Riding the AI Wave

Bottom Line Up Front: Mary Meeker’s latest report on AI trends makes one thing clear: we are witnessing one of the fastest and most consequential technology shifts in history. AI is no longer a futuristic concept or mere hype—it’s a present reality being adopted at unprecedented speed, transforming how people work, communicate, and make decisions. This post reflects on how these trends, backed by significant investment and rapid adoption, intersect with the everyday experiences of employees across industries, viewed through the lens of a weekend campout with my son. Whether you’re navigating complexity intentionally or exploring new tools with curiosity, AI’s trajectory will impact your role, your workflow, and your future.

Last weekend, Pieter and I embarked on the annual father-son campout with our church. At nearly twelve years old, Pieter eagerly set up the tent and organized our campsite before running off to join the other kids exploring the creek. Some were chasing toads, others carefully scooping up tadpoles in small nets, delighting in each discovery. The next morning, we planned to head to the lake for fishing and water sports, but first, we needed to figure out how to get to the marina from the campsite. The directions initially led us astray, guiding us to a beachside parking lot meant for swimmers, not boaters. Calm and focused, Pieter navigated us with precision, reading the signs and adjusting as needed until we arrived at the marina and boat launch—well before anyone else. His quiet confidence and situational awareness reminded me of the thoughtful problem-solving and adaptability today’s workforce needs to navigate complex situations and plan ahead.

Reflecting later in the quiet solitude of our tent, I realized how aptly this mirrors the explosive growth we are witnessing in artificial intelligence. Just as Pieter charted the right path to the marina by connecting scattered pieces of information, today’s breakthroughs in AI—each impressive on its own—are coming together to form a coherent, accelerating force that is reshaping our shared future.

This week, Mary Meeker is a renowned venture capitalist and former Wall Street analyst, often called the “Queen of the Internet” for her decades of tech foresight. This week, she published her latest report on current AI trends, highlighting an unprecedented pace of adoption and investment. According to the findings, AI’s expansion is surpassing even the internet boom of the late ’90s and early 2000s, driven by significant global connectivity, extensive datasets, and groundbreaking technologies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The report reveals compelling statistics: ChatGPT amassed 800 million weekly active users within just 17 months, marking an astonishing eight-fold increase since its inception. Additionally, tech giants—Apple, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta—have ramped up their capital expenditure by an astounding 63% year-over-year, underscoring their substantial commitment to the infrastructure needed to support AI’s rapid growth. Clearly, these rapid adoption figures signal more than incremental technological advances—they highlight transformative shifts enterprises must strategically navigate.

Beyond impressive figures lies the profound impact AI holds for our daily lives, workplaces, and society at large. We are witnessing the rise of intelligent, autonomous agents capable of streamlining complex, mundane tasks—a shift comparable to the revolutionary transition from static websites to dynamic web applications decades ago. Consider AI-powered document summarizers that help employees quickly digest long reports or customer feedback, allowing them to focus more time on analysis and action rather than sorting through information. In many ways, these agents are like Pieter on our campout—quietly analyzing the environment, piecing together incomplete directions, and guiding us where we need to go. Today, AI helps employees draft communications, schedule meetings, respond to customer inquiries, and generate insights from large data sets. It’s helping us move forward with clarity, even when the path isn’t fully marked.

As employees navigating this transformative era, we all have a role to play in understanding and adapting to the changing nature of work. Whether you’re in operations, customer service, finance, or IT, the rise of AI presents new tools, new expectations, and new opportunities to create value. Our challenge isn’t just to adopt AI technologies—but to do so in a way that enhances our work, builds trust, and contributes to a thoughtful, human-centered workplace.

Driving home from the campout, Pieter sat in the passenger seat, laser-focused on spotting every sports car we passed—calling out Porsches, Mustangs, and the occasional Corvette like a seasoned car enthusiast. As we passed each one, he wasn’t just admiring their style—he was curious about how they handled the road, how fast they could go, and what made each of them unique. It reminded me of that moment earlier in the weekend, when he had calmly led us down the winding dirt road to the marina. He wasn’t just following directions—he was reading the terrain, noticing the signs others missed, and navigating with confidence and clarity. That same curiosity and initiative—asking questions, exploring details, and making informed decisions—are just as essential when we experiment with new technologies in our workplaces. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do with AI? We’re navigating unfamiliar terrain. We’re building a path with partial information. And we’re doing our best to get there ahead of the curve. Some people will use AI as a high-performance tool—to reach a destination faster, with more precision. Others will treat it more like a Sunday drive—exploring what’s possible, tinkering, learning, and enjoying the ride, especially those less steeped in technical roles but eager to experiment and adapt. Both paths have value, and both will shape the road ahead—and organizations that support both approaches will be best positioned to thrive. As we guide these technologies into the future, may we do so with the same mix of curiosity, competence, and care that Pieter showed—not just moving fast, but moving wisely.