenly you got to learn all this new stuff that seems like a foreign language and new skills and all that when you don't even have enough time in your day. And then you feel like even if you make baby steps in that direction, you feel like everybody else is much further ahead.

Nikki Barua (32:03.883)
much better off than you. So that comparison comes in and you're like, man, I'm really behind. And so there's a lot of self worth questioning and imposter syndrome that's growing because of all of these things.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (32:17.102)
And then we keep hearing every day there is a new model or an update to the models that they just keep getting better and better. You say, OK, but what's going to happen? What's going to happen if AI is really getting smarter than really what we are? Because in a way, we're humans, Nikki, and we are limited, right? We are competing against a machine in a way, against code that keeps reinventing and keeps

getting better and better and there is no limitation in place for that.

Nikki Barua (32:51.353)
There's no limitation in that, but I also believe humans are limitless too. And I'm a total optimist when it comes to the future with AI, that just like you've seen previous technological revolutions, whether it's the industrial age that replaced the agrarian economy, farmers lost their jobs. They lost their income when the factories were set up. And then if you were a horse carriage driver,

and the automobile came suddenly you knew were out of a career, right? So every single shift there has been short-term pain during that transition period as humans, they judge the reality. Right now it's happening a lot faster than we're comfortable with, but I also believe that no matter how advanced AI gets, humans will find a way to create new value in entirely new ways and to like make it beneficial for society.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (33:28.642)
Agree.

Nikki Barua (33:47.394)
And one of the examples I think about is like, if you think about the, you know, making a living as let's say an Instagram influencer, can you imagine a grandparents, a great grandparents generation even hearing that as a career path, right? Like it exists, you know, so, and here we have people that are making millions as influencers and it's a legitimate, right? Exactly. So like,

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (34:10.048)
including some grandparents, right?

Nikki Barua (34:14.285)
You know, all of those things came as technology evolved and new opportunities came about. And you have to think about AI the same way and trust that we will find a way. The difference though is the people that are willing to, you know, take a leap of faith and stop waiting until the time is perfect and starting to experiment, they will benefit a lot more than those that wait.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (34:37.976)
Yeah, you know, there are valid concerns. Of course, there always been valid concerns about technology. And as you mentioned, industrial revolution, the internet also, every transformational period brings their own set of challenges. It's just how we humans go through it. I also look at things from a very optimistic angle. I like to see at opportunities instead of challenges, because everything in life, you know, it's where you put the focus on your energy, right?

And depending on that, it's really where you're going to go next. Now, when we're looking at AI, Niki, and now robotics, getting into this next phase, curious to hear your thoughts on how you feel about this next era, because it's not only AI. Now we're having mass industrialization of robotics, potentially getting next in the next few years into our homes.

Nikki Barua (35:17.784)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki Barua (35:30.681)
Yeah.

Nikki Barua (35:36.504)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (35:36.596)
and seeing everything that we looked and watched in movies and TV shows in the past are the very distant future. That's how I feel. But it's here. The future arrived for me.

Nikki Barua (35:44.314)
Yeah, it's like your childhood fantasies come to life, like all the things you, when you read comic books and you're like, my gosh, can you imagine there's going to be like flying, you know, people can fly with jet packs and there's going to be robots everywhere and all of that stuff. look, all of these things are effectively giving us

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (35:54.518)
Yes, and we are leaving it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (36:05.827)
Yeah

Nikki Barua (36:14.251)
an opportunity to shed things that were repetitive or drudgery or administrative burden. Those are the things we're shedding. Robots taking over, let's say manufacturing, or a lot of the things in a supply chain and all of that. Those are pretty repetitive, low value tasks. Ultimately, all of this is elevating human beings to

greater higher value pursuits. It's more creative, more relational, more innovation, all of those things that it's actually freeing your mind and your time to be able to solve problems worth solving for instead of doing things that are sort of drudgery and like not even worth the effort. Yes, that's a huge shift in the nature of certain types of jobs, but the opportunity in

unleashing human creativity is profound.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (37:17.022)
You probably heard the term of UBI, universal basic income. Have come across to your mind a future where we may need it, that the mass industrialization of robotics and AI and this combination is just taking so much of our jobs that humans will need to have, you know, for us to continue to have a living, we will need basic income.

Nikki Barua (37:44.505)
and

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (37:45.738)
Just curious to see how you see that part, if you have thought about it or not.

Nikki Barua (37:50.734)
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of discourse among economists and policymakers about what that future looks like. I think it goes beyond just basic income. Rather than it being about sustenance for humans because our jobs got replaced by AI, I think the real opportunity is that there's so much prosperity and abundance because the productivity has gone up so much because of AI and robots, right?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (38:12.174)
Hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (38:17.762)
We're producing more, right?

Nikki Barua (38:19.223)
Yeah, if in any country your GDP doubles because of all of this abundance without humans having to apply labor, right? You know, we have robotics and intelligence that is taking care of the production of things and producing value. Now that GDP is available and it's disconnected from labor. You know, what has historically been the case of labor and wages being tied. Now you can have wages without applying that labor.

I think that's a very prosperous society to have and whether it takes the form of some kind of asset distribution through the government or income that is provided based on your participation in it. The real question is when income no longer becomes the driving force for your profession or your career, how do you wanna apply yourself?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (38:57.677)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki Barua (39:15.009)
It becomes a question of discovering your purpose and following your project.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (39:18.348)
Yeah, meaning purpose. And what is our why, right? Really thinking about what we're supposed to be, right? What we're supposed to do, why we came to planet earth in a way. And that's an exercise that we all should go through because it tells a lot of who we are and who do we want to become. And I agree with you. It's something that we all need to think about. It's really

who we are, right? What is our why? What is it that we feel passionate about? That historically, because we were so busy with jobs, with tasks, never, know, people didn't have time to think more on the kind of, you know, look it and see who is it that we are? Who is it that we want to become? I agree. Yeah.

Nikki Barua (40:03.651)
Mm-hmm.

Nikki Barua (40:08.045)
Yeah, and that, you know, when the friction of execution goes away, where, you know, the distance between your idea and bringing that idea to life is very small now, right? In the past, if you had an idea, you know, you might need a team to execute that idea. You might need some experts or specialists, or, you know, if it was a software idea, you needed a team of engineers to build it and marketers to market it all of that. Today, those constraints are

have nearly gone, right? Like you can actually go from idea to reality very, very quickly in minutes. So the real question is, what is worth pursuing that you care about? And if there's something you care about, then your ability to bring it life is incredible right now.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (40:44.244)
in minutes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (41:02.614)
Yeah, it's, you know, I actually created this podcast to talk about topics like this one, right, about us humans, especially in this new feature. And it makes me think while listening to you about really what is it our human advantage, right? What is what make us humans irreplaceable? And, you know, there is a lot of conversation about, everything can be replaced, humans can be replaced, but not a lot about

Nikki Barua (41:10.339)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (41:30.892)
What is it that make us humans and what is it that make us irreplaceable? And we should, I think we should amplify this more. Nikki, what is it that we as human, we say there's nothing like us, even with AI, even with can with robotic, even if everything gets automated, what remains human, right? What's us, who we are.

Nikki Barua (41:50.969)
Yeah. Yeah. And that really comes down to our creativity and an imagination, you know, our ability to feel empathy and care, our ability to be resilient through all of the ups and downs. Like those are the qualities that create that uniquely human experience. And the more you find your way in the future connected to that, rooted in that, the more

resilient you will be through all of the change.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (42:25.858)
And I think that's our human advantage right there. It really is. I really think that, you know, and I'm very optimistic about the future. I'm a technologist as you are. We love technology, but the more that we love technology and the more we think and talk about where things are heading, I think the more we are going to miss to be among humans, right? And to be and have empathy and have these conversations between humans, no AI, no robots.

Nikki Barua (42:48.632)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (42:55.67)
I think that's really what's going to happen in the future. People want to enjoy more time outside among us, getting back to our roots. This is what we were supposed to be as humanity, right, Nicky?

Nikki Barua (43:07.917)
Yeah, yeah. And you know, I describe it as like the industrial revolution turned human beings into human doings. We were put in boxes, given a nine to five schedule, you know, put in factories and offices just doing, doing, doing. And AI is the opposite of that. It's the end of the industrial revolution and it's actually freeing us so we can go back to human beings and, you know, just actually like operate with the

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (43:16.192)
Yeah. There you go.

Nikki Barua (43:37.698)
the beauty of the human mind and all of the ways that we can make this a better world.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (43:43.661)
That's beautiful. I don't think I ever heard anyone talking about and making that comparison, which makes total sense, right? The Industrial Revolution really put us in factories, in production lines, as a task-driven human. You go eight to five, this is your worth. That's your limit. That's what you do every day. And now AI is freeing up. It's getting back to being a human. Telling us, listen.

Nikki Barua (43:55.799)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nikki Barua (44:08.216)
And that's why it's so important to unlearn and let go of the past. Because if you're really holding on to what gave you identity and validation in the past, you're holding on to an industrial revolution identity instead of gaining the liberty and freedom that AI is providing to you.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (44:15.842)
your sense of worth.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (44:29.674)
It's still not easy for a lot of people. I know it's not easy. know people, we humans, know, reluctant to change. We like to be in spaces where we feel safe, that we know what we do, right? But AI is pushing us to, you know, go back and learn everything. It's like you are a baby. You're just getting, you're just getting born right now and you have to discover the world with

Nikki Barua (44:57.165)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (44:58.958)
different set of eyes. That's how I feel it lately. I agree. Yeah. All right. Niki, on the last segment of our conversation today, it's a question for different groups, but it's just the same questions with each. It's a piece of advice that you're going to give to each one of these groups that I'm going to mention right now. So I would like to start with the first one, which is really

Nikki Barua (45:00.79)
Yeah, totally. Yeah, absolutely.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (45:29.496)
to individuals that are going through this transitional, transformational period, what would be your piece of advice for those trying to take the first step to reinvent themselves?

Nikki Barua (45:44.343)
Most important thing to do is don't be a bystander. Every week, every day that you wait until there's more clarity, there's more certainty in the environment before you start becoming AI fluent and becoming AI ready is a week that you're getting left behind. So don't be a bystander. There's no other way to master than to roll up your sleeves and get your hands in the dirt and start building. So get started today.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (46:13.966)
Perfect. To companies and businesses, what are they missing about human transformation?

Nikki Barua (46:21.592)
It's very connected to the topic we discussed about identity is that companies are investing millions in AI training and AI tools. But the area that's the real bottleneck in AI transformation is the employees mindset and the identity from the past that is preventing them from really understanding how can they truly optimize and leverage AI, right? Because

If you're used to working a certain way, you're operating on autopilot from years of experience, kind of repeating the same process over and over again. And you don't know what you don't know. Like I've seen it personally in some of the work that Flipboard, my company does, is it's like a light bulb goes off. And it's not that people are actually against AI or scared of AI. Really, the thing is they just don't even know how to leverage AI, right?

And it's because it's, and it's got nothing to do with the technology. It's got everything to do with how they're looking at the world from the old lens. And until you help them see new things, see things in a new way, they won't be able to maximize use of the technology. So help your employees, you know, shift their mindset and their identities, give them the environment in which they can safely do that. And you'll see adoption skyrocket.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (47:44.76)
beautiful to the next generation what they should not be afraid of

Nikki Barua (47:50.808)
Don't worry about entry-level jobs disappearing because they're the entry-level jobs of your parents' generation. For you, as you graduate from school or college, there's a whole new world available to you and intelligence as your superpower because you now have the same capabilities that someone with 10 or 15 years of experience would have gained. So you're starting off from a really strong point of view.

focus on how you can co-evolve with AI as your teammate. And the careers for young people is going to look very different. It's not going to be a linear career ladder. It's going to be a set of great experiences that give them the freedom to build anything they dream of.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (48:38.862)
love it. Nikki, one more time, thank you for bringing your humanity and sharing with your humanity with us today. It's been a great conversation. I loved every minute of this conversation today. Thank you very much.

Nikki Barua (48:50.505)
Likewise, Michael, thank you for having me.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL (48:53.218)
Perfect. And remember, this wasn't just a conversation about courage. It was about reinvention. And if this episode resonated with you, share it with your friends, your family, your loved one. Remember to follow the human protocol, because the code may change, but our humanity is the only constant. Thank you all. Talk next week. Bye.