And that’s awkward. Not least because both her husband and her son work for an AI company.
She’s seen the demos. She gets it intellectually. Her exact words were: “I can see how it would help other people — but it’s not for me.”
And here’s the thing. She’s not alone in feeling that way. She’s just in good company with a lot of people who (IMHO) are going to get a nasty surprise.
Richard Susskind, in his excellent book How to Think About AI, identifies this exact category of person. The ones who look at AI, nod politely, and say “yes, but not for me.”
Not the sceptics who think it’s all hype. Not the enthusiasts who’ve already automated half their life. The ones right in the middle. The ones who intellectually accept it’s useful, but can’t quite see how it fits their world, their process, their way of doing things.
The problem, of course, is that AI isn’t going to wait for people to be ready.
It’s already reshaping workflows. It’s already changing what good looks like.
And in some sectors that we work with (social work, teaching, housing) people are already choosing employers based on what AI tools they have access to.
So the question isn’t really “is AI for me?”
It’s “what happens when AI changes the world around me, and I haven’t changed with it?”
Mrs Watkins, I know you won’t read this because you’re allergic to social media (apart from the horse videos of course… but that’s “different” eh?).
But on AI, I’m going to gently suggest that your process might need to come to AI. Not the other way around.
You know you can do it. You were once addicted to paper, highlighter pens and post-it notes. Now its colour-coded cells in Excel. AI is just another small step… and we’ll be beside you all the way.
(Hear the full story in the podcast on Buzzsprout or here.)
