I want to make 1 million people AI experts by 2026.

Right now, we're stuck in the efficiency phase of AI. CEOs are looking at AI as a way to cut costs and reduce headcount, because that’s all we know how to do with it (Amazon's Andy Jassy just told employees that the company “will need fewer people” because of AI).

CEOs always start with efficiency … but there are WAY more exciting changes coming. In 10 years, we’ll have jobs, products, services, etc. that we can’t imagine right now. Incumbent business models will get disrupted, and new, AI-powered business models will start to rule.

But we won’t get there until enough of the workforce are AI experts.

We need people to know these intelligence tools so well, and so natively, that they can see the future and start inventing it. These will be the most valuable people – the ones who know how to BUILD with AI, not just cut with it.

That’s why I’m obsessed with getting to a million customers … and it’s why we made our new AI coach, ProfAI, free to everyone. Scaled-up AI proficiency is the only way to trigger the new wave of job creation – and to start moving from pure replacement / layoffs to expansion and growth.

The problem: AI proficiency is harder than it looks

AI is moving faster than any technology we've ever seen. AI capabilities are doubling in performance every 6 months, and unlike any other software, user capability matters enormously.

To get the most from AI, you need to know how to prompt, how to apply AI to your workflows, and how to automate tasks. Our data shows that if you’re not good at these things, you’ll save barely any time using AI, and you won’t be able to borrow the 30 points of IQ that AI has to offer.

But getting proficient isn’t that easy. Most people think they’re good at AI because they’ve used ChatGPT before. They’re not. Our data shows that less than 10% of the workforce is good at writing prompts, finding use cases, etc. Most of us are still using AI like a search engine.

If you want to “build the future” with AI, your proficiency and your mindset matter a LOT. And they’ll matter even more as AI-native employees enter the workforce.

We just hired our first near-native AI employee, fresh from undergrad. He doesn’t think about whether he should start with GPT – he does it instinctively.

This new generation of AI-native employees will be “superhuman,” and the companies they build will be supercompanies.

If we want to compete with those supercompanies (or work for them), everyone – especially those over 30 – needs to become AI experts as soon as possible.

The AI skills you need to build the future

I’ve personally taught thousands of people AI over the last 2 years, and these are the individual skills I think will be necessary for business people to imagine and build AI-native companies:

1. Write effective prompts for a variety of situations, many quite complex

2. Have a conversation with AI that results in a nuanced and strategic output

3. Know how to check AI’s work and discard below-standard AI work

4. Identify where AI fits into a workflow and what it can add

5. Build AI into existing workflows through automation and (increasingly) agents

6. Manage automations/agents like you would manage a large and complex team

The people with these skills will be able to:

- Keep their jobs (this is #1 – companies will be stupid to lay off very AI-proficient workers in the near term, even if they’re replaced eventually)

- Lead their organizations on AI and grab “heads of AI” roles

- Imagine and build products, services, and companies that put AI at the center of operations and innovation

How we get to 1 million AI superhumans

Section has been upskilling people for 5 years, and I knew it would not be possible to create 1 million “superhuman” AI workers through video learning.

It’s too theoretical. It doesn’t scale, people drop off, and it relies on a high degree of personal motivation to work well.

So we built something else – ProfAI.

ProfAI is an AI-powered coach that teaches you to use AI in your work, not just in theory. It uses AI itself to be highly personalized AND scalable, which is the biggest challenge for traditional learning. It takes most people less than an hour to complete Basic AI Proficiency in ProfAI, which means you’re able to write a good prompt (yes, you actually have to write it yourself), find a use case, and use AI responsibly.

Building it was not easy. I thought we’d have it live last summer, but our first swing was a dud. It was hard to get the AI to behave the right way and deliver good, personalized exercises. Now, I’m confident we have a great beta product. And it will get better every month – teaching more skills, helping people discover more use cases, and being more fun to use.

ProfAI is key to getting to 1 million AI “superhumans.” 2,500 people have been certified in the last 30 days – and we only JUST opened it to the public for free this week. I’m confident we’ll get to 1,000,000 by the end of 2026, and my hope is that ProfAI will be THE way to build AI expertise in every corporation, school, non-profit, and government agency around the world.

The faster we can all build our AI expertise, the faster we can start imagining, building, and launching the next great thing. I hope you’ll join us.

‍Try out ProfAI for yourself (for free). Get good at using AI. And send me your feedback – I’ll read every single line.