Pablo Rodriguez

Publicly learning what AI actually unlocks for non-technical people.

I'm building to help you do it too.

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

There are 4 zones every knowledge worker falls into based on how exposed their role is to AI — and how much they're already using it.

Most people guess their zone wrong.

Here's the framework 🧵

[Zeb Evans @DJ_CURFEW]

Today we reduced headcount by 22%. The business is the strongest it's ever been. So I think it's important to be direct about what I'm seeing and why.

First, I made this decision and I own it. I did it because the way to operate at the highest level of productivity is changing, and to win the future, ClickUp needs to change with it.

Second, this wasn't about cutting costs. Most savings from this change will flow directly back into the people who stay. We'll be introducing million-dollar salary bands. If you create outsized impact using AI, you'll be paid outside of traditional bands.

Most importantly, I have the deepest gratitude for those affected. We're doing this from a position of strength specifically so we can take care of people properly. Everyone affected receives a package aimed at honoring their contributions and easing the transition.

I only see two options: wait for this to play out gradually in the market or be honest about what I'm seeing and act proactively.

THE 100X ORGANIZATION
The primary change is that we're restructuring around what I call 100x org. The goal is 100x output. The roles required to build at the highest level are fundamentally different than they were a year ago.

Incremental improvements to existing systems won't get us there. We need new ones. That means creating enough disruption to rebuild rather than iterate on what's already broken.

The common narrative is that AI makes everyone more productive. It doesn't. Many of the workflows of today, if left unchanged, create bottlenecks in AI systems.

These roles will evolve. But waiting for that to happen naturally means falling behind now.

The 100x org is actually heavily dependent on people - infinitely more than today. This is only possible with 10x people that have embraced and adopted new ways of working.

THE BUILDERS, AGENT MANAGERS, AND FRONT-LINERS

— THE BUILDERS: 10X ENGINEERS
I don't think most companies have internalized what's actually happening with AI in engineering. The common narrative is that AI makes all engineers more productive. That may be true in isolation, but at an organization level - that is the farthest thing from reality.

Here's what we've validated recently at ClickUp: the great engineers, the ones who can orchestrate, architect, and review, are becoming 100x engineers. They're not writing code. They're directing agents that write code. The skill is judgment.

AI makes the best engineers wildly more productive, and everyone else using AI slows these engineers down.
Think about it - the bottlenecks are (1) orchestration - telling AI what to do, and (2) reviewing - what AI did. Everything is leapfrogged and no longer needed.
So who do you want orchestrating and reviewing code?

And how do you want your best engineers to spend their time?

If your best engineers are spending time reviewing other people's code, then this is inherently an inefficient bottleneck. These engineers can review their agent's code much faster than reviewing human code.

The new world is about enabling your 10x engineers to become 100x.

The wrong strategy is to push every engineer to use infinite tokens. Companies doing this are celebrating 500% more pull requests. But customer outcomes don't match the volume of code being generated.

I call this the great reckoning of AI coding, and every company will face this soon if not already.

More code is just another bottleneck to the best engineers, and ultimately to your company's impact as well.

— THE BUILDERS: 10X PRODUCT MANAGERS
Product management and design roles are merging.

Designers that have customer focus, become more like product managers.

And product managers that have intuition for UX become more like designers.

The bottleneck of user research is gone. It takes us just one mention of an agent to kickoff research and analyze results.

The bottleneck of product <> design iteration is also gone. The product builder iterates on their own, along with agents and skills that ensure alignment with quality and strategy.

Also controversial today - I believe that the wrong strategy is to have your PMs shipping code - that just introduces another bottleneck that the best engineers will waste their time on.

To be clear, PMs should be coding but they should do this in a playground to iterate, validate, and scope. That code should not go to production.

Everything outside of managing systems, orchestrating AI, and reviewing output becomes a bottleneck.
That's why the other roles that are critical along with these are the systems managers (to reduce bottlenecks) along with a bottleneck you can't replace - customer meeting time.

— THE SYSTEM MANAGERS
Ironically, the people that automate their jobs with AI will always have a job. They become owners of the AI systems - agent managers. We have many examples of these people at ClickUp.

The underlying systems in which we operate are absolutely critical to get right. I think most companies are delusional to think they can iterate on existing systems and compete in this new world.

You must create enough disruption so that old systems are deprecated entirely. If there's any definition for 'AI native' that's what it is.

— THE FRONT-LINERS
In a world that will become saturated with AI communication, the human touch will matter more than anything to customers.

This is a bottleneck that you shouldn't replace - even when agents are high enough quality to do video meetings.

One-on-one meeting time with customers is something that shouldn't be automated. The systems around the meetings should be - so that front-liners spend nearly 100% of their time with customers.

REWARDING 100X IMPACT
In a world where companies are able to do so much more with less, where does that excess money go?
In our case, much of the savings in this new operating model will flow directly back to those that enabled it.

We must reward people that create productivity accordingly. This aligns incentives on both sides. Plus, in a world where your best people create 100x impact, you can't afford to lose them.

You should aim to retain these employees for decades. The context they have and their ability to efficiently orchestrate and review will be nearly impossible to replace.

Compensation bands of today should be thrown out the door. We're introducing $1 million cash/year salary bands with a path available to nearly everyone in the company if they produce 100x impact by creating or managing AI systems.

THE FUTURE
Nearly every company will make changes like these. The ones that do it proactively will define what comes next.

The future is not fewer people. It's different work, new roles, and better rewards for those who embrace it. We're already seeing entirely new roles emerge, like Agent Managers, that didn't exist a year ago.

ClickUp is positioning to lead this shift, not just internally, but for our customers too. I've never been more certain about where we're headed.

[David George @DavidGeorge83]

https://t.co/QXVYrAv6H4

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

@DavidGeorge83 100% agree on the macro. What the data doesn't show: for every 8 people getting more productive, 1 is getting displaced. The average doesn't tell anyone which side they're on. Most readers aren't asking "is the economy fine" — they're asking "is my job."

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

@businessbarista AI-native

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

If you want to figure out what to do about it for your own job: https://t.co/Iga0CnfaaR

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

Levie this week: each engineer is 2X-5X more capable than before AI. Box is hiring more, not less.

If your job stays the same shape while peers run at 3X, the gap is the career risk.

This week:
1. Halve one weekly workflow with AI
2. Use the freed hours on work no one owns

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

Sources:
- Box Automate launch: https://t.co/TX2eIIGFeJ
- Levie quote: https://t.co/AJE0MjTQF7

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

If you want to figure out what to do about it for your own job: https://t.co/Iga0CnfaaR

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

Anthropic shipped 10 finance agents: pitch decks, valuations, month-end close.

If that's your job, this isn't a tool to learn. It's a workflow you no longer own.

This week:
1. Map which of your tasks the agents do
2. Find what's left that needs a human
3. Move your time there

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

Sources:
• Fortune on Anthropic's 10 finance agents (Jamie Dimon at the briefing): https://t.co/wYjsFKSjgs
• OpenAI + PwC dropped an "AI-native finance function" the same day: https://t.co/G7c3C0usor

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

@lennysan @_catwu @AnthropicAI Speed is the visible part. The deeper shift Cat surfaces: PMs moving from spec-writing to decision-throughput. The bottleneck stops being "what to build" — it becomes how many high-quality calls you can make per week once AI compresses the rest of the work.

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

@karpathy "More than speeding up what existed" is the right lens. Most teams are still measuring AI ROI as a stopwatch — % faster than the old workflow. The teams pulling ahead are measuring it differently: what work do we now do that we wouldn't have started without it.

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

Why I built it:

Friends and coworkers ask me for this exact advice every week. "Should I be worried?" "What tools should I use?" "What does this mean for my role?"

I'm Pablo — leading AI transformation in a Tech COO org. Wanted to help people in the same boat that I was.

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

New project: https://t.co/Iga0CnfaaR

5 questions → your AI Impact Score (0–100) + a personalized roadmap with the tools and an action plan to start moving.

No generic "AI changes everything" takes. Free. No sign-up to see your score.

→ https://t.co/Iga0CnfaaR

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

@levie The visible work is the IT rollout. The invisible work, already underway, is knowledge workers retooling their own workflows before their company does. That's where the leverage gap opens — the ones who don't wait on procurement compound first.

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

@lennysan The designer signal is interesting because it inverts the others. For PMs/eng, AI takes routine work and frees them up. For designers, AI competes with the creative output itself — that's not augmentation, that's substitution.

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

5 questions. 5 minutes.

Find out exactly which zone you're in — plus your top tools and a 1-week action plan to start moving.

Free. No sign-up to see your score.

→ https://t.co/Iga0CnfaaR

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

There are 4 zones every knowledge worker falls into based on how exposed their role is to AI — and how much they're already using it.

Most people guess their zone wrong.

Here's the framework 🧵

[Pablo Rodriguez @getupleveled]

🟣 Low Exposure / High Augmentation

Your role doesn't need AI yet — but you're already using it to do more and shift up the value chain.

When AI does reach your role, you'll be 2 years ahead of everyone scrambling to adapt. The smartest zone to be in.