AI is great for certain things. It can produce perfectly adequate content quickly based on what has been created before. In most cases, this in all probability will do the job more than adequately. In fact, it will do the job of producing adequate content so quickly, that I expect that we will be drowning in a sea of adequate content.

We will have so much adequate content that we will need AI to sift through all of the probablistically generated adequate AI content. Hey, we may even feel pretty good about ourselves for a minute as we checked something off of our to do list. The bigger question is whether we have actually done something meaningful.

This gets into deeper questions about constitutes meaning. Meaning is something that you feel, something that might really guide your actions, whereas content can just be glazed without too much attention.

AI is great at generating content, but it is not skilled at developing meaning. Meaning really requires some kind of connection. In the early days of social media experts were parading around talking about how brands can now make meaningful connections with their customers through social media.

That argument was based on two flawed assumptions. 1) That consumers want to connect with any consumer brands and 2) that there is a way for brand to make a genuine connection with consumers by posting on social media. While there are some brands that established a successful brand presence on social media, they are in the minority. The same pattern is happening with AI adoption. The assumption that you can get something for ‘nothing’ by applying the latest tech fad that is being pushed by media, vendors and other experts.

Using new technology well, requires more than following alleged best practice templates being pushed out by parties with vested interests. The challenge for AI adopters is to think beyond the obvious and deploy AI in a way that augments your individuality rather than following the herd.

I use AI to expand my thinking rather than replace my thinking. I use AI to explore the adjacent possible (as Rory Sutherland calls it) and look for relationships and connections outside of my normal areas of focus. AI has a wide breadth of knowledge. that allows me to connect things that on the surface may not seem related like my frustration with CRM tools and the fabric of information in the universe. When you recognize that information represents just a snapshot in time, it is unrealistic for enterprise applications to truly manage information as an absolute and lasting truth.

The insights gained this way come from talking to a polymath who can provide background knowledge that empowers you to see in new ways – that’s what really powers innovation rather than regurgitating adequate information.