Yes.
More in the Google sense, less in the Skynet sense.
I Have Watched This Before
In the early 1990s, I was networking computers in a public school so two classrooms could share a printer. We thought we were living in the future. Everyone outside those two rooms thought we were wasting time. But I could feel what connected systems meant, even then, and I never let go of that thread.
By 2000, I was earning my first networking certification in a high school computer lab, sneaking online between lessons because the school's internet connection was the fastest thing I'd ever seen. The entire district shared a single line that would make your phone's hotspot look like a supercomputer. In 2003, deployed to Iraq with the Army, I cobbled together a network from spare parts so our soldiers could get online. A year later, on that same improvised setup, I got a brand new technology called Skype working so that troops who'd been away from their families for nearly a year could finally hear their voices.
I came home, studied business systems, and built a career connecting technology to operations. Today, I'm the architect behind most of the software that a multi-million dollar organization depends on to run. I didn't watch the internet revolution from the sidelines. I was inside it, building with it, at every stage. And what I see happening with AI right now feels exactly the same.
The Pattern
The internet didn't take over the world the way science fiction predicted. There was no singular moment. It just became the way things work. Travel agents, newspaper classifieds, video rental stores, the Yellow Pages. All gone. Not from a single dramatic event, but from a gradual shift in how people found information, made decisions, and spent money. Today, a business without an internet presence is nearly invisible. That reality arrived within most of our lifetimes, and yet it's already difficult to imagine the world before it.
AI is following the same pattern. A new capability arrives that is clunky and overhyped in its early stages. People debate whether it's real or a fad. Early adopters figure out how to use it before the rest of the market catches on. And then, gradually and then all at once, it becomes the way things work.
What Didn't Happen Then, Won't Happen Now
The internet didn't eliminate work. It changed what work looked like. The travel agent who booked flights through a reservation terminal lost that specific role. The person who learned to build and market travel experiences online created a new one. The net result wasn't fewer jobs. It was different jobs, and in many cases, better ones.
AI will do the same. The roles that consist entirely of pattern work will change. The roles that combine pattern work with human judgment, relationships, and creativity will shift, not disappear. The people who learn to work alongside AI will be more productive and more valuable than they are today, the same way the people who learned to work with the internet in 2000 were better positioned than those who waited until 2010.
Why This Matters to You
The business owners who waited until 2005 to build a website weren't too late. But they spent a decade competing without one. The ones who moved early didn't just survive the transition. They shaped it.
AI is at that same inflection point. I've been inside one of these transitions before. The technology is different, the applications are different, and the timeline will be its own. But the window where early understanding becomes a competitive advantage looks the same. The question isn't whether AI will affect your industry. It's whether you want to be figuring out how it fits, or reacting after everyone else already has.