What Makes You You And Why That Matters More Than Ever Now
With over thirty years of working across fast-paced industries and with different people, I have watched identity change in every direction.
People adapt because life requires it. A job ends, or a relationship does. A business that defined you for a decade needs to become something else. You become a parent, or move into a role bigger than you expected, or something in your health changes. You keep moving, adapting, and you start again.
Each of these moments asks a version of the same question: who am I in this now?
The ability to adapt is one of our greatest strengths. What I have noticed, though, is that in the middle of adapting, people can lose the thread of what does not change. The part of them that is not conditional on circumstances: their point of view and the way they see things. What they bring that nobody else quite brings in the same way - that particular combination of experience, character and perspective that is specifically theirs.
That loss of thread is what I call the blur.
Now layer something new on top of it.
UK business AI adoption has gone from 23% to 54% in just three years, according to the British Chambers of Commerce March 2026 report. The firms furthest along the adoption curve are already restructuring roles and reshaping workforces. The EY AI Sentiment Index found that while 70% of UK adults have used AI personally in the last six months, only 44% use it in a professional context, well below the global average of 67%. We are still catching up with what is already the norm elsewhere.
More striking than the adoption numbers is what is happening inside them. A KPMG and University of Melbourne global study of 48,000 people found that 45% of workers now rely on AI to complete tasks rather than learning how to do them. Over half, 54%, admit they have made mistakes at work because of AI. And 58% say they have accepted AI output without evaluating its accuracy.
I have seen a version of this before.
I was there for the dot-com boom and had an active role helping businesses set up strategically. Does anyone else reading this remember it? Suddenly everyone was launching online businesses, pivoting overnight, declaring the old rules dead. The opportunity was real and the internet genuinely changed everything. The bust that followed hit hardest the people who had moved without a clear why, without a point of differentiation and without a strategy. The technology worked but the thinking behind how people deployed it often did not.
I see echoes of that now.
AI is a genuine and significant shift, bigger likely and faster than the internet was. The opportunity is real and being in it matters. As they say, you have to be in it to win it. What I watch for, though, is the same pattern from that earlier wave: the rush in without the critical thinking. The pivot without the strategy. The adoption without the question of what, specifically, this is for and why this business, this person, this approach is the one worth backing.
The old rules will not all apply. Knowing your why, your point of differentiation, what you are building and for whom — those do not expire. They become more important when everything around you is accelerating.
Which brings me back to the blur.
When everyone has access to the same tools, the same generated content, the same frictionless answers, what differentiates you is your judgement, your perspective, the specific way you synthesise what you know and what you have lived. The thing that makes a room feel different when you are in it. That is what makes you you, and it has always been the thing most worth protecting.
The thing I keep coming back to, for myself and for the people I work with, is not how do I use AI well. It is how do I stay clear enough about who I am to use it on my own terms, rather than be shaped by it into something more uniform over time.
That means knowing what you actually think as distinct from what the tools suggest. What you genuinely value rather than what your environment has conditioned you to prioritise. Your own way of doing things clearly enough to notice when you have moved away from it.
This is the work I do and it always has been. What is different now is the pace at which it matters.
If this article strikes a chord, I would love to hear about it. Reply and tell me where you are with this.
Or if you want some proper thinking space around it, I offer two routes in. A free thirty-minute discovery call which, if it feels right, leads into The Unblur Intensive - a single focused session to get clarity on one area. Or a free longer consultation if you are drawn to deeper one-to-one work over time. Email penny@katherineashmore.com with whichever feels right and I will get back to you within 48 hours.
This article has a companion piece — Where Your Energy Goes, Your Identity Follows.
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Sources: British Chambers of Commerce / Atos: Powering Productivity: AI and the Future of UK Work, March 2026 EY AI Sentiment Index, 2025 (15,000 respondents, 15 countries including UK) KPMG / University of Melbourne: Trust, Attitudes and Use of Artificial Intelligence: A Global Study, 2025 (48,000 respondents, 47 countries)
