These days it’s difficult to talk about technology without mentioning AI. I have been quiet about AI for a while, as the enthusiasm gets built up through newer models, larger capacities, and more attractive demonstrations and use cases.

Yet, I have been using AI tools regularly, getting excited about every new feature and slowly waning off the interest as I start using it for some serious work. It’s a pattern I have observed with code completions, vibe coding, writing assistance, audio summaries, image generation and countless other use cases on the world-wide web today. The problem I faced was often the repetitions, the predictability, and the dryness in the output. We often refer to AI as the creative assistant, and the missing element in my opinion is creativity or originality. Part of the reason is the scale. There is no doubt that AI can be used to produce creative outcomes, but as soon as you do that AI then becomes the factory of that creative idea, which negates the impact of that original work very quickly. If memes are viral, the AI takes it to pandemic levels.

The current state of AI is quite similar to the early days of the Internet. There was a lot of excitement, investment and use cases. Some of those use cases, though quite normal today, were extraordinary for the time, and failed under its own weight. The world was not yet ready. I fear whether we are ready for the grand promises of AI, more than whether AI is ready to solve our problems.

Our readiness includes the way we create, communicate and consume goods and services. AI operates in a digital plane, at least until the robots with wheels and legs are common fixtures in our society. How ready is our digital landscape for an AI transformation today?