AI is the New Plumbing

Plumbing…AI…plumbing…AI. What??!

OK, I think I know what I want to say, but please allow me to ramble on and wade through my thoughts on AI and the quiet revolution happening right under (most of) our noses…

Here goes. You’re standing in your kitchen, turning on the tap. Water flows. It’s magic! Except it’s not magic, is it? It’s just normal. Expected. It’s pretty boring to most of us. I mean, when was the last time you actually stopped to think about the complex network of pipes running through your walls? The engineering magic that brings clean water right to your fingertips?

Mhmm. It was magic at one point in time (not going to argue historians here about the ‘when’ and ‘who’). But today, it’s just part of everyday life. Unnoticeable. Until something breaks, that is, and you need to call someone to stop the flooding in your house!

Well, I think this is exactly where AI is headed. Not toward the sci-fi dystopia that keeps Hollywood (and some really good independents!) in business, but toward something far more mundane yet infinitely more impactful. Yep, it’s soon to become as ‘everyday’ as modern-day plumbing.

Stuck in the wrong debate

But here’s the thing that might be causing a lot of us (myself included) some unrest at the moment. We’re living through that awkward teenage phase of AI, you know, a bit weird, slightly uncomfortable, with people all around trying to figure out what the hell is going on! The phase where we’re still conscious of AI’s presence because it hasn’t quite blended into the background yet.

So, what else besides plumbing can help me make my point here? How about ‘smartphones’? Remember when smartphones were revolutionary? Now they’re just phones, really. They get cool new features every now and then. Still just phones, though. Not impressive today.

That’s what’s happening with AI, right in front of our eyes. Whether it’s your email crafting responses that sound eerily like you (maybe you’ve find the right prompts), or your calendar playing tetris (another game-changer, right?) with your meetings to get you more productive, AI is slowly but surely becoming the invisible helper we never knew we needed.

“Gather round everyone, and watch ‘The Flush’ magic happen!”

And this is the paradox. The very fact that we’re all talking about AI means we’re not quite there yet. It’s still not ‘everyday’, commonplace. It’s like those early days of indoor plumbing when John would call his friends over to his house to demonstrate the magic of his toilet flushing.

Learning about artificial intelligence now isn’t about jumping on into a ‘Matrix-styled’ land of coding or trying to sound smart at the parties you attend. It’s about getting comfortable with what’s going to be as basic as running water in a few years. You don’t need to be a plumber to use a tap, and you definitely don’t need to be a coder to use AI. You just need to understand enough to make it work for you. Today.

And man, can it really help you!

Apprehension or discomfort with ‘newness’?

I’ve heard a lot of smart people get stuck in the “but I’m not a tech person” trap. Sure, I can understand the initial concern. I’ve also heard a lot of smart people hold themselves back from experimenting, because they take on a more philosophical stance on the issue and their mind is stuck on the ‘potential dark side’ of AI.

Well, weren’t these same ‘fears’ running amok in many a mind when smartphones came out? But look at us now, typing away like pros on our tiny glass screens!

The truth is, AI is already here, quietly working its way into the fabric of our daily lives. It’s in your spam filter (many times!), your Netflix recommendations, your Google Maps routing you around traffic. And that’s just the beginning.

AI will become essential. That’s fact, if you ask me.

Take action and start experimenting

If you’re curious about AI and want to boost your productivity, then check out our rock-show Workshops.

We’ll be skipping the philosophical debates and plunging you into real hacks to help you start experimenting with AI and saving you some much needed time when trying to get shit done (no experience needed 😊)!

The future’s coming whether we like it or not. Might as well turn on the tap and see what flows!