TL;DR: I went to set up office broadband today and walked away with a chilling realization. The salesman couldn't explain the bandwidth difference, ignored my context (pushing TV packages for an office), and offered zero value beyond what I could read on their website. This is the danger zone. AI isn't coming for "humans"; it is coming for anyone who acts like a bad search engine.
James here, CEO of Mercury Technology Solutions. Hong Kong - January 23, 2026
I went to the telecom outlet today to handle a simple task: Get internet for our office. Standing at that counter, I had a sudden, crystal-clear epiphany about the future of work.
AI is going to wipe out a massive demographic of workers. Not in five years. Now.
The Interaction Failure
Here is exactly what happened:
Me: "I need internet for a business office." Me: "What is the technical difference in throughput between your 2500M and 1000M plans for multiple users?"
The Clerk: (Blank stare) "Uh, usually people just get the 1000M."
I froze. That isn't an answer; that is a deflection. It got worse. When I asked about the pricing structure, he started enthusiastically pitching me TV Channels, Movie Packages, and Entertainment Bundles.
Me: "Again, this is for an office. We do not watch movies."
The entire interaction was a waste of time.
- He didn't know what questions to ask me to determine my needs.
- He didn't know how to analyze the options for my specific scenario.
- His responses were just regurgitated text I could have read on my phone in 30 seconds.
The Brutal Reality: He Was Less Useful Than a Chatbot
I wasn't angry. I was calm. Because I realized that if a job can be done by an AI—and the AI does it more stably, more clearly, and with better context retention than you—you have no reason to exist in that role.
I didn't go to the counter because I was too lazy to Google. I went because I expected a Professional. I expected someone to take complex options and synthesize them into a decision framework for me.
- What I wanted: "Since you run a tech office with X employees, the 1000M upload speed is crucial for your cloud backups. You don't need the TV bundle, so let's strip that out to save cost."
- What I got: A human reading a script poorly.
The Threshold of Survival
I am now convinced of one thing: AI does not eliminate "Humans." AI eliminates people who only "complete tasks" but fail to "think."
If your daily value consists of:
- Retrieving data (that I can Google).
- Reading a script (that I can read).
- Ignoring the context (which AI is actually getting better at).
Then you are in the blast zone. A Gemini or ChatGPT agent could have analyzed my usage patterns, recommended the 1000M plan based on our upload needs, and processed the payment in 30 seconds without trying to sell me Disney+.
Conclusion: Don't Be a Robot
The salesman today was a "Robot made of flesh." In the AI era, being a robot is a death sentence for your career. The only way to survive is to do what the machine currently struggles with: Empathy, Contextual Judgment, and Strategic Advice.
If you aren't saving your client time or helping them think clearer, you aren't doing a job. You are just waiting to be replaced.
Mercury Technology Solutions: Accelerate Digitality.
