For those not focused on AI’s ability to destroy the world, there is a world of opportunities.

As one who used to write on marketing innovation (using advances in science, technology, and engineering to obtain competitive advantage and/or create shareholder value), I have been blown away by what I have seen on the use of AI in marketing. I had an opportunity to speak with Jim Kaskade, CEO of Conversica, described as the leading provider of Conversational AI solutions.

What we know is we are very bad at seeing the future when it comes to advances in computer science. We didn’t look at the video game PONG and see a $347 billion global video game market. Nor did we see PROFS, an IBM email system and email marketing, or client-server technology, and reengineering or GUI interfaces as the destruction of the publishing industry. When we saw the first websites, affectionately called brochureware, we didn’t see e-commerce. When we saw the first e-commerce sales of CDs and bottles of hot sauce, we didn’t see Amazon. When I saw the 1999 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show webcast, I didn’t see it as the start of the livestreaming industry. What I noticed was the poor transmission quality compared to TV or cable.

The challenge is the reasons why something won’t work are much more real than the possibilities that something will work in the future. People said doing A, B or C online wasn’t practical because you first had to boot up your computer, then do A, B, or C. We didn’t see “On-demand” or always on computing and smart devices such as cellphones that are always with you, making them the preferred ways to do A, B, or C. People said no one would buy diamonds online or buy clothes without trying them on, or seeing their true colors, or feeling the fabric. Those were real barriers, we didn’t see those barriers going away.

Technology democratized the media business, anyone can publish a newsletter, blog, podcast or webcast. A sole entrepreneur has access to the tools and training videos on how to do SEO or create a landing page. But there is AI software that will use subject matter expertise and do this for me. I don’t have to be an expert or hire an expert.

Because of AI, everything we have learned since the introduction of the computer to more recent developments such as Big Data and cloud computing, will become several orders of magnitude more powerful.

When it comes to the democratization of technology, it is accelerating. According to Kaskade, it took the following lengths of time for the various technologies to penetrate 25% of the US population. Thirteen years for cell phones, seven years for the World Wide Web, and one  year for ChatGPT.  Remember, ChatGPT is just one application, it is not the technology. Large Language Models (LLM) is the technology.  Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, can proliferate this technology such that everyone can have access. People with great ideas will be able to log into the above-mentioned accounts and deploy AI in an hour. This reduces the barriers to gaining access to assets that are in short supply such as coders.

For entrepreneurs, now is the time. Just as there were millions of dot.com millionaires and billionaires created, there will be similar numbers of AI millionaires created.

AI won’t be the end of civilization as feared, but with the democratizing of technology,  the bad guys have access to the same technology as the good guys. AI can be used to penetrate cyber security, launder money or numerous other crimes. Who will win and lose depends on who is committed to staying one step ahead.

We simply can’t imagine how much AI will change how we do business. But we must if we don’t want to see our business destroyed e.g., retail brokerage, travel agents, music and video retail and rental, publishing, fax machines, and the photography industry. It’s hard to remember that Blockbuster was worth over $3 billion at its peak. Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million. Netflix is now worth $265 billion. Based on history, businesses should do the following.

Overinvest in AI – Whatever your investment budget is for marketing innovation, at least double it. Look for opportunities to generate new sources of revenue. In the early days, AOL offered Barnes & Noble an opportunity to set up an online store for free in its online mall. Barnes & Noble declined because, at the time, they didn’t see the ROI to make the investment worth it. They should have viewed the investment as a learning or innovation expense.  Or think of the expense as buying options. You may discover something and the option will be worth a lot of money.

Scenario Planning – Since we can’t imagine the future, we should use scenario-planning tools to create a wide range of AI-based futures and think through our strategy. The goal isn’t to predict the future, it is to help plan for it. How could this new technology destroy our business? What are our vulnerabilities? Don’t dismiss any possibilities.

Surveillance – Keep track of new AI use cases and new business models and think of what could apply to your business. Pay particular attention to companies driving disruption.

Yes, there are well-known problems with AI, such as hallucinations, cultural bias, and the end of the world as we know it. But we will figure those out. There is concern that AI will lead to job loss. Job loss should be expected. (There are no keypunch jobs today.) Or that students will use AI to cheat. Using calculators on a standardized test at one point would have been cheating. Perhaps we were testing the wrong thing. Or what we test needs to change with the technology.

What we know from history is we have significantly underestimated the impact of every computer advance. Now is the time to use AI to destroy our current business model and reimagine it before someone else does. That spells both threat and opportunity.

The adoption of technology follows some general rules. First, there will be applications that focus on cost-cutting and increased productivity. These initiatives are the easiest to build a business case and get approval. Second, someone will find a way to make money using AI in a specific industry. Finally, someone will create a new business model, that has the power to disrupt existing or incumbent business models and make a whole new crop of millionaires.

Ed Gaskin is Executive Director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.