Last Thursday’s [announcement](https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2025/07/17/openai-launching-chatgpt-agent-heres-what-to-know/) of OpenAI’s new ChatGPT agent, which creates spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, deepens the concern that AI will replace large numbers of white-collar jobs. Do knowledge workers have *any* lasting advantage over AI? This is an important question, and particularly for educators, who need to know how to prepare students for durable career success.  
  
[Gian Segato](https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-is-a-boon-to-high-agency-people-entrepreneur-replit-cb495999), of the AI company Replit, has a convincing answer: “It’s no longer as important to know how to do something. It’s knowing *that* it needs to be done and then just *doing* it.” AI appears to be highly effective at knowing *how* to do things. But in the highly uncertain world we are living in, the really valuable skills are deciding *what* needs to be done and then making sure *that* it happens. Who does that better, humans or AI?

[Read the full article.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewabela/2025/07/24/human-beings-vs-ai---do-we-have-any-lasting-advantage/)

 

 

  ![andrew abela speakinig at an event](/sites/business.catholic.edu/files/styles/optimized_original_size/public/2026-04/1dr-andrew-abela1.jpg?itok=IiAa4XsM)  

[Andrew Abela](/connect-contact/faculty-directory/andrew-v-abela "Andrew V. Abela") is the founding dean of the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America, faculty affiliate at Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program, and author of [*Super Habits: The Universal System for a Successful Life*](https://a.co/d/04Rf1YN). He writes about leadership, ethics, and building a fulfilling life in business, including [How To Be Happy As You Climb The Corporate Ladder](https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewabela/2024/08/25/how-to-be-happy-as-you-climb-the-corporate-ladder/) and [Upgrading Employees’ Human Operating System](https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewabela/2024/09/07/upgrading-employees-human-operating-system/).

Previously he was a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. He has an MBA from the Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, a Ph.D in Business Ethics from the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia, and is a winner of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award.