In the age of AI, dark clouds are gathering over work and business.

AI, which has recently become a hot topic, is taking over all issues.
Even the work and business we have been doing so far is being sucked into the black hole called AI.
“Our legal team had 20 people until last month.
However, after introducing the AI ​​legal tool, 12 people left in the name of ‘workforce optimization.’

This is a confession from a mid-sized law firm representative at a global conference.
In fact, 63% of the world's top 200 companies have already restructured their organizations by adopting AI, and 70% of simple analysis tasks in the finance, medical, and legal sectors have been replaced by AI.
Behind these statistics lies the painful reality that tens of thousands of 'experts' have had to redefine their roles.

The anxiety felt by many ordinary office workers stems from this very reason.
They are overcome with a vague fear that if even experts are like that, what about us?
Now, I am feeling anew that my job and work are no longer safe with the methods I have been using so far.

This anxiety is not unique to Korea.
According to a 2024 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), 75% of current elementary school students are expected to end up in jobs that don't exist today.
Did the job of YouTube creator even exist 10 years ago? It didn't.
So, could you have prepared in advance to become a creator? It wasn't possible.
In this way, we have now reached a point where we must ‘create’ ‘jobs that do not exist.’
This is a fundamental change that cannot be resolved through existing career planning methods.

But it's not all hopeless.
There are people who not only survived the whirlwind of change, but also achieved even greater growth.
What do they have in common? In the financial sector, seven out of ten quantitative investors are giving way to AI predictive models.
The three survivors all transformed into 'investment philosophy designers'.
In the developer market, Vietnamese and Indian developers, who earn only one-fifth of the wages, are facing an accelerating threat to their survival as they combine AI collaboration tools.
This leaves the code writers behind, leaving only the system designers.
In the legal and medical fields, GPT-4-based systems are handling 70% of contract review and diagnostic assistance tasks.
Only professionals who focus on legal interpretation and patient experience design are recognized for their value.
These changes are not simply technological advances.
It is a biological evolution that reorganizes the DNA of a profession.
And as with all evolution, unfortunately, species that fail to adapt are eliminated.
---「Chapter 1.
From "The Age of Builders, the Emergence of a New Subject"

2017, a conference room of Naver Clova Team.
Developers were discussing the accuracy of AI's voice recognition.
“We’ve increased voice recognition accuracy to 95%.” “That’s great.
But why are users reacting so coldly?” The data was perfect.
The technology was also top-notch.
But something was missing.
At that time, researcher Kim, a psychology PhD who had newly joined the team, presented a different perspective.
“Could it be that users want not just accurate answers, but a sense of empathy?” the developers wondered.
“AI needs to be empathetic?” Researcher Kim said, “There is a theory in psychology called ‘emotional contagion theory.’
“People unconsciously mimic the emotions of others. AI could do the same,” he explained.

So, the Clova team embarked on a groundbreaking experiment: developing an emotion-recognition AI that merges AI technology and psychology.
But this wasn't easy.
Developers didn't know psychology, and psychologists didn't know programming.
For the first six months, it felt like we were speaking different languages.
The turning point came when someone appeared who acted as a 'translator'.
PM Kim, who majored in cognitive science, explained psychological concepts to developers in technical language and to psychologists in psychological language about technical constraints.

A year later, the Clova they developed has evolved from an AI that simply carries out commands to an AI that reads the user's emotions and responds appropriately.
“You don’t look in a good mood today.
“Would you like me to play your favorite music?” This one phrase increased Clova’s user satisfaction by 40%.
---「Chapter 2.
Are you a 'builder'?

Builders have a unique approach to failure.
First, failure is not something to be avoided, but something to be designed for.
Rather than trying to minimize failure, design mechanisms to learn from failure as much as possible.
Second, the cost of failure is offset by speed.
If you have a mechanism to fail fast and learn fast, you will grow faster in the long run.
Third, emotional responses to failure can be managed through mechanisms.
Design a specific routine in advance for self-care and recovery after failure.
Fourth, don't personalize failure.
Failure is not your identity, it is simply a consequence of the approach you tried.
Finally, failure is not an isolated event, but rather part of a learning mechanism.
Rather than viewing each failure in isolation, see it as part of a continuous learning process.

Based on these principles, builders do not fear failure but rather actively utilize it.
They learn faster from failure and build stronger mechanisms.
Failure is not the end, it is the beginning.
It's just valuable data for designing better mechanisms.
“Intentions don’t work, mechanisms do.” This is the builder’s philosophy on dealing with failure.
Willpower is finite, but a well-designed mechanism is infinite.
---「Chapter 3.
Builder's Way of Surviving: From "Builder's Code"

One of the most interesting characteristics of builders is that they prepare for jobs that don't exist yet.
They don't develop themselves to fit their current job description.
Instead, we prepare in advance the capabilities that will be needed in the future.

Was there a job called "social media manager" ten years ago? Was there a role called "AI ethics expert" five years ago? These are all new professions that emerged as a result of technological and societal changes.
And most of the people who succeeded in these new careers were those who took an interest in the field and prepared for it before others.

The same goes for Team Leader Kim.
The role he's developing now might become a formal job title like "Global AI Product Strategist" or "Remote Collaboration System Designer" in five years.
And by then he will already be a pioneer in that field.

---「Chapter 5.
From "Builder's Code Career Strategy"