Startup Soothsayers

Recently, ChatGPT changed something else.

It has helped me see that English is not one language. Instead, there are many different, invisible versions of English. They all bear a resemblance to one another—like members of a family—but they are all different. And, like people within families of a certain type, they don’t directly talk to one another.

Assuming that everyone has equal access to the technology, you get what I call Syndrome Syndrome. Syndrome was the villain in Pixar’s 2004 movie The Incredibles whosesignature line was: “If everyone’s super, nobody is.” Syndrome Syndrome is what happens when everyone has access to the same technology at the same time. If everyone has an AI agent, n... See more

We live in a knowledge economy. What you know—and your ability to bring it to bear in any given circumstance—is what creates economic value for you. This was primarily driven by the advent of personal computers and the internet, starting in the 1970s and accelerating through today.

But what happens when that very skill—knowing and utilizing the righ... See more

I once defined the job of a product manager as to “deliver business impact by marshaling the resources of your team to identify and solve the most impactful customer problems.” Essentially, to be the conductor/quarterback/glue of the team who pulls all the disparate pieces together to create great products and drive the business forward. I believe ... See more

No longer will we need to learn to navigate through apps like Uber or complex systems like those of SAP or Oracle. Thus far, we’ve always adapted to software—learning its intricacies, remembering layered menus and so forth to communicate with machines. “Training” to use complex apps is commonplace. Now, AI is enabling software to adapt to humans in... See more

Dan O’Connell, chief AI and strategy officer at the cloud communications company Dialpad, sees his current role—and the jobs of other AI-devoted C-suiters—as essentially transitional: They are there to shepherd their respective companies into a future where AI is ubiquitous enough that it no longer falls under the purview of just one exec.

“I actual... See more

An AI organization is an entity that primarily uses AI to manage information flow within the organization and decide on team composition and function.