Executive coach Rob Ott has written a book for every professional who has looked at an AI tool and wondered what it means for their career. The Relevance Advantage is in presale now. On The Friday Reporter, Rob and I talked about the fear behind it, why experience is the answer and how to start without getting overwhelmed.
Rob and I have been friends for 30 years. We went to college together when you had to sign into the computer lab to get an email address. We've adapted before. That's part of why I wanted him on the show.
What Is FOBO?
FOBO is the fear of becoming obsolete, and social scientists are now studying it. Rob describes the person it hits hardest: “I built a career. I've invested all my time in these skills, and now all of a sudden it feels like this machine can do what I do faster, better, cheaper.”
He doesn't argue with that. “I think that that's true, and I'm not going to refute that.”
It shows up differently depending on where you are. Mid- and late-career professionals feel the pace and wonder whether they can keep up. People graduating from college now are asking what the working world will even look like when they arrive.
Why Experience Is the Relevance Advantage
Rob saw the gap early. When ChatGPT broke through in 2022, he concluded that the technology would move as fast as it moves and that people would be the slower movers. The Relevance Advantage is, at its core, a change management book. AI is the catalyst.
His central argument is that professionals later in their careers are sitting on the answer. They have the judgment, the experience and the wisdom that a tool can't supply. That matches what I see in my own work. I use Claude as a systems operator to keep invoices paid and my CRM current. No client hires me for that. They hire me for judgment.
Draw a Moat Around Your Core Value
Rob puts a moat around his core deliverable to clients. Anything outside that moat is fair game for AI, from prospecting to tracking the 75 or so newsletters he follows. He built a daily briefing workflow that pulls what matters for his book and his consulting into one place.
Inside the moat, the tools serve the relationship. Coaching conversations can get intense, and he used to fall behind while writing notes. With an AI note taker running in the background, “I'm just there and I'm present.”
The TRUST Framework for Change
Rob coined TRUST to make a lifetime of change management teachable:
Target or translate your future state. Recognize your resistance. Undertake small experiments. Steady yourself through the messy middle. Transform the way you approach the work.
Resistance is personal, he says. “The person who gets overwhelmed is different than the person who's completely skeptical.” And the small experiments matter because “a lot of people with AI will jump in at step 17 and say, oh my God, what is this?” Then they walk away. Each step in the book comes with exercises, and the model flexes for an individual or a team.
The One-Generation Problem
Rob's biggest concern is the students moving into the workforce now. Many were told through college that the tools were cheating. Employers expect them to be fluent and don't yet know how to train them. Junior scientists used to build skills in the lab and young lawyers in the law library. “When you commoditize intelligence, it changes the way you're going to build that judgment.”
How to Get Started With AI
Start small. “Just think of one task that drives you nuts” and begin there. Trying to redesign everything at once is overwhelming. Each small win suggests the next one, and that's where momentum builds.
Stay curious, too. Rob is coaching an 80-year-old solar engineer who still works part time and is thriving with the tools. And because the technology keeps changing, the book teaches a posture for learning instead of instructions for any one product.
Where to Find The Relevance Advantage
Preorder The Relevance Advantage during the presale. Rob expects the book out in late spring 2027 in hardcover and e-book. Read his regular thinking on leadership and AI at A Spark of Leadership on Substack.
Watch my full conversation with Rob Ott on YouTube or listen to The Friday Reporter on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.