In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, reshaping the workforce, and redefining the rules of competition. What was once science fiction is now embedded in our everyday lives—from intelligent virtual assistants and automated customer service bots to advanced predictive analytics in healthcare and finance. As AI continues to expand its capabilities, individuals and organizations face an urgent question: How do we stay relevant in the age of AI?

The answer lies not in resisting the inevitable, but in adapting to it, embracing a mindset of lifelong learning, cultivating uniquely human skills, and strategically leveraging AI as a collaborator rather than a competitor.

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1. Embrace Lifelong Learning

The most crucial shift in the AI era is a philosophical one: learning must never stop. In the past, a university degree could set the course for an entire career. Today, the half-life of skills—the time it takes for a skill to become half as valuable—continues to shrink, with estimates placing it at around five years or less in many tech-driven fields.

To stay relevant, individuals must continuously update their knowledge base. This doesn’t always mean going back to school. Online platforms like Coursera, edX, and LinkedIn Learning offer flexible, up-to-date courses in data science, digital marketing, cybersecurity, and AI fundamentals. Microlearning, bootcamps, and professional certifications can also offer rapid upskilling in key areas.

Staying relevant in the AI age means evolving as fast as the technology itself.

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2. Cultivate Uniquely Human Skills

AI excels at tasks that are repetitive, data-driven, or logic-based. However, there are limits to what AI can replicate—especially when it comes to human empathy, ethics, creativity, and emotional intelligence.

Skills such as:

Critical thinking – evaluating information, making sound decisions, and solving novel problems.

Communication – articulating complex ideas clearly, listening actively, and collaborating across diverse teams.

Creativity – thinking divergently, innovating, and imagining new possibilities.

Empathy and leadership – understanding human emotions and guiding people effectively.

These are competencies that remain difficult for AI to emulate and therefore represent a core area where humans hold a lasting advantage.

Workers who can integrate both technical and soft skills—what some call “T-shaped professionals”—are particularly valuable. They have deep knowledge in one area (like AI programming or design thinking) and broad capabilities across disciplines, making them adaptable and cross-functional.

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3. Learn to Collaborate With AI

Rather than fearing that AI will take jobs, the more productive outlook is to ask, “How can I use AI to enhance my work?”

Consider AI not as a rival, but as a tool for augmentation. For example:

A content creator can use AI to generate initial drafts or brainstorm headlines faster.

A data analyst can leverage machine learning models to uncover patterns that would take days to detect manually.

A marketer can personalize customer interactions using AI-powered recommendation engines.

Professionals who understand how to work with AI systems—inputting the right data, interpreting AI outputs, and making informed decisions—will become indispensable. This is particularly true in fields like healthcare, finance, law, and engineering, where AI can offer insights, but human oversight remains critical.

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4. Stay Curious and Adaptable

In the age of AI, agility is the new security. Industries will change. Job descriptions will evolve. Roles will emerge that don’t even exist today. The ability to remain open, curious, and agile is far more valuable than expertise in a single tool or platform.

Cultivating a “growth mindset”—a belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and persistence—is crucial. People with growth mindsets are more likely to embrace change, learn from failures, and reinvent themselves in response to new challenges.

Being adaptable also means paying attention to trends and shifts in your industry. Subscribing to tech newsletters, attending webinars, joining professional communities, or simply staying informed can help you anticipate changes before they disrupt your work.

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5. Ethical Awareness and Human-Centered Thinking

AI raises profound ethical questions—around bias, privacy, transparency, and accountability. As the technology becomes more powerful, ethical literacy becomes a vital skill. Understanding not just what AI can do, but what it should do, is critical.

Whether you’re a developer, policymaker, or user, approaching AI with a human-centered mindset—prioritizing fairness, inclusivity, and long-term impact—ensures that technological progress aligns with human values. Individuals who can bridge technical knowledge with ethical reasoning will play an essential role in shaping responsible AI systems.

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Final Thoughts

Staying relevant in the age of AI is less about outpacing machines and more about deepening what makes us distinctively human. The future belongs to those who can learn continuously, think critically, act ethically, and collaborate seamlessly with intelligent systems.

Rather than fearing the rise of AI, we must see it as an opportunity—an invitation to reimagine how we work, learn, and contribute in a world where change is the only constant. As AI takes over more routine tasks, our job is to do what AI cannot: lead with heart, think with nuance, and innovate with purpose.

In the end, staying relevant is not about resisting the future—it’s about becoming ready for it.

Choosing winners in the fast-paced artificial intelligence (AI) race isn’t always easy. Small AI start-ups can flame out quickly, while large companies run the risk of failing to keep up. Many investors opt to put their money in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track indexes to spread their money across a variety of companies.

One of the most popular ETFs with a lot of exposure to AI stocks is the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ -0.14%). The fund is designed to track the performance of the Nasdaq-100 index, and investing in it is a great way to benefit from the AI race without having to handpick the winners. Here’s why.

1. It has exposure to the top AI companies

The Invesco QQQ Trust‘s largest holdings are key players in the AI race and have already benefited — and will likely continue to benefit — as artificial intelligence grows. With this fund, you’ll be invested in Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Alphabet, as well as other tech companies making big moves in AI.

Consider that Nvidia is one of the leading AI processor companies, with an estimated 95% of the AI processor market, and that Amazon and Microsoft are the two largest cloud computing companies offering advanced AI services to their customers.

All of this means that owning some of Invesco QQQ Trust will allow you to tap into AI processors, AI cloud services, artificial intelligence software, and likely whatever new AI products and services debut over the coming years.

2. ETFs are a great investment for beginners and experts alike

Whether you’re just getting started in investing or you’ve been doing it for decades, ETFs are a great addition to any portfolio because they allow you to take some of the guesswork out of investing. Instead of poring over earnings calls and keeping tabs on how some macroeconomic news might affect the specific company you’re invested in, you can instead spread your money across many companies all at once.

Plus, with the Invesco QQQ Trust, your investment will track the combined movements of the top 100 non-financial companies on the Nasdaq, many of which are the world’s leading tech companies. As hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in AI in the coming years, this fund could continue to benefit from the strong artificial intelligence foundation that’s already been established.

3. Easy liquidity and relatively low costs

Being the fifth-largest ETF, you won’t have much of a problem buying or selling your shares of the Invesco QQQ Trust. A substantial amount of daily trading volumes and about $354 billion in assets under management mean that you’ll easily find a buyer when you’re ready to sell.

What’s more, the fund has a relatively low expense ratio of just 0.20%. If you have $1,000 in the fund, your annual expense ratio is just $2 in fees. Since it’s passively managed, the Invesco QQQ Trust charges far less than actively managed funds, which select stocks in an attempt to outperform specific indexes. Lower expense ratios help you keep more of the gains earned by the fund.

4. The Invesco QQQ Trust has been a top performer

No matter where you invest your money, there’s always a risk that your investments won’t perform well. And even if they do make significant gains when you own them, there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to do so.

But there’s something to be said for funds that historically perform well over time. Since its launch in 1999, the Invesco QQQ Trust has gained nearly 1,000% while the S&P 500 is up about 400%. Of course, that doesn’t mean it will continue growing at the same pace or even that the fund will outpace the broader market’s returns in the coming years. Still, it’s an indication the fund has, in the past, successfully benefited from large tech trends.

If you have $1,000 to spend right now and want to tap into artificial intelligence, this fund is a smart move. While there may be others with more focused exposure to AI, the Invesco QQQ Trust allows you to benefit from the largest technology companies on the Nasdaq, which could provide stability and long-term opportunity.

Key Points

• The chip industry is booming thanks to AI.

• Advanced Micro Devices is seeing margins and earnings soar as its data center business expands.

• Broadcom is meeting insatiable demand for custom AI chips and networking solutions for advanced AI workloads.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting every sector of the economy, so there are several ways investors can profit from this opportunity. But recent earnings results show that top semiconductor companies are still well positioned to deliver outstanding returns for long-term investors.

The AI chip market is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 24% through 2029 to reach $311 billion, according to MarketsandMarkets. If you have $3,000 you’re looking to invest right now, here are two chip stocks to consider buying and holding for the long term.

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1. Advanced Micro Devices

Advanced Micro Devices(NASDAQ: AMD) has become a widely used brand of chips in the consumer PC market. Its Ryzen processors have taken significant market share from Intel. But it’s also one of only two suppliers, along with Nvidia, of general-purpose graphics processing units (GPUs) that are used for AI workloads.

While Nvidia has a commanding lead in GPUs, it’s not going to control 100% of the market. This leaves a substantial opportunity for the runner-up in this market to do well. AMD’s data center business is booming, with segment revenue up 57% year over year in the first quarter.

AMD is meeting demand for cost-effective alternatives in the chip market. Oracle is experiencing tremendous growth in its cloud infrastructure business right now, and it’s a key partner for AMD. Oracle’s cloud infrastructure will offer up to 131,072 AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs for AI. AMD has already announced the MI400 series for launch next year, which will enable even better performance for AI training and inferencing.

As data center sales make up a larger mix of AMD’s total revenue, it is pushing margins up. Higher margins drove a 55% year-over-year increase in adjusted earnings last quarter. Given the long-term opportunity in the AI chip market, which AMD estimates at $500 billion, investors are undervaluing AMD’s future earnings.

The stock is trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 38 on 2025 earnings estimates. But this multiple drops to 25 on 2026 estimates. As AMD continues to expand margins from growth in its data center business, the stock could offer significant upside over the next few years and beyond.

2. Broadcom

Beyond the surging demand for general-purpose chips that AMD supplies, there is growing demand for chips designed for specialized tasks. Broadcom(NASDAQ: AVGO) is one of the best stocks to profit from the demand for custom chip solutions.

Broadcom has been a top-performing semiconductor company for years, supplying components for many markets, including Apple‘s iPhone. But demand for its application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for AI is off the charts.

The company’s AI chip revenue grew 46% year over year in the most recent quarter. As demand for custom ASICs grows, it also fuels demand for networking products that can handle faster data transfer, which is needed for next-level AI performance.

Broadcom’s new Tomahawk 6 Ethernet switch has enough data capacity to support 100,000 AI chips working together to train the next-generation AI models. The company’s networking business posted revenue growth of 170% year over year last quarter, representing 40% of its AI-related revenue.

However, management sees the demand for its custom AI chips outpacing sales of its networking products over time. It’s a huge opportunity, as evidenced by Broadcom’s momentum. Management expects its AI growth to remain steady through fiscal 2026, which could support new highs for the stock.

Broadcom earns very high margins, so the favorable demand outlook points to robust earnings over the next year. The stock trades at 41 times this year’s consensus earnings estimate, but that multiple drops to 33 on next year’s estimate. These are not cheap valuation multiples, but the investment in AI technology is pointing to substantial growth in the coming years for leading chipmakers, and that should support excellent returns for investors.

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Ballard has positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel, and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.