Hey {{first_name}},
I want to talk about something that doesn't get enough airtime.
Because while everyone's talking about AI tools, AI skills, and AI adoption, there's a quieter conversation that needs to happen.
One about what's actually happening to us as we navigate all of this change.
This week on the AI Ready Women podcast, Lou and I sat down with Rachel Garrett, who led AI transformation across 800 people in 12 countries at Shopify. And what she said shifted something for me.
Because Rachel didn't just talk about the technology. She talked about what happens to the humans inside it.
"The people who were struggling at Shopify weren't behind on the tools. They had lost the ability to think clearly."
And I think a lot of us can relate to that right now.
The problem nobody's talking about
There's a new term doing the rounds called AI brain fry.
It comes from a Boston Consulting Group report that describes the mental fatigue we get from the cognitive overload of using AI. Things like mental fog, slower decision-making, and a buzzing feeling that doesn't switch off.
And here's what's interesting.
AI has removed a lot of the action layer from our work, the doing, the note-taking, the drafting, the research. But what has to remain sharp is the judgment layer, and the more decisions we're handed back to review and approve throughout the day, the more cognitively exhausted we become.
We're doing more. But we're not resting more, and that gap is where burnout lives.
The skills that matter more than ever
Rachel shared that the World Economic Forum found resilience, flexibility, and agility are actually more in demand right now than AI literacy skills.
Anthropic, the company that builds Claude, has started hiring more for communication, emotional intelligence, curiosity, and compassion than for technical skills.
Here's what I'm seeing in my recruitment business, too.
Companies want someone who's a 4 or 5 out of 10 on technical skills but a 9 out of 10 on human skills.
So whilst we absolutely need to be learning and using these tools, the human skills we've spent our entire careers developing, they've never been more valuable.
So what do we do about it?
Rachel shared something that I loved.
She said we need to stop treating our well-being as a nice-to-have and start treating it as a performance strategy.
McKinsey found that investing in employee brain health generates 11.7 trillion in economic value. This isn't soft. This is business critical.
And Rachel's advice for individuals is to look at your human dimensions, not just your tech skills.
Ask yourself where you could develop in areas like self-awareness, adaptive thinking, and how you access and restore your energy.
Because 95% of people think they're self-aware and only 10 to 15% actually are. Which means most of us are running on a bit of a hallucination when it comes to understanding how we're really doing.
A few things Rachel recommends:
Start with one human dimension you want to develop this year, whether that's adaptive thinking, self-awareness, or simply learning how to restore your energy more intentionally.
Build in seasons. Rachel talks about working in sprints and then taking pause. Not just powering through indefinitely.
Get off your phone. Even in the places you go to restore, like the bath house, the Pilates studio, the walk outside. Protect that time fiercely.
And if you want to go deeper, Rachel recommends Crystal Frangelo's book Unapologetically Human, and she's running group circles for anyone who wants to explore this work together.
The other thing I want you to hear:
Rachel said something that really stayed with me.
When she had her daughter and had to shorten her working days, she thought it would make her less valuable at work.
Instead, she got promoted. Again and again.
Because she was making better decisions. She had more objectivity. She wasn't firing off the wrong thing because she was exhausted.
Taking time away from work can make you stronger at work, and I think that's something most of us need permission to hear right now.
In this week's episode, Rachel, Lou, and I break down:
Why AI brain fry is real and what it's actually doing to our decision-making
The human operating system Rachel built inside Shopify and what it taught her
Why self-awareness is the most underrated skill in the age of AI
How to build intentional rest into a high-performance life
The practical AI tools and courses Rachel recommends for women who want to level up
And why your best thinking often happens when you're doing nothing at all
This is one of the most honest and human conversations we've had on the podcast. And I really want you to listen to it.
Listen to this week's episode 🎧
I've recorded a full video breaking down exactly how to apply these four signals to your LinkedIn profile, plus I share more real examples of what works and what doesn't.
Reply and tell me this:
What's one thing you're going to do this week to restore your energy?
Send it through. I want to know.
With confidence,
Georgie 💜
P.S. It was so wonderful to see so many of you at the Fearless & Future Ready event last week.
Speaking with a number of you on the night, I know there was a lot of interest in the Bold Move 60 Day Career Accelerator.
The May intake is now open.
If you want more information on the program and whether it's the right fit for you, just reply to this email or send me a message on LinkedIn, and we can have a chat.
Or you can apply to work with me here 👉
