Ep 634: AI Hype Is Over. Here’s What Your Business Should Do Next (Replay)
🎯 Summary
Podcast Episode Summary: Ep 634: AI Hype Is Over. Here’s What Your Business Should Do Next (Replay)
This episode of the Everyday AI Show delivers a sharp “hot take” asserting that the era of using “AI” as a competitive differentiator is over. Host Jordan Emerson argues that Generative AI has moved past the novelty phase and is now the baseline expectation, akin to the internet itself. Companies clinging to 2023 strategies—simply slapping “AI Powered” on their marketing—are archaic and risk being overtaken by more agile competitors.
The central narrative revolves around shifting the mindset from viewing AI as a special advantage to recognizing it as essential infrastructure. The host emphasizes that customers and employees are already using AI, often without realizing it (e.g., Google Search AI Overviews), and their tolerance for manual, inefficient processes is rapidly diminishing.
1. Focus Area
The discussion centers on the maturation of Generative AI adoption in the enterprise. Key themes include: the obsolescence of AI as a marketing buzzword, the necessity of deep integration, the impending impact on workforce structure (layoffs followed by agile startups), and the blurring lines between AI functionality and standard digital services.
2. Key Technical Insights
- AI as Infrastructure: AI capabilities (like those embedded in Google Search or Microsoft Copilot) are becoming invisible, integrated utilities rather than distinct, advertised features.
- Accessibility of Powerful Tools: Major platforms (Microsoft, Google, OpenAI) are giving away increasingly powerful AI tools (e.g., Copilot free tier, Google AI Studio) for free or bundled into existing subscriptions, lowering the barrier to entry for sophisticated use.
- Customer Expectation Shift: As personal AI usage rises, consumer tolerance for archaic, manual business processes (like long emails or complex information retrieval) will drop significantly.
3. Business/Investment Angle
- The “Internet Test”: Businesses should test their AI strategy by swapping “AI” with “Internet.” If the statement sounds ridiculous (e.g., “We are an Internet-powered company”), the AI strategy is likely thin and useless.
- ROI Window Closed for Late Adopters: Early adopters saw significant returns ($3.70 for every $1 invested, according to IDC/Microsoft), while late adopters (74% according to BCG) are struggling to measure positive ROI because they missed the initial profit window.
- Workforce Disruption: Mass layoffs in large tech companies due to AI implementation are creating pools of highly skilled, newly available talent who will form smaller, agile startups capable of eating the lunch of slower-moving incumbents.
4. Notable Companies/People
- Jordan Emerson (Host): Delivers the central “hot take” arguing AI is the new internet baseline.
- Sam Altman (OpenAI CEO): Mentioned for his prediction about one-person unicorn companies emerging due to AI leverage.
- Microsoft & Google: Cited as examples of companies embedding AI deeply (Copilot, AI Overviews) and simultaneously investing heavily in AI education while undergoing workforce restructuring.
- Adobe, Nvidia: Mentioned as partners of the podcast, indicating their commitment to AI education and strategy.
5. Future Implications
The industry is heading toward a state where AI-native operations are mandatory, similar to having a website or a phone number today. Companies that fail to integrate AI deeply across all aspects of their business by the end of the year risk being viewed as fundamentally non-competitive or outdated by customers and clients. The competitive edge will shift from using AI to how effectively AI is used to eliminate manual knowledge work and deliver personalized, high-quality context instantly.
6. Target Audience
This episode is most valuable for Business Leaders, C-Suite Executives, and Technology Strategists who are responsible for setting company-wide AI roadmaps and are currently struggling to define tangible ROI beyond basic experimentation or marketing claims.
🏢 Companies Mentioned
💬 Key Insights
"Large language models and the generative AI space, it is a living, breathing thing. You get from someone who covers it every single day. Your strategy that you feel so proud about that was maybe sound a year ago, if you're still doing that, no, not going to make it."
"Learning and actually leveraging generative AI is an iterative process. It's not like tech innovation of decades past where you, as an example, choose a cloud provider and stay with them for decades, right?"
"Customers assume that you're using AI just like they assume that you have electricity. So stop bragging about the plumbing, right? And start building something with it."
"AI is basic infrastructure now. It's not a moat. It's not innovation. It's not digital transformation. It's the baseline."
"I've always said, like I've been trying to tell people this, AI is the internet. You can't treat it like this thing you can't touch."
"You're going to have to drastically rework how your company works because you missed a profit window, treating AI like a regular tech innovation, which it is not. I've always said, like I've been trying to tell people this, AI is the internet."