Something Big Is Happening

This week, an article is going viral. Written by AI entrepreneur Matt Shumer, it has already been read over twenty million times and is still spreading. It carries a simple title: Something Big Is Happening. It compares the current moment in artificial intelligence to February 2020—when a handful of people were quietly tracking a virus overseas while the rest of us went about our lives. His argument is blunt: we are in the early, dismissible phase of something that will reshape every industry, every career, and every assumption about how work gets done.

I read that article carefully. Then I read it again. And then I did what I always do when a major force enters the market: I researched what it means specifically for us here in South Florida—for our economy, our real-estate market, our professional landscape, and for the people I advise every day.

What I found confirmed much of what Shumer wrote. But it also revealed something he didn't cover: South Florida is not just exposed to this shift. We may be uniquely positioned to benefit from it—if we move now.

The Technology Is Real, and It Just Took a Major Leap

On February 5, 2026, two of the world's leading AI laboratories released new models on the same day. Anthropic launched Claude Opus 4.6, which can plan complex tasks, operate autonomously in large codebases, and perform its own quality review across a one-million-token context window. OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Codex, a model so capable that—according to OpenAI's own documentation—early versions of it were used to debug its own training and deployment. The AI helped build itself.

That is not a prediction about the future. It is a statement of fact about the present.

The independent evaluation group METR, which tracks how long AI systems can work autonomously on real-world tasks, reports that this duration has been doubling roughly every seven months. Tasks that took AI seconds in 2019 now take hours. Their projections suggest that within a few years, AI could independently complete projects that take skilled humans days or even weeks. An MIT study estimates that AI can already automate or replace tasks accounting for nearly twelve percent of U.S. wages, with the deepest impacts in white-collar fields: finance, healthcare, and professional services.

Yet—and this is important—economists at Yale's Budget Lab find little evidence of broad-based job losses so far. Analysts at Vanguard note that occupations most exposed to AI have actually seen job and wage growth. The disruption is real. The collapse is not. At least, not yet. What we have is a window—a period where those who adapt gain an extraordinary advantage over those who wait.

Why This Time Is Different

There is a comforting narrative that people reach for whenever technology disrupts an industry: workers adapt, retrain, and move into new roles. It has been true before. When factories automated, displaced workers became office workers. When the internet disrupted retail, workers moved into logistics and services. Every previous wave of automation left a gap—an adjacent sector where human labor was still needed and the skills were transferable.

Shumer makes the point that I think too few people have absorbed: AI does not leave that gap.

This is not a technology that replaces one specific skill. It is a general substitute for cognitive work. It improves at everything simultaneously. Whatever you might retrain for, AI is getting better at that too—often faster than you can complete the retraining. The industrial revolution gave displaced artisans factory floors to move to. The internet gave displaced retail workers warehouses and delivery routes. AI, as it stands today, does not offer an obvious next rung on the ladder for the millions of knowledge workers whose tasks it is learning to perform.

I want to be honest about what that means. For those who embrace these tools, who integrate AI into their workflow and use it to amplify what they already do well, this is an extraordinary moment. You will be faster, sharper, and more valuable than at any point in your career. The opportunity is real and it is available right now.

But for those who do not adapt—who dismiss this as a fad, who wait for someone else to figure it out, who assume their expertise alone will protect them—the displacement will be severe. Not gradual. Not gentle. Severe. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic and arguably the most safety-conscious leader in the AI industry, has publicly predicted that AI will eliminate fifty percent of entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years. Many in the industry believe he is being conservative.

This is why I believe this topic is not just important—it is urgent. The window to get ahead of this curve is open now, but it will not stay open long. Every month that passes, the gap between those who are adapting and those who are not grows wider and harder to close.

South Florida's Economy Is Already Shifting

If you have lived in Palm Beach County for any length of time, you have watched the economy transform. A region once defined by agriculture and hospitality has become a magnet for financial firms, business services, and now technology companies. The rebranding of West Palm Beach as "Wall Street South" is not just marketing—it reflects a genuine diversification that is accelerating.

Now add AI to that equation. Local media report that the emerging AI industry is creating demand for engineering and product-management roles in downtown West Palm Beach. Julia Dattolo of Career Source Palm Beach County observes that job seekers who combine technical skills with human-centered abilities will be the most sought after. Healthcare remains the county's largest growth sector, with new medical centers opening in Port St. Lucie and Palm Beach Gardens—and AI applications in diagnostic imaging, patient triage, and administrative automation are only going to increase demand for professionals who can work alongside these tools.

The national conversation about AI displacement is real. CBS has reported that high-skill employment in management analysis, aerospace engineering, finance, and architecture has declined by roughly two to three and a half percent over the past five years. But experts in the same reports highlight that AI may be boosting productivity and creating new roles as fast as it eliminates old ones. The question is not whether disruption is coming. It is whether you are positioned on the right side of it.

What This Means for Real Estate

I spend my career advising clients on one of the largest financial decisions of their lives. So let me be direct about what AI means for our industry.

At Florida International University's REact conference, industry leaders made it clear: firms that ignore technology will be left behind. Panelists urged full adoption of innovation even when current tools are imperfect. Chad Moss of Moss Family Office noted that data-center power demands and emerging technologies are already reshaping development decisions across Southeast Florida.

The market itself remains resilient. South Florida faces a housing shortage of approximately 200,000 units within a national shortfall of four million. Local executives surveyed by South Florida Agent Magazine forecast a selective buyer's market with price stability in 2026. Gerard Liguori expects higher growth driven by strong stock markets, declining interest rates, and continued migration from high-tax states. Broad price drops are unlikely. Buyers remain analytical, and rates may settle into the low-six-percent range.

But the way real estate gets practiced is changing fast. AI is already being used to price properties, identify potential buyers, manage transaction timelines, and automate marketing. Computer-vision systems analyzing listing photos have improved the accuracy of Zillow's Zestimate by fifteen percent. Generative AI creates listing descriptions and marketing content in minutes rather than hours.

Here is the critical point that every industry leader I speak with agrees on: AI will not replace skilled agents. It will separate the agents who embrace it from those who do not.

Pam Liebman of the Corcoran Group predicts that buyers will continue to demand lifestyle and quality over price, while sellers will invest in turn-key homes to command premiums. Consumers empowered by AI-driven search tools may engage agents later in the process—but with higher intent, requiring agents to prove their value immediately. The agents who thrive will be the ones using AI-generated insights to deliver faster, more precise, more personalized counsel than was ever possible before.

The role of the agent is not shrinking. It is becoming more strategic, more advisory, and more essential—for those willing to evolve.

Beyond Real Estate: Every Professional Sector Is in Play

The implications extend well beyond our industry. Lawyers in South Florida will see AI handling routine research, documentation, and contract analysis—but trust, regulatory knowledge, and client relationships will remain vital. Financial analysts will watch AI build models and generate reports, but the human judgment that interprets those models for clients cannot be automated. The hospitality industry, traditionally one of our region's largest employers, is incorporating AI through personalized marketing, dynamic pricing, and customer-service automation—yet the emphasis on personal service that defines South Florida tourism means human interaction remains central.

In every sector, the pattern is the same. AI handles the routine. Humans provide the judgment, the trust, and the relationships. The professionals who integrate both will dominate. Those who cling to one or the other will struggle.

What I Am Telling My Clients—and What I Am Doing Myself

I believe in being honest with the people I serve. Here is what I am doing, and what I recommend.

Use AI in your work today.

Not as a novelty. As a tool. The paid versions of these platforms—twenty dollars a month—offer capabilities that would have been unimaginable two years ago. Feed it a contract. Ask it to analyze a financial statement. Give it your quarterly data and ask it to find the story. The people who are getting ahead right now are not waiting for permission. They are experimenting.

Differentiate through what AI cannot do.

Trust built over years. Local knowledge accumulated through decades of transactions. The ability to read a room, counsel a family through a difficult decision, and protect a client's interests when the stakes are high. AI enhances these abilities. It does not replace them. But you must actively combine both—data-driven precision and human insight—to deliver the level of service that high-net-worth clients expect.

Invest in continuous learning.

METR's data show that what AI can do is doubling every seven months. The tools you learn today will be obsolete within a year. The skill that matters is not mastering any single tool—it is building the habit of adapting to new ones quickly. The most durable competitive advantage in this environment is adaptability itself.

Maintain financial resilience.

Given the pace of change, it is prudent to build savings, manage debt carefully, and diversify income streams. This is why I built my Mastermind community—to provide educational and networking value that extends beyond any single transaction. The professionals who are most resilient are those with multiple sources of value, not those dependent on a single role or revenue stream.

The Bottom Line

Matt Shumer's article went viral because it said something most people sense but have not yet confronted: the ground is shifting under every knowledge-based profession, and the pace of that shift is accelerating. Unlike the disruptions that came before it, this one does not come with a clear path for those who choose to stand still. There is no adjacent industry waiting to absorb millions of displaced knowledge workers. The industrial revolution had factory floors. The internet had warehouses. AI has no such safety net.

Here in South Florida, we are not spectators to this change. Our economy is diversifying into exactly the sectors—technology, finance, healthcare—where AI will have its greatest impact. Our real-estate market, driven by migration, lifestyle demand, and limited supply, remains strong. And our professional community has every reason to lead rather than follow.

But leadership requires action. The window where early adoption confers a decisive advantage will not remain open indefinitely. For those willing to learn, to experiment, and to evolve, this moment comes with extraordinary possibility. For those who dismiss these trends or wait for the disruption to arrive at their door, the consequences will be severe—and by then, the advantage will belong to someone else.

Something big is indeed happening. The question for each of us is not whether this will affect our work. It is whether we will be among those who harness it or those who are displaced by it.

I intend to be on the right side of that line. And I want the people I work with to be there, too.