AI is a force multiplier
There's still a lot of guff floating about out there about whether the AI bubble is going to burst1 , whether AI coding is "good enough yet" (see my previous comments on my previous comments on vibe coding), and whether AI is the silver bullet solution to your problem.
I saw a great post by a former R/GA colleague on LinkedIn today which said that "if you think a specific new technology is the solution to your problem then you probably don't understand the problem enough", and I am minded to agree.
AI as we know it today is a tool, and like any good tool it is basically a force multiplier.
In the right hands a tool makes it easier, quicker, and more efficient to do a given thing.
In the wrong hands or applied to the wrong purpose it can also make a bigger mess even faster!
Want to bash a pointy bit of metal into a bit of wood? Try a hammer - it's like a rock, but more accurate and more ergonomically designed to deliver focussed force when swung (by a human or other similar creature) and gain mechanical advantage than a rock! It also doesn't break apart when repeatedly hitting metal like a rock can!
Want to make a nice neat hole in some plasterboard? Try a drill if you want a small hole, or a pad saw if you want a bigger one. You could use a hammer to make a hole, but will it meet the requirement to be neat? Probably not.
So not only do you need to be able to identify the right tool for the task at hand, you need to know how to use that tool properly, and you need to maintain that tool to keep it in good operating condition.
Footnotes
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Every bubble bursts eventually, but the impact here could be more catastrophic than some other bubbles given the amount of global investemnt that is going into AI and the associated compute capacity, and the bets that are being made on it by all kinds of orgnisations, in both the public and private sectors. ↩