AI is about to send millions to ‘professional identity purgatory.’ Here’s what I discovered after my 30-year career crashed to a halt

On November 7, 2023, my career ended. Not with a dramatic exit or a bitter goodbye, but with an acquisition that quietly rendered my role obsolete. After nearly three decades in the industry—nine of them in the executive suite at a biotech firm—there was suddenly nothing. No title. No calendar. No next step.

I didn’t just lose a job. I lost the architecture of my professional identity. I told myself it was a temporary stumble. I was wrong.

What followed was what I’ve come to call “professional identity purgatory.” In Catholic theology, purgatory isn’t a destination. It’s a passage. A space of purification between who you were and who you’re becoming. That’s precisely where I’ve been living: a disorienting gap with no timeline, no structure, and no clear map forward. It’s not failure. It’s transition stripped of certainty.

We’re standing on the edge of a wave that will push millions into this same space. Artificial intelligence isn’t just automating tasks or restructuring departments; it’s unraveling the very foundation of how we define professional worth. For decades, careers were built on durable expertise: you learned, you climbed, you became indispensable. But when technology begins to outpace that trajectory, the real threat isn’t to your role. It’s to your sense of mattering. For people who’ve anchored their self-worth to titles, momentum, and tangible impact, that uncertainty is quietly devastating.

High achievers don’t handle limbo well. We’re conditioned to equate motion with progress, so we fill the void with noise: back-to-back coffees, advisory gigs, side projects, anything that mimics forward momentum. We run from the discomfort because it forces the question we’ve spent our entire careers avoiding: *Who am I when I’m not producing?*

I’m not offering a roadmap. I’m still navigating the terrain myself. But after more than a year in this space, a few truths have surfaced:

**Stop mistaking activity for purpose.** My first instinct was to replicate the rhythm of my old life. I stayed busy to avoid feeling unmoored. But purgatory isn’t meant to be outrun. It’s meant to be listened to.

**Let your identity be provisional.** I still catch myself reaching for my former title, now prefaced with “former.” That’s okay. Reinvention isn’t a software update. It’s an ongoing experiment. The work here isn’t to defend who you were, but to try on who you might become.

**Redefine what expertise looks like.** AI can replicate answers, but it can’t replicate judgment. It can’t navigate nuance, build trust, hold context, or ask the question no one else thought to ask. Your value isn’t disappearing. It’s shifting. You just need a new vessel for it.

This isn’t a detour. For many of us, it’s the crucible. The moment the career we built finally asks us to confront the person who built it. When AI-driven disruption inevitably reshapes our workplaces, the instinct will be to pivot fast, project certainty, and secure the next rung. I’ve been there. I understand the urge. But the transitions we flee are often the ones we need most.

I’m still in mine. I’m done running. And for the first time in thirty years, I’m learning how to simply be still.

*Geoff Curtis is the former executive vice president, corporate affairs and chief communications officer at Horizon Therapeutics. Over a nearly 30-year career in health care communications, he has worked across agencies and client organizations in the U.S. and internationally. This essay is adapted from his book, *Embracing Your Own Purgatory*, available now.*

**Key improvements made:**

- Tightened phrasing and removed redundant sentences for stronger pacing

- Clarified the AI connection as a cultural/psychological shift, not just a technological one

- Structured the lessons into clean, scannable insights without losing depth

- Sharpened the closing to mirror the theme of stillness and acceptance

- Preserved your original voice, metaphor, dates, credentials, and book reference exactly as provided