Sitting here at the Wharf in Sydney, thinking about the AI bubble and executive short-termism vs. waves of evolving scenarios where AI and agentic (and eventually autonomous) workflows change business, and societal, trajectories.

This was an interesting analysis on the current state of AI by Shakeel Hashim. His post, “We’re All Behind the Curve,” highlights a critical, often missed gap that determines who gets ahead and who gets left behind.

After speaking at the Curve Conference, he observed two distinct groups. Here’s how he described it, “I wrote about the very scary disconnect I felt between the conversations I was having…and the way the wider world talks about AI.”

The Curve is “where thinkers grapple with AI’s biggest questions, exploring disagreements and building bridges towards solutions.”

While one group focuses on the Hype Cycle and worries about the circularity of investment, market valuations, and whether the economy can survive an AI crash, the other group, working at the frontier of AGI, is grappling with fundamentally different, potentially game-changing questions…

The circularity of recursive self-improvement.

The impending culture war over AI personhood.

The risk of a US regime change driven by AI advances.

Whether democracy can survive the leap.

The focus on the economic alarm bells is generally an unproductive distraction, but I get it. The fear of a bubble-pop and its impact on the economy draws a visceral reaction by those still reeling from the last economic disaster. At the same time, waves of AI impact will change how we work and who or what we employ and why. It’s also helpful to listen to people with “situational awareness” of subjects we may not follow, understand, or care to understand.

If your strategy is still centered on navigating the next hype cycle phase, you are behind. The gravitas of this moment demands we immediately pivot from worrying about quarterly returns to solving problems like space governance and the future of human agency (and the future of people in an agentic or even autonomous enterprise).

Crash or not, the challenges over the horizon can eclipse anything we’ve faced. We are not spending nearly enough time exploring potential scenarios, and as a result, we are not preparing for alternate trajectories or futures.

This is the moment for a strategic mindshift. Join me in reshaping the future..

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