Fantastic topic! I had two conversations today, one highlighted a concern that some schools are refusing to teach AI. This didn't surprise me at all but isn't the solution to the concern that came up in the second conversation.
In the next one, we talked about how the technology development has been so fast that no one knows how to use it productively yet let alone how to teach for that. We're trying to develop a horse and cart side by side, hoping the horse knows to pull it.
Teaching AI right now is like adding it to processes without addressing the experience or need first. All the programs I learned in school, I learned in context the context of my intended career. In my world, learning a powerful tool like Adobe Illustrator wasn't the same as learning to use Illustrator to sketch for fashion design. Ai is the same. Grade and high schools should focus on how to leverage Ai for learning. College will need the industries to tell them how they want to integrate the tool.
Companies can see a piece of technology which helps them justify the investment. They "get" something for their money. Solving the way people work isn't as visible or tangible. The results are, but processes can't be depreciated on the balance sheet.
Literally just had this conversation with a promising startup founder last week. They identified a true market need, but their MVP is mostly promoting how AI is helping clients save time and eliminate bias (don’t even get me started on the debate we had when I tried to get into the ongoing research into CoT reasoning and hint bias).
Anyway, I used the analogy I keep going back to when arguing your same point that tech constantly changes, yet people are pretty resistant to behavioral change and adoption takes a while. No doubt that AI is moving quickly, but so did the modern internet:
- CERN gets the “world wide web” up and running in 1990. We’re still mostly line coding (those of us with access).
- Archie (McGill U) is published within months. Other early browsers prolificate, much like current AI bots.
- CERN goes open source by 1993, more early text browsers keep rolling out, and then we get Mosaic, a graphical browser that same year.
- Yahoo!, and Netscape are founded in 1994, Internet Explorer and Google in 1995. We know the rest of the story from there. Given the hardware/infrastructure we had then vs. now, this was as fast or faster than the pace of AI development.
Point being, the way we were able to communicate with one another/share information moved fast, but true adoption took what felt like forever. People preferred handwritten notes and constant phone calls for years before e-communication became normalized.
Think I was able to make my point to this startup friend that AI is another tool, albeit an amazing and slightly frightening one that’s also advancing rapidly.
But businesses still need to ensure they focus on business problems/unmet needs and/or market demands. Tech is one tool of many to help support these goals, and it’s not static. AI is not the star of the show; it’s another supporting role.
Implementing new AI solutions just because they’re available — without a true need, without an attainable plan, and without a strategy to ensure adoption — comes across as a bit too snake-oily in mid-2025, even if you were able to get buy-in from investors/corporate leadership as recently as last year.
Fantastic topic! I had two conversations today, one highlighted a concern that some schools are refusing to teach AI. This didn't surprise me at all but isn't the solution to the concern that came up in the second conversation.
In the next one, we talked about how the technology development has been so fast that no one knows how to use it productively yet let alone how to teach for that. We're trying to develop a horse and cart side by side, hoping the horse knows to pull it.
Teaching AI right now is like adding it to processes without addressing the experience or need first. All the programs I learned in school, I learned in context the context of my intended career. In my world, learning a powerful tool like Adobe Illustrator wasn't the same as learning to use Illustrator to sketch for fashion design. Ai is the same. Grade and high schools should focus on how to leverage Ai for learning. College will need the industries to tell them how they want to integrate the tool.
Thanks for the comment Kate. Totally agree W your comments.
Lift and shift is a shortcut to implementation, it's not always a shortcut to transformation.
Companies can see a piece of technology which helps them justify the investment. They "get" something for their money. Solving the way people work isn't as visible or tangible. The results are, but processes can't be depreciated on the balance sheet.
You’re reading my mind, Jason!
Literally just had this conversation with a promising startup founder last week. They identified a true market need, but their MVP is mostly promoting how AI is helping clients save time and eliminate bias (don’t even get me started on the debate we had when I tried to get into the ongoing research into CoT reasoning and hint bias).
Anyway, I used the analogy I keep going back to when arguing your same point that tech constantly changes, yet people are pretty resistant to behavioral change and adoption takes a while. No doubt that AI is moving quickly, but so did the modern internet:
- CERN gets the “world wide web” up and running in 1990. We’re still mostly line coding (those of us with access).
- Archie (McGill U) is published within months. Other early browsers prolificate, much like current AI bots.
- CERN goes open source by 1993, more early text browsers keep rolling out, and then we get Mosaic, a graphical browser that same year.
- Yahoo!, and Netscape are founded in 1994, Internet Explorer and Google in 1995. We know the rest of the story from there. Given the hardware/infrastructure we had then vs. now, this was as fast or faster than the pace of AI development.
Point being, the way we were able to communicate with one another/share information moved fast, but true adoption took what felt like forever. People preferred handwritten notes and constant phone calls for years before e-communication became normalized.
Think I was able to make my point to this startup friend that AI is another tool, albeit an amazing and slightly frightening one that’s also advancing rapidly.
But businesses still need to ensure they focus on business problems/unmet needs and/or market demands. Tech is one tool of many to help support these goals, and it’s not static. AI is not the star of the show; it’s another supporting role.
Implementing new AI solutions just because they’re available — without a true need, without an attainable plan, and without a strategy to ensure adoption — comes across as a bit too snake-oily in mid-2025, even if you were able to get buy-in from investors/corporate leadership as recently as last year.
Thank you Jason!!