Many view the disruptive power of AI as a threat. It’s shifting the role of employees, transforming companies, and pushing entire industries in new directions. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what the future looks like. But the real danger lies not in the technology itself, but in our resistance to change.
In a thought-provoking episode of The Disruption Is Now, host Greg Matusky is joined by futurist John Sanei, who argues that we must first let go of our addiction to certainty before we can truly take advantage of AI. Sanei explains why our current business world, optimized for efficiency and predictable outcomes, is ill-equipped for the future of AI.
Sanei challenges us to question the very core of how we operate, and to cultivate a new way of thinking that embraces uncertainty as an opportunity for growth and innovation. Our brains, as Sanei explains, are wired for familiarity and pattern recognition — making it easy to cling to legacy thinking in the face of change.
Tune in to hear Sanei’s insights on rewiring our minds for adaptability, and discover practical strategies for fostering a culture of curiosity and experimentation within your organization.
Watch now:
Emotional currency helps us overcome the need for certainty
To effectively deal with the uncertainty that AI brings, we must move beyond just intellectual understanding and develop what Sanei calls emotional currency — moving beyond logical thinking and an outcome-based focus to embrace our emotions.
Real transformation happens not through thinking, but through feeling. We have to fully process challenging emotions like sadness and grief over losing the familiar, and face the strangeness of AI.
We’re moving from economies of scale to economies of learning
The business world is transitioning from an “economies of scale” model based on efficiency, optimization, and short-term profitability to an “economies of learning” model that prioritizes experimentation, adaptability, and long-term value creation.
The most successful organizations embrace the uncertainty of AI and are open to doing things differently so they can thrive as the business world changes.
“Tomorrow teams” see what most business leaders can’t
To successfully evolve, businesses need to create dedicated “tomorrow teams” that are separate from the core business and not constrained by legacy thinking. These teams should have the freedom to experiment, take risks, and imagine entirely new ways of operating.
“And stop asking executives to think like disruptors because they don’t know how,” Sanei explains. “It’s not within their construct.”
Key takeaways:
● Concept of “longevity escape velocity” and human lifespan (3:07)
● How John started his career as a futurist (4:34)
● The level of uncertainty in the world and AI’s role (9:44)
● Understanding creatives’ love of uncertainty (11:05)
● Need for wise people, not smart people, to navigate challenges (20:26)
● Predicting change in the ideals we’ve accepted as certain (25:40)
● John’s advice for enterprises adopting AI (28:26)
● Introduction of “AI Opportunity Radar” framework for AI strategy (32:51)
