I’ve spent the last several months building AI-powered systems. Not just experimenting, but shipping real products. A browser-based terminal interface for Claude Code that lets me work from any device. Data pipelines and analytics platforms. A multi-state geo-analytics tool for the medical cannabis industry. The work I’ve been able to accomplish in this timeframe would have taken me significantly longer just a year ago.
That’s exactly what concerns me about the current conversation around AI.
The Disconnect
There’s a narrative floating around that AI is a bubble, that the hype will fade, that jobs are safe. I hear it from friends, see it in comment sections, read it from analysts who should know better. The message is comforting: don’t worry, this technology isn’t as transformative as people claim.
Meanwhile, I’m watching something different unfold.
Amazon just announced 16,000 layoffs in January, on top of 14,000 from October. Some estimates suggest they could cut 30,000 roles by May. Salesforce’s CEO publicly stated that AI now handles 30-50% of their workload; they’ve let go of over 4,000 employees. Microsoft cut 15,000 roles. UPS announced 48,000 job reductions tied to automation. In total, 245,000 tech jobs were cut in 2025, with AI cited directly in at least 50,000 of those.
These aren’t signs of a bubble. These are signs of a shift.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The adoption metrics tell the same story. Claude Code, an AI coding assistant I use daily, saw a 5.5x revenue increase by July 2025. Anthropic is now projecting over $500 million in annualized revenue from that single tool. Even Microsoft’s own engineering teams have widely adopted it, despite the company selling its own competing product.
On the content side: 74% of new web pages now contain detectable AI-generated content according to Ahrefs. Over 15 billion AI images have been created since 2022. That’s a feat that took traditional photography 149 years to accomplish.
This isn’t speculation about what AI might do. This is what it’s already doing.
We’ve Been Here Before
I think back to the late 90s and early 2000s when reporters would question online marketplaces like Amazon. They understood you could order products online, but couldn’t grasp why that mattered when a bookstore was a short drive away. The public didn’t understand what was happening behind the scenes. Neither did the competition. Neither did many experts.
The benefits of e-commerce weren’t immediately obvious because they required understanding changes to distribution models that most people couldn’t see. By the time it became obvious, the landscape had already shifted.
AI is following a similar pattern. The visible part (chatbots, image generators, writing assistants) is just the surface. The transformative piece is what’s happening underneath: entire workflows being reimagined, decision-making being augmented, and the definition of productivity being rewritten.
What “Competent” Looks Like Now
I think people need to hear this: AI is changing what it means to be competent in your field.
The question isn’t whether AI will replace your job. The question is whether someone using AI will.
A developer leveraging AI tools effectively isn’t just faster. They’re operating on a different level. They can prototype in hours what used to take days. At Brex, 75% of engineers report saving 8-10+ hours weekly using AI assistants for SQL queries alone. The same dynamics are emerging for analysts, marketers, designers, and countless other roles.
This isn’t theoretical. I’m living it. The projects I’ve shipped recently aren’t side experiments. They’re production systems. The force-multiplier effect is real and measurable.
The Path Forward
This isn’t meant to scare anyone. I just believe the people who embrace these tools early will have a significant advantage over those who wait.
If you’re in a role that involves creating, analyzing, or problem-solving, the best investment you can make right now is learning how to work effectively with AI systems. Not just using ChatGPT to draft emails, but actually integrating these tools into your core workflow.
Learn to write effective prompts. Understand what these systems can and can’t do. Experiment with different tools and find the ones that match how you think. Build something. Break something. Figure out where AI amplifies your strengths and where it falls short.
The technology isn’t going away, and it isn’t slowing down. The people who treat this as a passing trend will find themselves competing against people who didn’t.
What This Means for Businesses
For business owners and leaders, the same logic applies to your organizations. The companies that figure out how to integrate AI effectively (not as a cost center, but as a genuine capability multiplier) will outpace those that don’t.
I’ve written before about how AI implementation needs to go beyond virtual assistants. The real opportunity isn’t giving everyone a chatbot. It’s rearchitecting processes so AI works alongside your team without asking them to fundamentally change how they operate. That’s where the measurable returns come from.
The window for treating this as optional is closing faster than most people realize.
If you’re interested in exploring how AI tools could fit into your workflow or your business operations, I’m happy to talk through it. Sometimes the answer is that you’re already on the right track. Sometimes there are opportunities you haven’t considered. Either way, the conversation is worth having.
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