JA Westenberg reflects on six years of going solo after a career working for various conglomerates. She's leveraging AI tools to automate most mundane and boring tasks, so she can focus on the creative, challenging, and ultimately fun work. According to her experience, these tools, when used effectively, will allow small companies and individuals to compete on equal footing with the giants of the industry:

I think the future probably belongs to the small companies // individuals more than sprawling conglomerates. There is a huge opportunity for people who use AI to remove everything that isn't judgment from their workload, and apply that judgement to good products and good services. My theory is that one person, with an AI-augmented operational layer plus taste is the company of the future - and I'd bet on that again and again.

A bold statement for sure. Like many others, I've been experiencing this AI acceleration firsthand — more tasks, faster pace, less time to think. It can feel overwhelming. But Westenberg's framing resonates with me: the goal isn't to do everything faster, it's to consciously offload the repetitive and the mundane, and reclaim that space for the work that actually matters. I run a tiny company myself, so I can only hope Joan is right.