What Sequoia Capital's AI Ascent 2025 Reveals About the Future of Work
Why 90% of Today’s Skills Are Becoming Obsolete and What Still Sets You Apart.
At Sequoia Capital’s AI Ascent 2025 summit in May, Sequoia partners Sonya Huang, Pat Grady, and Konstantine Buhler laid out a clear message: most of today’s knowledge work, including coding, writing, designing is on track to be replaced or significantly reshaped by AI and GenAI. Some of it has already happened.
They predicted that 90% of current skills are becoming irrelevant. But what stood out most was what remains essential. The one thing that continue to grow in value is taste. Here’s my summary of the key insights, takeaways and why this moment matters more than ever.
1. AI Abundance Is Coming. It’s Not as Pretty as It Sounds.
Sonya Huang described this shift as the “Age of Abundance.” This means AI isn’t just making tasks easier. It’ll make once-scarce labor available everywhere at near-zero cost. GPT-4 can write code better than most junior developers. Claude can draft memos that read like they were written by a McKinsey consultant. Midjourney can outperform 90% of commercial design portfolios.
As Sonya pointed out, this abundance leads to the breakdown of old economic assumptions: Scarcity no longer defines what’s valuable. Price is no longer a reliable proxy for quality. Skills alone are no longer the key career differentiator.
Watch the keynote for full context: AI Ascent 2025 Keynote.
Read the event summary: Sequoia Capital AI Ascent 2025.
2. When Labor Is Cheap and Skills Are Ubiquitous, What Still Matters?
According to Sequoia, taste is the new moat. When AI tools become powerful and widely available, anyone can access the same raw materials. What you can do becomes less important than how you do it. Taste becomes the new competitive advantage.
What sets people apart is the difference between knowing how to use AI and knowing how to use it well. It’s the gap between building something useful and building something people remember.
For example, Apple doesn’t just sell features. It sells identity. It sells taste. It sells you belong here. Therefore, what will stand out is your ability to make something feel different, look different, and mean something different for your customers.
In a world where things works more easily with AI, taste is how we choose. That’s the deeper shift Sequoia is pointing to. They call it the “vibe gap.” It’s the emotional edge, and the brand layer, something you can’t screenshot, something that AI can’t replicate, but you feel it the moment you use the product.
3. The Triple Shock That’s Already There
Here’s what Sequoia says is happening under the surface and why it might catch many people off guard:
(1) Consumption is shifting from function to emotion
We used to buy products based on whether they worked well. Now, we choose them because they make us feel right. Emotional value outweighs utility. Things that look expensive, even if they aren’t, will outsell the ones that just “work.” This is design, branding, and psychology at work.
(2) Skill hierarchies are getting scrambled
Hard skills are still useful, but they’ve most likely moved to the background. What’s rising in value are presentation, design, and storytelling. The new divide is between execution and expression. Here’s how that looks:
Knowing PowerBI? Great. But can you present the story behind the dashboards?
Knowing how to code? Solid. But can you design a full product experience in a way that moves people?
Being good at Excel? Cool. But do you know how to make your presentation deck ready for executives and board reviews?
(3) Your personal brand matters more
Degrees, credentials, and years of experience still count, but they are no longer the strongest signals. What matters more is how you think and how you show up. People want to know your perspective, presence, and taste. These come through in your writing, your slides, your storytelling rather than your titles.
4. So How Do You Stay Ahead?
Sequoia didn’t just describe the problem. They also offered practical advice. Here's what I found most useful for anyone who is trying to stay relevant and differentiated:
(1) Follow people with great taste, not just great tools.
There are AI creators out there who turn raw data into expressive design. Watch them and study their work. Look at how they combine logic with emotion, precision with aesthetic.
(2) Learn how top companies tell stories
Companies like Apple, OpenAI, and Nvidia don’t just build great products. They framed them with care. Every keynote, product launch, and investor presentation is designed to make things feel right. This isn’t a coincidence. Watch Apple’s keynotes. Watch OpenAI’s launches. Watch Nvidia’s investor day. How they’re presented these products are what drive belief and momentum.
(3) Rebuild your outputs from the ground up
Sequoia asked one great question:
“What level of thought does your output reflect?”
That’s where the bar should be. We need to stop asking the question, “Did I do this right?” We should start asking questions, such as
Is this memorable?
Does it show clear intention?
Does it reflect thoughtfulness and taste?
If your content doesn’t reflect any taste, your product likely won’t stand out no matter how functional it is.
5. The Line That Stopped Me Cold
Pat Grady said it clearly at the Summit:
“This is the moment to sprint full speed.”
The AI adoption curve is over. AI tools have already become part of the infrastructure. ChatGPT now have daily usage that competes with Reddit.
There isn’t time to test the waters. No more waiting for consensus or approval. The windows are shrinking. You don’t get three years to catch up anymore. It’s happening now and it’s moving fast.
6. My Thoughts
If you’re still asking “Should I learn AI?” You’re asking the wrong question. The point is not only to learn AI tools, but also to use them well, to create things that reflect the point of view, taste, and clarity.
The next few years will be difficult for products and people who only talk about if AI matters and what they can do with AI. The ones that will thrive are those who ask the right questions, “Who can I help you become?” That’s where the emotional connection happens and what makes you and your products memorable. That’s how you create trust, brand, and real value for your customers.
The real moat isn’t the skill. It’s taste.
Apple got this early. Tesla did too. Some of the best AI creators already think this way. The rest of us? We’re catching up. In a world where everyone can develop with AI, very few people can build something that feels right. That is where the opportunity lives.
References
Sequoia AI Ascent 2025 event summary: Sequoia Capital.
Keynote replay on YouTube: AI Ascent 2025.