A Perfect Storm is Brewing
We’re standing at the intersection of three massive shifts in the workforce and most companies aren’t prepared for any of them:
The Silver Tsunami – Thousands of Baby Boomer business owners and seasoned workers are retiring. In Greater Cincinnati alone, more than 5,500 businesses are at risk due to owner retirement in the next 5 years with no succession plan. Nationally, it's even more staggering.
The AI Job Tsunami – AI is reshaping roles across industries, forcing a rethinking of what work looks like and who does it.
The Silent Crisis – Decades of institutional knowledge are walking out the door with retiring or departing employees and most of it is undocumented, unrecorded, and unshared.
Consider this:
By the end of 2025, 22% of the U.S. manufacturing workforce will retire that’s 2–3 million people. (shared by Katie Taylor CEO of Narratize and stats from Manufacturing Institute) And with them, we risk losing an immeasurable amount of tribal knowledge: how things actually work, the workarounds, the “don’t do it this way” warnings, the customer relationships, and the fixes no one wrote down.
My friend, Lindsey Rhoden, shared in her industry of Architects the NCARB survey: Of the approximate 120,000 architects in the US, 1/3 are baby boomers. 15,000 are over 65. How are we going to transfer that tribal knowledge to our younger architects? We believe there is a role for AI to support mentorship, to transition firm ownership, and ensure the knowledge is not lost.
This isn’t just a retirement wave.
It’s a knowledge extinction event if we don’t treat it with the urgency it deserves.
What Can Businesses Do?
Not everything needs a tech solution. But every company does need a plan. Here are a few starting points:
Capture what you know before it’s gone. Interview long-term employees. Record stories, processes, lessons learned. Use simple tools voice notes, video, even AI transcription apps. Example: you can load all of “Bob” or “Jane’s” knowledge and transcriptions in a private GPT, Narratize that will prompt you to capture knowledge, or Delphi AI and now other team members can access their knowledge after they leave. Being able to “pick their brain.”
Build mentorship bridges. Pair seasoned workers with younger team members. Not just for skill-sharing, but for values and problem-solving habits. As Donna Kastner reminded us, wisdom needs to flow in both directions. Young to Old and Old to Young. Pairing these two groups in smarter ways will yield breakthrough ideas.
Rethink job design. Don’t just replace people reimagine roles with AI and automation in mind. Create space for both human wisdom and digital efficiency. Don’t just add AI to the workflow. Ask if we were an AI first company that just started, what would that process look like now? Humans will be managing AIs and Agents.
Create knowledge hubs. Centralize documentation, guides, videos, prompts, etc. Make it easy for your team to find and learn what others already know. This can be done with CoPilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.
Document your succession plans no matter the size of your organization. AI can provide you a step by step guide to think through what it looks like for your organization.
We are not powerless here.
But we do need to act deliberately and collectively.
The future of our businesses, our workforce, and our communities may depend on how we respond to this moment.
Let’s not wait until the knowledge is gone to realize what it was worth.
How are you capturing that internal knowledge?
How are you building succession plans for your business?
Let us know how we can help you navigate this efficiently.
2025 AI Adventures
New events are added weekly. Since our community spans over 32 states, we’re making it easier than ever for you to join the conversation from anywhere. These virtual sessions are designed to be interactive and packed with real use cases you can apply immediately.
July
July 1 CincyAI from 3-5 EST at UC Digital Futures building. Free to attend. In person only. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1407748927939?aff=oddtdtcreator
July 14 -16 Black Tech Week https://blacktechweek.com/ in person event in Cincinnati, OH.
July 16 Technology First AI Simplified Workshop from 8:30-10:30 in person in Dayton, OH. https://www.technologyfirst.org/event-6074735
July 24 Fort Thomas Google Marketing and AI for Social Media from 12-1 in person. https://business.nkychamber.com/events/Details/fort-thomas-business-council-merging-google-marketing-with-ai-for-social-success-1267924?sourceTypeId=Website
August
August 5 CincyAI from 3-5 EST at UC Digital Futures building. Free to attend. In person only.
August 12 Miami Valley HR 11:15-1 in Dayton, OH https://mvhra.mightevent.com/events/event-Details.cfm?eventKey=8054
August 13 Crossroads Impact Summit for Nonprofits
September
September 2 CincyAI from 3-5 EST at UC Digital Futures building. Free to attend. In person only.
September 10-11 MidwestCon https://midwestcon.live/
September 18 Best in Tech Awards hosted by The Circuit from 5-9 pm https://thecircuit.net/event/best-of-tech-awards-2/
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Where AI and inspiration collide!
Kendra Ramirez
KendraRamirez.com
We provide AI Speaking and Training, AI Readiness Assessments, AI Strategy, AI roadmap and implementation, and AI Coaching for small to mid-size businesses and nonprofits.
**For those new to my work, I have been in tech my whole career. Over 15 years of running my digital agency (website, social media, and lead generation) and 7 years of helping businesses navigate AI. Over the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of leading over 100 training and speaking sessions, empowering businesses to embrace the transformative potential of AI. My passion lies in simplifying complex technologies to help organizations grow, innovate, and thrive in an ever-changing landscape.
I am so excited that you are on this journey with me! Thank you! 🤗
I have been writing weekly about AI here for over two years. You can search all of my enewsletters here if you are looking to brush up on a certain topic. kendratech.substack.com