Always Be Networking: The New Currency in an AI-First World

By Mary Shea, Co-founder & CGO at Meerkat

The Ways We Work

Volume 1, Number 11

We’re living through one of the most disruptive periods modern workers have ever experienced.

The pandemic reshaped where and how people work, triggering a global reset in expectations around flexibility, autonomy, and balance. The rapid rise of generative AI has accelerated that evolution, redefining how we work, how we collaborate, and which skills create the most value. These and other forces are driving a reinvention in The Ways We Work.

Today, roughly one in four U.S. professionals works remotely at least part of the week, and more than half of remote-capable employees are in hybrid arrangements (Gallup, 2025). Flexibility has become the new social contract of employment. Yet it carries a hidden cost: weaker networks, fewer spontaneous interactions, and a growing sense of professional isolation.

Gallup’s State of the Workplace 2025 reports that 53% of remote professionals feel disconnected from colleagues at least weekly. The digital workplace has delivered efficiency but not necessarily connection. The "who-you-know" economy has quietly fractured into siloed DM threads, asynchronous updates, and the fatigue of endless scheduled calls.

Add to this the turbulence of today’s labor market. As organizations deploy AI at scale, they’re reorganizing work and, in many cases, reducing human headcount. In September and October alone, Amazon announced more than 5,000 layoffs across Alexa and AWS. Google scaled back its Responsible AI and Ad Sales teams. Meta trimmed Reality Labs. Meanwhile, the federal government has been shut down since October 1. The ripple effect is spreading across financial services, education, and healthcare.

The result is a workforce on edge. Professionals are job-hugging, holding tightly to current roles, or career cushioning, quietly nurturing networks in case the music stops. Others are résumé padding to stay marketable or skill surfing to keep pace with rapid change. In this climate, fear too often replaces ambition.

That’s why, in 2025, ABN -- Always Be Networking -- is the new currency of an AI-first world. “Always Be Closing” may have ruled the sales floors of the 1980s, but in today’s economy, relationships, not transactions, create momentum. The most effective professionals aren’t waiting for layoffs or LinkedIn prompts to reconnect. They use every conversation, every meeting, and every micro-interaction as an opportunity to strengthen and extend their relationships.

When AI can summarize your résumé in a millisecond, it’s your relationships, not your credentials, that will set you apart.

Old Rules, New Reality: Why Traditional Networking No Longer Works

For decades, professional networking followed a familiar pattern. You built relationships at conferences, over business dinners, on flights, or through the occasional LinkedIn exchange. You met people when your company sent you to events, when you changed jobs, or when someone made an introduction. The system rewarded those with time, travel budgets, and access.

In many ways, it was a closed loop, a network of networks that reinforced existing circles of privilege and proximity. For most professionals, networking was a calendar event, not a daily practice.

Today, that model no longer works.

In an AI-first world, networks move faster than we do. Business relationships form and evolve across digital platforms, asynchronous conversations, and algorithmic recommendations. Opportunities appear in places we may never visit, among people we may never meet in person. The center of gravity has shifted from physical rooms to digital ecosystems.

Yet many professionals are still using old playbooks in this new reality. They rely on static contact lists, outdated LinkedIn messages, and occasional virtual events to maintain visibility. They treat networking as a transaction rather than a practice. Meanwhile, AI is quietly rewriting the rules, reshaping how influence is built, how visibility is earned, and how opportunity finds you.

In this environment, traditional networking feels too slow, too narrow, and too dependent on chance. We need new ways to build authentic, continuous connections, approaches that reflect the speed, complexity, and reach of modern work.

Networking at the Speed of AI

If traditional networking was about being in the right room, modern networking is about activating the right network.

In an AI-first world, relationships move at digital speed. They form across platforms, within data, and often long before a first meeting. The professionals who thrive today understand that networking isn’t just social; it’s a strategic endeavor. It’s about creating visibility, context, and reciprocity across both physical and digital spaces.

AI has made it both easier and more complex. Algorithms can connect us faster than ever, but they also flood us with noise. What used to be a coffee conversation is now a feed, a thread, or a tag. The challenge isn’t access; it’s discernment -- knowing who matters most, when they matter, and how to build trust in a world mediated by machines.

The most effective professionals are learning to network in two dimensions: analog and digital. They still invest in community, attend roundtables, and nurture human connections, but they also use digital intelligence to make those interactions smarter and more intentional. They blend intuition with insight.

This is where Meerkat comes in.

What’s Possible with Meerkat

Meerkat was built for this new reality. It helps professionals move from passive networks to intelligent ecosystems that learn, adapt, and activate.

With Meerkat’s LinkedIn Insights, users can identify and mobilize the relationships that matter most:

• Top Influencers: Pinpoint the voices in your network who can amplify your message or engage in affiliate activities.

• Subject Matter Experts: Find leading thinkers on AI and innovation who could be ideal guests for your podcast or panel.

• Regional Leaders: Surface the top C-suite executives in your San Diego network for an in-person roundtable or customer event.

• Investor Connectors: Discover which colleagues share relationships with early-stage investors who are backing AI startups.

  
  

Meerkat turns what was once guesswork into guided opportunity. Its Relationship Graph maps, enriches, and prioritizes the people most likely to accelerate your goals so you can act faster and with greater precision.

But technology is only part of the story. The future of networking isn’t about replacing human connection with data; it’s about enhancing it. Professionals who stand out in this new era use Meerkat’s digital intelligence to inform their analog instincts, to know which relationships to deepen, which communities to join, and when to show up in person.

When AI helps you see your network more clearly, you can show up more intentionally. That’s what turns connection into momentum.

The Human Advantage

In the end, technology doesn’t replace connection. It reminds us why it matters.

AI can surface patterns, map relationships, and accelerate discovery, but it can’t build trust. That part is still profoundly human. The future belongs to professionals who use technology to see more clearly, listen more deeply, and act more intentionally.

Networking at the speed of AI isn’t about automation. It’s about amplification. When professionals blend digital intelligence with human authenticity, they create networks that are not only wider but wiser.

That’s the real opportunity in this new world of work: to use AI not to distance ourselves from each other, but to deepen the connections that move us forward.

👉 From Mary: At Meerkat, we’re sharing forward-looking perspectives through The Ways We Work series. Join our community to see how professionals across industries are adapting to AI’s impact on their work and relationships.

Follow our journey at trymeerkat.ai and connect with us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with new insights, stories, and resources.