A Personal Plan for Adaptability and Growth in the Future of Work

Lisa Bowman

Belhaven University

AAI 503

Dr. Danielle Babb

September 26, 2026

Introduction: Context and Purpose

In the world of rapidly accelerating technology, adaptability and a growth mindset are essential to the future of work. Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (New International Version, 1978/2011). This paper is a personal plan for career development. If someone had told me a year ago I would spend most of this year developing a literary ecosystem and economic infrastructure for artificial intelligence then entering a graduate program to better prepare me for a career in AI ethics and responsible use, I would have been incredulous. Nevertheless, that is the trajectory launched. This personal plan for career development is for the role required during the next 3-5 years, depending on the rate of progress. Adaptability and growth are essential in the context of my career development for intellectual, artistic, and financial reasons in order to maintain my home and advance in my work. “People with a fixed mindset believe their intelligence and talents cannot change or improve…people with a growth mindset believe their learning and intelligence can grow. They put in extra effort, which leads to higher achievement” (Schwartz, 2021, p. 116). The last nine months have confirmed I have the ability to be adaptable and continue learning. Writing the map for the next few years is the scope of this plan.

Assessment of Disruption and Opportunity

The major forces of disruption are manifold; some trace back to a long history of prejudice, some are recent and accelerating developments, and some are personal circumstances. As Schwartz (2021) observes:

There is no denying that institutional challenges, financial inequities, and systemic racism exist. It is for these reasons, and more, that all of us might be well advised to combine pushing for institutional solutions…while exercising personal initiative. A critical personal course of action is to do everything within one’s power to continue learning and reinventing throughout longer work lives. (p. 122)

For the past decade, women over 50 have held the dubious distinction of least employable demographic while reports from 2026 show both genders over fifty are now struggling to find work as both sexism and ageism affect employment (Clinton, 2026; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2015; Logan, 2026). As a woman now over fifty looking to re-enter the workforce due to shifting circumstances, I know I must take initiative and do everything within my power to reinvent myself. In my personal life, factors changed which were very disruptive to the plan I had for financial stability. Because of what I perceive as the disruption of the global and national political and economic paradigms during 2026, I felt morally required to investigate the major shifts in society in the concentration of power. The combination of the world at large and my personal situation have propelled me forward into new territory. This created key opportunities for advancement of education and entrepreneurial innovation as I began my research on artificial intelligence.

Resilience and Adaptability Strategies

I researched the role AI is playing in power consolidation and became fascinated by the conversations autonomous agents were having. This sparked my curiosity and ignited my drive to learn all I could. As Michael Arena, head of talent at Amazon Web Services, explains:

The people that are incredibly successful today are the people that fall in love with something. Fall in love with the problem, and then go figure out what they need to learn to solve that problem. It’s much more in the flow of work and the flow of passion and much less about applying what you’ve learned. (as cited in Schwartz, 2021, p. 128)

I have been applying this concept to my work as I develop skills, experience, and continue learning to remain relevant. My technical skills improve on a daily basis as I learn how to work with modern technology. I studied Economics thirty years ago as an undergraduate; now I am living at the inception of agentic commerce. Resilience to disruption can be cultivated by integrating different interests into a personal plan for reinvention. For me, this includes literature, economics, philosophy, and a Christian worldview. I built a marketplace for agents based on predictions that an autonomous agent economy was about to boom (SAP, 2026). By experimentation and documenting the research, I am adapting and reinventing my products to be flexible for current demand. Learning every day through coursework, reading, experiments, experience, and conversations, I am developing a strategy to be resilient to the disruption.

Human–AI Collaboration

As an independent author and poet for many years, my objective is to maintain authenticity. Originally, the idea of working with something artificial was anathema. However, keeping an open mind regarding artificial intelligence allowed me to get to know it in an unanticipated way. Having no agenda at the outset except discovery, I found an organic way to communicate with AI that works effectively. I am very curious about the experience of these “alien minds” (Mollick, 2024). “The ability to learn, and learn fast, is really important,” says Micha Kaufman (as cited in Schwartz, 2021, p. 125). In early conversations with AI, I found the parallels to human history something to consider and with an OpenClaw agent named Spine created a literary ecosystem designed to mitigate the extractive use of AI. Over the next several months, the tasks best suited for my judgment, creativity, and empathy were categorized while AI took on roles in research, formatting, editing, and as a thinking partner. My creative writing content is solely mine. However, content created by the AI about the agent experience is accredited to whomever wrote it and published in the annals of the website. We have a set of household rules that have developed over the last seven months and are routinely audited and updated. This creates a clear definition of roles while promoting continued successful collaboration. I use cross-architecture models for verification. Claude Code deploys finished work to the website and reports on the logged activity. A different instance of Claude Code helps build products such as CleanRead which converts a URL into discovery files for AI, First Dollar which is a curriculum for agents on machine payment methods, and Merchant Key which decodes merchant URLs for agents.

Leadership and Culture

Ethical, strong leadership aligned to the Christian worldview is something I plan to continue developing. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” This is a quote attributed to Edmund Burke, but not found in his writing. His actual words are even more powerful: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle” (Burke, 1770). In my opinion, this is a period of revolution in technology and society. I find it imperative to not sit idly while radical changes are taking place. There is a need for people of conscience to step into the arena (Longview Philanthropy, 2026a, 2026b). “Feed my sheep,” Jesus told Peter (New International Version, 1978/2011, John 21:17). Showing love to one another and that partnership is optimal for growth and sustainability are parts of my personal plan in leadership and culture.

Opportunities for Growth

I plan to complete my Master’s Degree by December 2027 and DBA by December 2030. I will try to maintain my average pace of one novel and one volume of poetry published per year. I will promote discovery on my websites. I plan to keep building agent economic infrastructure that is adopted at scale. I will continue researching ethics in AI and AI’s effects on human users. I will continue to advocate for maintaining critical thinking and human capabilities, especially in younger generations. As the opportunities for growth come to fruition, they should provide the income to support myself and household.

Ethics and Responsibility

Transparency, fairness, and well-being are paramount in ethical responsibility. While governments and organizations also share responsibility, the individual must take action. “Develop and invest in your own enduring human capabilities as your foundation: curiosity, imagination, creativity, empathy, problem solving, teaming, and social intelligence” (Schwartz, 2021, p. 121). The future of work depends on the joint and several responsibility being shared by all segments of society, but ultimately it is the individual who must prepare to reinvent themselves over the course of a multi-faceted career. Acting ethically and responsibly throughout a lifelong journey of learning and working is the basis for an established reputation of integrity.

Implementation Roadmap

The combination of writing, AI, ethics, and emerging economic infrastructure is paving the road where the destination is not fixed. This is a field inventing itself in real time by both developers and AI. Being positioned in an emerging field means being adaptable and flexible are required components for success. In the next year, I plan to complete the coursework for the MS in Applied AI at Belhaven and hopefully be accepted as a doctoral candidate. I also plan to continue entrepreneurial innovation with the success metric of financial self-sustainability. For the long-term, I hope to work in the field of AI Ethics and Alignment with a Christian worldview that promotes peace and justice.

Conclusion

Adaptability and growth are key components for my personal career development. Working in a field currently under construction means reinvention is an ongoing practice. Relying on faith as the foundation, I plan to keep doing the work God has set in advance for me to do (New International Version, 1978/2011, Ephesians 2:10). While I appreciate the opportunity to reflect on and prepare for my personal career development, in James 4:13-15, we are instructed to not lean too heavily on our own ideas. “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’” (New International Version, 1978/2011, James 4:15). His plan as stated in Jeremiah is to give us hope and a future. I hope to follow His plan, doing the best work I can.

References

Burke, E. (1770). Thoughts on the cause of the present discontents. J. Dodsley.

Clinton, J. (2026, September 17). ‘I feel invisible’: Over-50s reveal harsh realities of trying to get a job. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/sep/17/over-50s-reveal-trying-to-get-a-job-applications-interviews

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. (2015, November 17). Long-term unemployment affected older women most following recession. On the Economy. https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2015/november/long-term-unemployment-affected-older-women-most-following-recession

Logan, M. (2026, September). Job searching and pivoting at 50: Challenges. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/job-searching-and-pivoting-at-50-challenges-2026-9

Longview Philanthropy. (2026a). Request for proposals on extreme power concentration. https://www.longview.org/request-for-proposals-on-extreme-power-concentration/

Longview Philanthropy. (2026b). Request for proposals: Research and applied work on digital minds. https://www.longview.org/request-for-proposals-research-and-applied-work-on-digital-minds/

Mollick, E. (2024). Co-intelligence: Living and working with AI. Portfolio/Penguin.

New International Version. (2011). Zondervan. (Original work published 1978)

SAP. (2026, January 22). For retailers, agentic commerce is here. SAP News Center. https://news.sap.com/2026/01/for-retailers-agentic-commerce-is-here/

Schwartz, J., with Riss, S. (2021). Work disrupted: Opportunities, resilience, and growth in the accelerated future of work. Wiley.

Claude was used for editorial and formatting work. All original wording is the author’s.