This weekend in the south of the UK it has been properly hot. It has been the kind of heat that can be divisive: it is too hot, I am staying indoors, it’s all climate change, quick get to the supermarket before they run out of salad for the barbecue. And what a scrum that was, fighting over who had the last hot dog rolls. We are rarely happy for long, it seems.

Last week, of course, was the Credit Connect Think Tank and, although the weather was not quite as uncomfortable as today, there was, I felt, another divide starting to build there too.

What was clear was how much, in only the last six months, the conversation on AI has moved on to a higher level of sophistication. Gone was much of the discussion around hallucinations, business cases and whether firms should wait and see. Instead, the conversation had moved towards practical, in-job use cases and how AI can change work on the desktop, helping people get more done.

It was striking that there now appears to be a growing divide between those who are adopting fast, experimenting and accelerating their knowledge, and those still standing back. Is a culture of AI haves and have-nots starting to form?

With new agentic tools being released, they are not just powerful, but becoming so easy to use and very relevant to office users. That it is seems to be, is what matters.

Recently, I was looking at my own use cases, and how it is not just automating tasks, but more fundamentally changing the way I work. It is new capability.

For example, rather than manually logging and documenting every change, I now simply ask the system to produce a dump of the relevant information, put that into AI, and query it to create the list I need.

Less work, incredible time savings, and allows me to get done the things I know I should do, but on a sunny day like today would probably put off for a snooze in the garden.

I know this is a small example, but it points to something much bigger. These tools are useful, multipliers of effort. They are an extra pair of hands, not in some distant, futuristic way, but in day-to-day office work.

Even with all the talk around frontier models and escalating AI costs, even if the tools stopped improving tomorrow, what exists today is already transformational. And we can always fall back on open-source or local models and still get 80% of the way there. After all, not every task is complicated. Most are not.

The limiting factor seems to be no longer just the technology. It is quickly becoming imagination. The question is not simply “what can the model do?” It is “what can we think to ask it to do?”

And, once we start to understand that capability, we then start to imagine new workflows, new services and new ways of working. Again, this was evident last week. AI may not only reduce cost, it may improve service.

Extra tasks and touches are often seen as nice to have, the preserve of high-end firms, large organisations and premium service environments. These are, of course, expensive: high-end finished presentations, personalised communications, polished outputs. It is these finishing touches that often provide the delight in customer experience.

However, with the cost of these now be falling dramatically through automation, this may mean better service, greater personalisation and it is becoming available to many more organisations, not just those with the largest budgets. It is less a question of cost and capital, and more a question of imagination, at least for now.

This is the divide that is emerging. AI is becoming part of how people work, not just a tool to occasionally try. New possibilities are starting to open up.

That was the exciting part of last week’s conversation. People are starting to think this way. Not just talking about AI, but starting to understand how it changes work, service and delivery.

That feels like something worth taking back to the office.

Anyway, having sat in the garden, iced drink in hand, I think my AI-assisted job may now be done. So it is back to the office on what is proving to be a very hot Monday.

Have a great week, everyone.

For anyone living under a rock, by all accounts, an AI revolution appears to be upon us.

Yes, we’ve talked about using AI for years, but often this leaned more towards wishful thinking around automation than the genuine arrival of the future and sci-fi capabilities. Somehow this time it feels different

This is a probably as a result of it genuinely starting to exceed our own personal capabilities. It pains me to say this, but unless it is in our own personal area of expertise, digitally AI is just better in terms of understanding and getting things done.

What we have seen here is exponential growth, something us humans often struggle to fully grasp. It ticks along for years, appearing to apparently do very little only for to suddenly it explode… “Linear is fine, but what do you mean it keeps doubling, we can’t keep up”.

AI certainly feels like it is falling into this category.

But here we are, and of course now we can all have a team of experts on hand at all times to help, so may as well make the most of it.

Take, for example, my latest AI based project… music.

Now I’m not a natural musician – the most optimistic I could possibly be would be to say, I dabble, but that is it. But, to be able produce something quite this catchy is still amazing.

Not plug and play

That said, whilst I didn’t spend three weeks sweating over decks and synthesisers, it wasn’t plug-and-play either.

What I have been finding is each creation takes input and time to shape, tweak, and design for the final desired output – especially if you want something more creative – I suppose it takes work.

Of course similarly many musicians also play covers or take inspiration from other artists… but it is creating something truly new that is a skill. (just to note musicians of course also play the instruments… another huge skill… and respect for this… but I am not talking live music here).

And as an analogy it feels like this is where we are with AI.

Being first, fast, and creative is quickly becoming a new currency in this evolving environment. We need to have the ideas and know what to do not necessarily know how to do it. (although this helps, esp when thing go wrong or you need custom tweaks! – a topic for another post at a later date).

In this new world, once something is released, it becomes easy to replicate… but the originality, this is what remains hard, and for this there is a premium, a first mover advantage you could say.

Not getting easier

Despite what we may have been promised, this means it AI is unlikely to make our lives easier. If anything, as a results we may all be busier.

Busier using new tools to output more, accelerate our capabilities and generate more new ideas… it is these new ideas that will be the competitive edge.

Using AI to accelerate our learning, to unlock and explore new capabilities is a journey we can all get on.

Rock the Spreadsheets!

For me, for now, that journey currently seems to be music…

It started pretty safe with rock… but tastes evolve. One point found myself passing through a thrash metal phase… minus the long hair and studded jacket… there was just no time… we all do it, I was just (ahem – cough) 40 years too late!

However now I’ve arrived at EDM / Future House… it is growing on me. Is this growing up or just moving into the modern world…. anyway spreadsheets are still a joy… enjoy!

PS – Next track, currently under development: a dance track about the vendor selection process—RFIs and RFPs… I clearly needed a new challenge.

Stay creative, everyone… and go see live music (and comedy!)

Fresh off the back of my comedy course experience the other week, last week I spent the evenings enthusiastically looking for gigs. 

Okay, I am a newbie and not in central London, but how hard can it be.  Time to get a little practice and build some experience before throwing myself to the wolves at an industry event, I thought.

It was at first a little disappointing.  Outside of London the circuit is a little different, smaller gigs, open mics for new material or new performers seemed pretty thin on the ground.  Most of the gigs I could find were more established acts, those that were more bankable for smaller venues it seemed.

For a few days, it felt as though geography might be a limiting factor, thwarting this shot at stardom, the bright lights and comradery of the stage, and opportunity to experience more of the motorway service station network.

I grumpily persevered however, and something changed.  Following a few leads via Facebook, slowly, organically, I started to notice more and more comedy nights in my local area, often in the small venues in the pub, or community spaces. I went for a coffee at a local cafe and noticed they also had one too. They were everywhere.

Far from being dead, there is in fact, a quiet, but thriving, comedy circuit operating most nights of the week.  I was just never aware of it.  It seems I just had to tune myself to the right frequency to find it.

Now this reminded me of the red car effect (or more accurately the frequency illusion or Baader–Meinhof phenomenon).  

This is the effect where once you buy a new (red) car. Being pleased with your choice, the choice of a sophisticated and discerning customer of course, you head out onto the road…. only to then start to notice all the other (red) cars on the street… “everyone is buying red cars now, I can’t believe it”.

Of course nothing has changed in the world itself, we are just more aware of it. It is a mix of selective attention and confirmation bias. 

In my case comedy hadn’t suddenly become popular across the country in a single week I just tuned to the right frequency and started noticing it.

Back at the day job, in the office, this got me thinking this week, this is a similar effect here.

• Once you become aware of a problem, you start seeing it everywhere. 
• Once you notice an opportunity, similar opportunities start to surface.

So, by choosing what I pay attention too… I can potentially find more of it! 

It is not just there this this psycological bias, but by knowing about it and what the effect is, we can potentially use this, direct this, for our own benefit. There is something powerful here.

Obviously this needs a bit of active work and engagement to fully tune in and activate.  But, choosing is a choice… so here is the thought for the week.

What should I/you/we choose to find more of this week?

Problem’s, no… opportunities, yes… a comedy gig, hopefully… biscuits, definitely.

Have a good week everyone.