Three things have crossed my desk over the past week that have made me think about the future and the world we’re making for ourselves. They also got me thinking about the number one way we can future proof ourselves and our way of life as a tsunami of technological breakthroughs led by mind-blowing advances in AI threatens to swamp us. If you’re interested, it’s also how I think businesses and individuals can stand out from the competition and survive the monumental changes headed our way.
So, what three things got me thinking? Number one was a hilariously woeful experience with an insurance company (read more about that here). Number two was an insight about AI shared by an economic visionary. And number three came from Mr Zeitgeist himself, Stefano Boscutti, a dear friend who is one of the few people who frequently manages to say things that make me think differently about something I thought I understood fairly well.
Nightmare before Christmas with Allianz Australia
I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account of the insurance debacle here – if you’re keen to know the details, it’s all outlined in my LinkedIn post. But, in short, Allianz Australia rejected my claim when my car was stolen, on the basis of a completely incorrect assumption on their part. No evidence. Just a stab in the dark. If you’re keen to read my tale of woe, have a read. And if you do, you’re not alone. The post went viral in a LinkedIn kind-of-way.
But, basically, my takeaway from the whole mess was that Allianz did not give two figs about me, or about the business I had given them for many years. I’m just another small chunk of meat in the sausage factory that churns out dividends for the company’s investors and obscenely huge salary packages for their executives. The company didn’t care if it lost my business, because there are plenty more minnows out there in the sea to fill the teensy gap I’ll leave behind when I ditch them. Care factor? Less than zero.
Take away: Multinational businesses are killing us. And they couldn’t care less.
Knowledge economy? Dead and buried, thanks to AI.
Economic wunderkind, Raoul Pal, recently declared AI “the single greatest innovation of humanity ever.” His reasoning is that it’s the death knell for knowledge as currency. By that reckoning, the days are numbered for any occupation that relies on accumulated knowledge. So, doctors, lawyers, university lecturers? AI is coming for you.
From a bigger-picture perspective, there are many jobs out there which are woefully underpaid, yet people still do them – think teachers, nurses, emergency services, not to mention most creative occupations. The economic reasoning has always been that there’s a non-financial benefit to those jobs, so people are willing to do them for the “feel good” aspects of occupations that are seen as a “calling,” rather than just a nine-to-fiver we do for a paycheck.
And that’s because human beings are not always rational creatures. There’s an awful economic model of humankind called homo economicus. Unfortunately, it underpins western economic thinking. It assumes that people are always rational and self-interested, and that they make decisions to maximize their own economic well-being. Which is patented bullshit. Always rational? There aren’t enough laughing emojis for me right now.
But the idea that knowledge as currency is done and dusted is a compelling one. I’m speaking as someone who values knowledge above most things. “Jack of all trades, master of none” is the saying that best applies to me. So that doesn’t bode well for my prospects. Except I do see a future by looking to the full quote: “Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one.”
What that’s saying to me is that diversifying is key. And as capable as AI might be at digesting and synthesising vast quantities of information in a heartbeat, it’s only as good as the human beings training it and directing it. We can see unexpected and unusual patterns because we’re used to dealing with the chaos that underlies the apparent orderliness and predictability of nature.
So knowledge still has a future. But knowledge as an organic and adaptable creature. Not knowledge as captured in binary code.
AI is stuck in the past.
AI is a tool. And a damned good one, as far as I can see. But as Stef Boscutti said to me, AI can only exist in the past. Relying on it too much is like trying to drive down a freeway while only looking in the rear-view mirror. And he’s absolutely right.
Stef also said to me once that all large companies should have a resident philosopher on staff. He’s absolutely right on that account, as well. If multinationals had someone on call to encourage them to frame their policies around deep thinking rather than an ugly dash for cash, the world would be a much nicer place.
But back to his thoughts on AI. Generative AI, even at its best, can only cobble together conclusions or creations based on the recorded fragments of things that have already been done.
It might be able to predict the future on the basis of probability and what’s happened in the past, but it can’t dream of a future that exists outside the confines of the information fed into its processor. Random events… a cascade of completely unpredictable moments… which have often initiated the most monumental shifts in human history, are outside AI’s capacity to reason.
We’ll always need human beings to imagine the future.
How to future-proof? It’s the human touch.
The solution? It all comes down to the human touch. Fast food chains didn’t mean the end of fine dining. If anything, it elevated superior nosh, because it stood apart from styrofoam packaged, flaccid burgers and batter-sodden chunks of the nastiest chicken bits scraped off the abattoir floor. Fast food gave us convenience, affordability and speed. But that’s all. A trip to Maccas is hardly top of the list for most of us when we really want a special experience.
It doesn’t matter what field you’re in. If you want to survive what’s coming, lean into your humanity. I’m not talking craptastic advertising emphasising how very human-oriented you are. I’m talking meaningful engagement with the people you should be treating as your community. It’s not hard. Take a little hit in the hip pocket and buy loyalty for life. I mean, how much fucking money do you actually need?
And as for the threat to professions? Well, as I see it, human-facing service providers (by which I mean everyone from your doctor, to the man who makes your coffee at your favourite café) are more important than ever. I don’t want to be told I have a serious illness by a machine. And I don’t want to chat with a robot about the weekend’s footy scores.
But where so many human-facing businesses are falling short is that they’re binding their people up with so many regulations and hoops to jump through, their human employees are unable to make a real connection with their customers. At both ends of the food chain, we’re being expected to operate like robots. It’s tiresome, it’s de-humanising, and – as far as I can see – it’s not helping anyone.
Be the person who gives a shit.
So, it’s pretty easy.
Be the person who gives a shit.
Be the company that treats its customers – and its employees – like human beings.
Be the service provider who goes one step beyond KPIs, and sets aside box-ticking and by-the-book-ing.
Be the creative who deep-dives into your soul and makes art that comes from a place that AI will never understand.
Because no matter how good a mimic it is, AI will never feel joy or love, much less grief or pain.
Being human is our superpower. We just need to work out how to use it.
