Recently, while working on my latest book on AI and the future of work, I was approached to be the new James Bond.

Hang on a sec, let me rephrase that.

What actually happened was that I was invited to use a new AI app to create a video of myself as 007. Through the magic of artificial intelligence, I would have my face superimposed on to Pierce Brosnan’s, in all its tuxedoed, luxuriously-coiffed, Martini-shaking, license-to-thrill glory.

Funny? Yes. Unsettling? Slightly.

Yet beyond the entertainment, the experience raised a serious question: Who are we in the AI age?

The Spy Who Adapted to Me

As generative tech goes mainstream, our ability to assume multiple identities—digital or otherwise—will have profound implications for the world of work. Increasingly, success won’t hinge on being the most qualified person in the room, but on being the most adaptable. And when it comes to being flexible, there’s one profession in particular, that leads the way.

You’ve got it: actors.

As the AI age beckons, I’m more convinced than ever that we need to stop thinking traditional employees, and more like actors.

Actors invest constantly in their skills; they’re resilient, not taking no for an answer; they’re flexible, moving from job to job as the work demands, learning to cope with insecurity, unpredictability, knock-backs. They’re also the ultimate portfolio workers, often having numerous side hustles on the go at any one time.

Most of all, they take career risks, doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming type-cast. Consider for example, the career of my plucky understudy, Pierce Brosnan. So far, he’s appeared in over 140 films and TV series. In ‘Mamma Mia’ he even had a go at singing, accidentally turning himself into a one-man weapon of mass destruction that would have had Bond reaching for the ejector seat.

Golden Eye on the Future

In the AI Age, a fixed job title carries less weight than the sum total of your personal brand. Reputation, network, and adaptability – all now carry far more weight than anything listed on a CV.

AI may be reshaping physical identities, but it’s also revealing an important truth: in an unpredictable world, being able to think like an actor is power.

So yes—I got to be Bond for a day. In my dreams. But more importantly, I discovered that in the new AI-powered world of work, spies aren’t the only people who have to master multiple identities.

The name’s Redmond, by the way. Paul Redmond.