Media kit for podcast hosts, producers and press
Future-Proof Yourself in the Age of AI
By Michael Vickers. Everything on this page is cleared for editorial use in coverage of the book, its ideas, or the author. Take what you need. No permission request required.
The book's starting point: this is the fourth time work has been rewritten by technology, not the first. The pattern is the same every time, and so is the way through it.
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Everything a producer needs for show notes and the episode page.
Worked on at the same time, every quarter, through the book's 90-Day Relevance Sprint.
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About the author
Use whichever fits your show notes or intro.
Michael Vickers is a keynote speaker, business coach and author of Staying Relevant: Future-Proof Yourself in the Age of AI. For more than 30 years he has helped professionals and organizations work through disruption. He hosts the Becoming Preferred podcast.
Michael Vickers has spent more than 30 years in boardrooms and training rooms helping people adapt when the rules of their work change. He is the founder of Summit Learning Systems, the author of Becoming Preferred and Dance of the Rainmaker, and the host of the Becoming Preferred podcast. His new book, Staying Relevant: Future-Proof Yourself in the Age of AI, grew out of a question he kept hearing after keynotes: will what I know still matter in five years? He runs the book's 90-day learning sprints on himself every quarter.
Michael Vickers is a keynote speaker, business coach and author with more than 30 years of experience in training and development. As founder of Summit Learning Systems,he has worked with organizations across North America on sales process, business process and the harder work of getting people to actually change how they operate.
He wrote Staying Relevant: Future-Proof Yourself in the Age of AI after hearing the same quiet question backstage, on coaching calls and over coffee: will my skills still count in five years? Finding only hype or doom on the shelf, he wrote the practical book in between. It is grounded in history, built on seven pillars and a 90-day sprint, and sold with 20 free chapter playbooks.
Michael is also the author of Becoming Preferred and Dance of the Rainmaker, and hosts the Becoming Preferred podcast. He reads roughly 50 books a year, has kept a 5 a.m. routine since he was twelve, and is a licensed pilot. He lives in Calgary with his wife and business partner, Beth.
About the book
Four descriptions, from a single line to full retail copy.
A practical, history-grounded guide for professionals who want AI to raise their value instead of replacing it, built around seven pillars, a 90-day sprint and a 35-minute daily habit.
Most people aren't resisting AI. They're quietly wondering whether what they know will still matter in five years. In Staying Relevant, Michael Vickers argues that this is the fourth time technology has rewritten work, after looms, electricity and computers, and that every wave has followed the same pattern. The people who come through aren't the most technical. They're the ones who accept the change early and move toward the work only humans can do. The book turns that pattern into a plan anyone can start on Monday.
Will what you know still matter in five years?
It's the question people ask Michael Vickers after keynotes, usually quietly and usually not at work. The books they find are either breathless hype or full-blown doom, and neither one helps you decide what to do on Monday morning. Staying Relevant is the book in between.
It starts with history. The mechanical loom, electricity and the computer each rewrote work, and each time the same thing happened: denial, then a human gap opened, then some people moved up a level. AI is the fourth wave, and knowing the pattern takes most of the fear out of it.
Then it gets practical. You'll learn the Seven Pillars of Lifelong Relevance, a way of working that holds through any disruption. You'll identify the human capabilities that grow more valuable as AI spreads. You'll run a 90-Day Relevance Sprint and build a daily habit that takes 35 minutes. And you'll meet the people who did it, including a machinist who out-programmed engineers half his age and a 53-year-old manager who tripled his income by 58.
Every copy comes with 20 free chapter playbooks, because thinking without action is just entertainment.
Your future is not being written by AI. It's being written by what you choose to do next.
Each of the book's 20 chapters has a companion playbook, available as a free download to every reader. Together they run to roughly 375 pages of exercises, self-assessments and planning tools that turn each chapter's ideas into the reader's own 90-day plan.
Episode ideas
Episode ideas, each with the kind of show it suits best.
Looms, electricity, computers and now AI. Michael walks through what happened to workers in each wave and why the people who thrived were rarely the most technical. A calming, big-picture conversation for audiences tired of doom headlines. Drawn from Chapter 1, The Fourth Great Disruption.
Best forBusiness, history and future-of-work shows
The measured evidence doesn't show a broad AI unemployment shock. It shows a door closing at the entry level. Michael explains why that is a more specific problem than "the robots are coming," and what graduates, parents and hiring managers can do about it.
Best forNews, career and parenting shows
Ray, a machinist with 20 years on a manual lathe, became a better programmer than engineers fresh out of school. Jack, a 53-year-old manager one reorganization from redundancy, ran 20 quarterly sprints and tripled his income. Experience plus the tools is a formidable combination.
Best forMidlife, career-change and personal development shows
Thirty minutes of input and five minutes of output, five days a week, adds up to about 150 hours of deliberate development a year. Michael explains why the five minutes of output is the part that does the real work, and why nobody needs to become an engineer.
Best forProductivity, habits and self-improvement shows
Most people aren't afraid of the technology. They're afraid of being bad at something new in front of colleagues who've known them for twenty years. Michael shares what leaders should say to an anxious team and why a small, dated first step works better than more training.
Best forLeadership, HR and management shows
Alyssa's employer kept saying "maybe next year," so she designed her own curriculum in Python, SQL and Tableau using mostly free resources. Michael makes the case that the cost of learning has collapsed and your ceiling is no longer set by someone else's budget. From the chapter Taking Charge When Your Company Won't.
Best forCareer, self-directed learning and education shows
In March 2020, Jenny's event business disappeared in 48 hours. Her peers waited for normal. She took a week to panic, then decided the demand hadn't gone anywhere. Six months later she was running five events a month instead of five a year. A story about why waiting is the most expensive strategy.
Best forEntrepreneur and small-business shows
Praise for Staying Relevant
Endorsements from the book's front matter. Feel free to quote any of them with attribution.
“AI isn't the threat, irrelevance is. This book shows you how to stay indispensable by creating real, human value in a world moving faster than ever.”
“Michael Vickers is an exceptional communicator and in this book he also reveals that he is an enlightened thinker. You will love this easy-reading book and you will gain courage and clarity on what to do next in your own life and business.”
“This is the first book I've read about AI that didn't make me feel anxious; it made me feel empowered!”
“This is the most actionable book on the future of work you will read this year. Vickers cuts through the AI hype and fear to deliver a stunningly simple truth: the people who thrive are the ones who commit to consistent, daily learning.”
“Finally, a book that replaces AI doomsday predictions with a proven pattern for success. Essential reading for anyone who wants not just to survive the next decade, but to thrive in it.”
“In an age of digital noise, Michael's message about the Human Gap is a wake-up call that every organization needs to hear. He proves that empathy and wisdom are the new superpowers of the AI era.”
“Staying Relevant is a timely and empowering read for anyone navigating today's wave of technological change. With a thoughtful historical perspective and an ironically human touch, he shows that we won't just make it through this era of transformation — we'll make it better.”
“I love this book — and truth be told, I have not been a big AI fan. But Michael gives you an historical perspective, practical advice on how AI can make my business better and what I didn't expect, it's a fun read!”
“Staying Relevant is, well, relentlessly relevant for our times! Michael Vickers cuts through the fear and hype to show how change has always fueled human progress — and how we can, and must, do the same today.”
“Michael Vickers is a master storyteller, and this book is Michael at his absolute best — urgent, inspiring, and impossible to put down.”
“From the first few paragraphs, I found myself captured by the wisdom, insights and actions shared by Michael Vickers. It's what we all need to not only make sense of the AI disruption BUT to flourish within this new world. Read and reap!”
“If the past is prologue, a future with AI is filled with promise and possibilities. Michael Vickers has crafted a compelling read that should reduce our fear and inspire all of us to play an important part in what comes next.”
“He places AI in understandable history and helps us to see how it is predictable. It's like having a personal coach to capture the AI wave.”
“A timely and engaging guide to thriving in this rapidly changing world. This book reframes AI as an opportunity to amplify and embrace what makes us human.”
Interview prep
Questions Michael is ready for, and lines that work well in show notes and clips.
“I'm not here to tell people AI is fine, and I'm not here to tell them it's the end. I'm here to tell them what to do on Monday morning.”
“AI isn't taking careers. It's closing the door at the entry level.”
“Input without output is entertainment.”
“Your experience isn't what's obsolete. It's what makes you formidable once you add the tools.”
“Be concerned enough to start, not scared enough to freeze.”
“Staying relevant isn't a project you complete. It's a way of working you keep.”
“Your future is not being written by AI. It's being written by what you choose to do next.”
For immediate use
Ready to run as written, or to lift from.
CALGARY, Alberta, September 15, 2026 — Keynote speaker and business coach Michael Vickers has published Staying Relevant: Future-Proof Yourself in the Age of AI, a 428-page practical guide for professionals who want AI to raise their value rather than replace it.
The book arrives as public anxiety about AI reaches new highs. A Pew Research Center survey released in August 2026 found that 52 percent of Americans are more concerned than excited about AI, while only 9 percent are more excited than concerned, the lowest figure Pew has recorded.
Vickers argues that the fear is real but aimed at the wrong target. Drawing on the history of the mechanical loom, electricity and the computer, he shows that AI is the fourth wave of technology to rewrite work, and that each wave has followed the same pattern. The people who came through were rarely the most technical. They were the ones who accepted the change early and moved toward the work only humans can do.
“I'm not here to tell people AI is fine, and I'm not here to tell them it's the end,” Vickers said. “I'm here to tell them what to do on Monday morning.”
The book's framework rests on the Seven Pillars of Lifelong Relevance, a 90-Day Relevance Sprint and a 35-minute daily learning habit. It is illustrated with real stories, including a machinist who became a better programmer than engineers half his age and a 53-year-old manager who tripled his income within five years. Every copy includes 20 free chapter playbooks.
Early readers include Olympian and New York Times bestselling author Vince Poscente, who wrote, “AI isn't the threat, irrelevance is,” and Jim Cathcart, author of The Acorn Principle.
Vickers has spent more than 30 years in training and development. He is the founder of Summit Learning Systems, the author of Becoming Preferred and Dance of the Rainmaker, and host of the Becoming Preferred podcast.
Staying Relevant is available now in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions. An audiobook narrated by the author will follow this fall.
Media contact: Beth Smith,
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