From 1998 – 2000, the internet promised to change the world. Then in Mar 2000, it all crashed — we thought, the internet was all hype.
Turns out, both points of view were wrong.
The Internet did change the world, but not the way we had imagined. Just having a website with dotcom at the end of your name did nothing for you.
The one dotcom that did succeed (Amazon) had to figure out everything a normal brick-and-mortar store would have to — building a good supply chain, merchandising, customer service, brand building, and so on.
There were no shortcuts. And today, in the middle of the AI boom, I would like to make a prediction — this time also, there will be no shortcuts.
AI is sounding quite like the dotcom boom. Everything and everybody seems to have AI (my fruitseller seems to be the only exception).
So will AI change things? Absolutely — 100%.
But the companies that will change the world will not be the ones that just stick AI in front of their name. They will have to do the same age-old boring things — identifying real problems, creating differentiated products, building a brand, and so on.
There has never been a shortcut. There will not be one now.
The world is changing dramatically. Yet, it remains exactly the same.
– Rajan