Hope Is Not a Strategy

In the vast majority of circumstances, I’m all for speeding up technology innovation. I even have a newsletter that delves into exactly how to go and do that. However, when it comes to AI, I think we are moving so fast that we’re ignoring some enormous issues and simply hoping that things will land well. Hope is important, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a lousy strategy.

The Coming Employment Crisis

Since Generative AI burst into the mainstream, we have seen the technology improving at a breakneck pace. We have seen the emergence of AI assistants almost everywhere: software development, marketing, content creation, business strategy & decision support, customer relationship management, sales execution… tools keep coming out every day with assistants and copilots that are changing the way people work.

However, I would submit that this is only Phase 1. The tools are progressing to the state very quickly where they will move from augmenting an employee’s skillset and productivity to outright replacing it. This is all happening in almost every industry simultaneously, and it’s hard to find too many professions that won’t soon be under siege (if they aren’t already).

What happens when millions of people are unemployed because AI simply does our jobs better?

This has never happened in the history of humanity. Take any of the biggest, most revolutionary inventions of their respective times and you’ll see a…