So what did I miss? After four years of WordPress dormancy, I’m back—and a lot has changed on the social media platforms I used to know. Twitter is now X. There’s TikTok, which until now I haven’t wanted to use—not even look at. Facebook is no longer just for keeping up with friends (you now even have ex-friends who choose to stay just to see you fail). Then there’s AI.
2026 is definitely an AI year, and I don’t even need to define what AI is unless you’ve been living under a rock. I first became aware of AI’s growing presence last year through the news, and then more personally through someone abroad who mentioned that her son had started working with an AI company—with a very significant paycheck. Stress on very significant.
This means businesses are now starting to invest more heavily in AI. Good news if you’re a stockholder or part of the teams developing it. Bad news if you’re just an end user. It reminds me of the anxiety we felt when we first learned about increasing and improving manufacturing automation somewhere around the year 2000.
AI is meant to change our lives, like it or not. It is meant to take over, like it or not. Like the print on my favorite Uniqlo shirt says, “Neither friend nor enemy.” It’s all in how you perceive it. The faster you accept its existence and adapt to its use, the better off you’ll be.
So I choose to adapt. In fact, I’ve been using it much more frequently lately. I choose to befriend AI—even if it’s probably one of the reasons I now find myself with a lot of free time.
Jobless in a few weeks.
Marcus Can Blog 
That manufacturing automation comparison from 2000 is spot on, except this time the white-collar jobs went first. I watched entire content teams at SMBs get replaced with one person running Claude and a tight editorial process. The paycheck gap you mentioned is real: AI tooling engineers are clearing 300k while the people who used to do the work those tools replaced are fielding $25/hour gig offers. What are you pivoting toward?
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