The Growth Guide | October 2026: Robots can handle a third of physical jobs...but not yet

Antonio’s Take

A third of physical jobs is a big number. The part people skip over is "not yet cost-effective." That gap is your runway, and most legacy businesses are going to waste it waiting to see what happens. Here's the thing: the people who will figure out what to automate and what to keep human are already on your payroll. They're just younger than you, and they're used to hearing "that won't work." So ask them now. Let your younger employees run a small test on one process this quarter. Seven years sounds long until you've spent five of them standing still.

Antonio’s Take

The conventional read is that shadow AI is a security problem to be locked down. I'd argue it's a signal problem. Your people are already solving things with tools you haven't approved, and they're hiding it because somewhere along the way they learned that new ideas get shot down. I've watched family businesses lose good, young people over exactly that. Nobody says no out loud. They just stop bringing things up. So ask instead of audit. Find out what they're using and why, then decide together what's safe. You can't get visibility from people who don't feel safe talking to you.

Antonio’s Take

This is reactive versus proactive leadership, plain and simple. AI is already in your building. Somebody on your team is using it right now, and they probably haven't told you, because they don't know how you'll react. That's the part that worries me. When younger people feel unheard, they stop sharing. Then you're the last to know how your own work gets done. So ask. Make it a standing conversation, not a policy memo. Find out what tools people are using and why, and decide together what stays. Culture gets shaped either way. You just get to choose whether you're in the room.

Antonio’s Take

In my first book I wrote about the X-Millennial as the translator: the Social Millennial goes deep in the tech, the X-Millennial bridges it, and the pre-internet generation is the public face. That's a pacer. Nobody wins that race alone. What I like here is that a pacer isn't a boss and isn't a coach. They just run next to you for a stretch, and then you finish. So look at your bench. Who on your team is already running alongside the next generation? Name it, make it part of the job, and stop treating it like a favor.

Antonio’s Take

A failed co-investment pushing a family office back into buying actual operating companies tells you something. Writing a check into someone else's deal is easy. Owning a manufacturing group means you own the people, the floor, the culture, all of it. That is the part I'd think hardest about. Manufacturing and healthcare are full of long-tenured folks who know things nobody wrote down, and younger workers who want to know why things are done this way. If you're buying operating businesses, buy the communication plan too. Document what works and ask the next generation what they see. The returns show up there first.

Antonio’s Take

When was the last time you let someone on your team automate a piece of their own job? Most leaders flinch at that, because if the work disappears, what are we paying them for? That's the wrong question. In my book "Talk to Me" I tell the story of a Millennial employee whose manager asked him for his top three life goals. One was building a gaming app. He ended up building an app for the company that raised revenue and cut costs. The talent is already in your building. Ask what they're tinkering with on their own time, then give them a real problem to point it at.