The Evolution of AI (And Why Humans Still Matter)

I know many are looking at AI as the fix, the answer. Certainly, AI has made incredible progress. Think back to the early days of GenAI. It became the new way to search: fast, efficient, but often unreliable, much like Wikipedia. Still, it provided pointed notes that helped people understand what they were searching for, even if they had to verify the details.

Then came the next evolution, AI as a remedy for the blank page effect. No more staring at an empty screen, unsure whether to start with 𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒… or 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑦 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡… AI could now structure thoughts, provide key insights, and kickstart the creative process.

Fast forward another year, and AI can now handle 70 percent of the work, transforming ideas into detailed content, incorporating synthetic and real-world data, and delivering real insights based on known good sources.

So, where do we go from here?

The Future, 100% AI? Not so fast.

I use AI extensively, not for everything but as a research, discussion, and bias-checking tool. I use it to challenge my thinking and gain perspectives I might not otherwise see. But recently, I’ve been working on something new, something that fills a real gap in the market. Naturally, I turned to AI for insights. And yet… it didn’t get it. No matter the model, no matter how I structured the prompts, AI could not see the pattern.

But I did.

Now, two months later, I’m working with a company to patent this process, a process that AI simply couldn’t generate because it required human intuition, pattern recognition, and an understanding of industry evolution that models just don’t have.

The Takeaway: AI Isn’t Replacing Human Insight

This experience reinforced something I’ve believed for a while: humans are still essential. AI is an accelerator and an enabler, but it doesn’t see the future the way people do. It doesn’t experience the market, engage with the nuances, or recognize the small shifts that lead to groundbreaking innovations.

So, as we look ahead to next year and beyond, the real question isn’t whether AI will do 100 percent of the work. The real question is: Who will be the ones driving the next wave of innovation? Will it be AI, or humans who know where to look?

𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲: The views within any of my posts or newsletters are not those of my employer or the employers of any contributing experts. 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 👍 this? Feel free to reshare, repost, and join the conversation.