Are You Even Alive If You Aren’t An AI Expert in 2025?
Why everyone and their uncle is suddenly an AI expert, and what the actual experts say comes next.
In this issue
• Why everyone and their uncle is suddenly an AI expert (and why they are right to claim the spot)
• What PwC’s Chief AI Officer sees all of us heading to
• A simple ask to those leading AI: share your failures, not just your press tours
• A Neuro Gum giveaway for our summer-refer-a-thon (new pack for July - yay!)
Why the weird email timing?
Each issue goes out when one of my sons were born and made me whole.
This one comes at Matias’o’clock- enjoy!
First off, happy Fourth of July (or Treason Day, for those reading this in Britain).
As an immigrant that has paid handsomely for the privilege of being in the United States I often find myself more patriotic than the locals, which isn’t saying much in New York City.
As you are reading this you can safely assume I’m wearing my USA swim trunks and the red-white-and-blue “US-YAY” cap I stole from our five-year-old’s Flag Day outfit where the entire pre-K crew sang God Bless the USA making Lee Greenwood seem like an amateur when it comes to actually loving your country. Just don’t ask me how much of my outfit is ironic or what I really feel about pledging allegiance to any flag each morning, but that’s an entirely different email you aren’t getting today.
“Even our worst critics prefer to stay,” as the Freakonomics crew once announced as the unofficial motto for the U.S. God bless America indeed.
As is only appropriate for today, I’ve been reflecting on the portfolio of uniquely American traits that I’ve observed first from afar and now in closer-quarters combat.
Of these, what tickles me the most is the entirely American confident declaration of passion for whatever one happens to be doing for a living at any given moment. Ask and you will receive a “I’m passionate about X” with no hesitation or nuance, whether it’s supply chain ops or underwater basket weaving.
Whatever sorting hat you’re handed in high school must be working overtime, because nearly everyone I meet manages to frame their current job as their lifelong calling, which is an uncanny coinkidink, given that their at-will employer just so happens to require daily deliverables in that exact category.
And if you’ve ever observed an American for longer periods you may find that when that job shifts, so does the passion.
A fascinating offshoot of this “passion-for-pay” phenomenon is what we can safely call “soup of the day” chefs. These are the kind of experts that pop up left and right whenever there’s a virgin grounds of ‘passion’ to be claimed, and money to be eked out from those who have yet to book their ticket.
Nowhere is this phenomenon as evident as in AI, to the point where it’s fair to ask whether you’re even alive in Trump’s America if you’re not at least a part-time AI thought leader on LinkedIn.
The irony of the fact that this is also me is by no means lost. I write about AI on Forbes periodically. I post my share of takes on the future of work and AI on Linkedin. I now fly to more AI conferences to speak than any other speaking engagement.
But I’m at least honest with you here on Substack about what I think is going: we’re all riding the same bandwagon. My primary excuse is that it’s a damn good wagon. Much of my career has revolved around performance and exploring how individuals and organizations evolve to better versions of themselves, and AI is quite literally rewriting the rules.
I also feel a decidedly self-deluded sense of a ‘right to play’ in the space not least because of how I’ve been coding my own apps since I was ten (thanks for the trauma, Dad), and I’m now leading an AI-native strategy company built around a patent I developed. When it comes to AI research, my 2025 outputs are on the ethics of the AI supply chain, questions about the legal rights of an agent to transact and the bounded rationality of ChatGPT models. Not exactly OpenAI level stuff, which is why I wholeheartedly believe that those who can’t play, coach. At best I’m an operator and a translator, and at least my mom thinks that’s something.
And like any big technological inflection point, this moment is attracting a circus-tent’s worth of pseudo-experts, 8-week credentialed influencers, and freshly-minted AI whisperers. The reason why they are all justified in jumping on their soapboxes is that right now and right here, writing a single line of code with ChatGPT still qualifies you to launch a Substack on the ethics of LLMs.
I’ve seen in my consulting work with BCG and my own firm how most of the AI transformation work happening today is still surface-level. Most users haven’t progressed beyond asking a few questions from ChatGPT or asking it to do what Grammarly has done for a decade.
Most of the workforce is still entirely uninitiated to the world of AI, which gives almost anyone the right to speak on what AI is and what it can become.
That’s not an indictment, mind you, it’s just a fact stemming from where we are on the maturity curve. The term “AI expert” itself still remains largely undefined. And when the whole world is groping in the dark, the half-blind are better leaders than most.
But reality is catching up with our AI whisperers fast.
In my Forbes interviews with actual AI founders and CEOs of large tech companies, I’ve heard nobody say that they haven’t felt being behind. That is of course, unless you’re a 25-year-old MBA dropout who just raised $2 million to “disrupt the future of work,” in which case I assume you are as golden as they have all told me.
Take Amplitude (listed on Nasdaq) and their CEO, for example. Spenser was skeptical about AI just six months ago. Now they’re all in after a large acquisition, and they’re quickly claiming the space for themselves.
When serious players like these move in, the noise gets filtered out. The hot takes vanish and the reality of who’s done the work and who hasn’t emerges into view. That’s when we’ll see most of today’s AI thought leadership as what it is: a modern take on the motivational posters of yore (you have two AI wolves inside you…) with little substance behind any of it.
The real irony here is that AI isn’t actually that hard to learn anymore. In fact, it’s now able to teach itself to you. What is hard is doing OpenAI-level research, or building usable AI products at scale that you can talk about in terms of real results instead of the hype-machine’s talking points.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from speaking to folks who are building, it’s that we need fewer hot takes and more field reports.
My instinct on most things in life is to learn from those who’ve failed and succeeded before, and better, than I have. I’m doubling down on that with the AI rush in particular, not just because it’s good practice, but because my clients and readers deserve less of a “here’s what I think” and more of a “here’s how things actually are when we look closely.”
Which brings me to Dan Priest, PwC’s Chief AI Officer, a job title he actually doesn’t think matters as much as the remit it entails. Dan is one of the few leaders I’ve met who genuinely understands how deep this shift goes, and in our recent conversation, we barely got to shop talk because we were too busy exploring what this disruption means for people, for institutions, for the very definition of “work.”
When he finally did start talking shop, I clammed up and listened.
Dan shared that the companies seeing the biggest wins from AI aren’t necessarily the loudest. They’re the ones rethinking how work gets done. Take Wyndham: with PwC, they rolled out an AI-powered agentic system for their contact center. What used to take months, rolling out brand standards, now takes days. Escalations are resolved in half the time. That’s a 94% acceleration. “It’s a proof point,” Dan said, “of the shift from legacy models to high-performance, high-growth operating systems.”
And it’s not just tech teams that are seeing these results. CFOs, CHROs, everyone are getting a piece of it. According to PwC’s latest data, 88% of executives are increasing investments in AI agents, with 10–15% budget increases simply because they’re seeing real performance gains instead of hypotheticals.
But the transition to these results can be brutal, which is a fact most AI mavens selling you a 159 dollar course forget.
Professional services, where Dan and I both cut our teeth, is among the most exposed industries. And as Dan put it: “We’ve followed the standard process for so long. Now, we have to reimagine those processes entirely.” The pivot isn’t optional as much as it’s existential, and some will burn more than their fingers when the org begins dabbling with AI.
This is particularly true for those early in their careers. I can confirm Dan’s argument fully from my experience teaching hundreds of students each year. What they’re walking into is fundamentally different from what we trained for, and may god have mercy on their careers.
Dan also shared some advice for CAIOs, starting with “this is your job, but not your job alone.” The CAIO can’t do it all, and the AI transformation isn’t a tech initiative as much as it is an organizational rewrite. When done right, it changes your entire operating model, rethinks your strategy and questions every process you have. And if you’re leading this work, you’re not in charge of the process, you’re in service of it.
Which brings me to my plea.
If you’re a leader actually doing the work of AI adoption, consider skipping on the next polished podcast and corporate-approved LinkedIn anthem. What we need more of today are real war stories. Tell us what failed, what hurt and how you’re figuring it all out.
While I’m no gatekeeper and firmly reject the concept of epistemic trespass, I feel that worst part of everyone suddenly being a passionate AI expert is that we lose the signal in all the noise. What we now need is clearer voices grounded in practice, not posture, and I invite everyone speaking today to really dig their hands into the dirt and speak of what it can do, and what it can’t, from experience, instead of ChatGPT-approved talking pints.
I can’t wait to hear how you’ve shipped, slipped, recovered, and built again, and on my end I’ll be doing more of these deep convos with experts like Dan to figure out where the ball is going, instead of simply writing about where we all know it was last week.
The full interview with Dan will be coming out in July, augmented by several other experts. If you are one, or know one, ideally in the C-suite, reach out via email!
A book to read
Still the most mind-expanding (and faintly terrifying) book on the future of machine intelligence.
Bostrom shows you the chessboard, the timer, and the fact that we’re already playing even if you haven’t done a thing with AI. Not bedtime reading, but a necessary wake-up call if you're serious about the long game.
A thing to do
Build something, anything, with AI.
A chatbot, a personal website, a resume writer, a tiny app that solves one weird problem only you have.
The point isn’t to impress anyone on Linkedin, although you could do that too.
It’s to internalize what this tech can actually do. You’ll learn more in 10 hours of trying than 100 hours of scrolling AI Twitter. Bonus: you'll understand the hype and the limits.
A thought NOT to have
Avoid epistemic trespass, they say. I disagree.
You don’t need to be credentialed to be curious.
You don’t need permission to explore.
Life is far too short to stay in your lane.
Sure, let’s still be humble, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay quiet about what you’ve learnt. Read widely, range boldly, and let your thinking spill beyond your job title. The experts will be fine.
A product to love
The Swedes have done it again. Lovable is a beautifully minimal, stupidly smooth coding app that makes building software feel less like work and more like sketching out loud.
Designed for humans, not engineers, it’s the first dev environment that feels like it wants you to enjoy the process. Fast, collaborative, and weirdly calming. If you’re building with AI or just tinkering with your first app, start here.
I’ve coded websites since age 10 and now use this for my own site that is having a refresh soon.
Recent writings on Forbes and beyond
Latest: The Power of "No": How Rejection Builds a Life Worth Having (Psychology Today)
What’s Holding Back Sustainable Business? The Challenges That Matter Most (Forbes)
What’s Next For Beverages In 2025? CEOs Predict The Path Forward (Forbes)
Why This Nasdaq Listed CEO Changed His Mind About AI, And What It Took (Forbes)
From Serendipity To Startup: Meeting Venus Williams And Other Lucky Strikes (Forbes)
What’s Next In Philanthropy? Decentralized Models And Smarter Giving (Forbes)
Declining Birthrates Are Breaking The Economy. Can We Fix It In Time? (Forbes)
In Defense of Intuition: Why Gut Feelings Deserve Respect (Psychology Today)
Your Brain Hates Your Cubicle—Here’s How to Thrive Anyway (Psychology Today)
Arvind Jain: The Humble Builder Behind Glean And The Future Of Agentic AI (Forbes)
The Outsider Advantage: How Naïveté Fuels Billion-Dollar Startups (Forbes)
Never Make a Bad Choice Again by Embracing Self-Nudging (Psychology Today)
The Psychology Of Better Choices: How Startups Are Rewiring Our Habits (Forbes)
Staying Curious Is the Most Dangerous Thing You Can Do (Psychology Today)
After Arkansas: The Future Of FEMA And U.S. Disaster Relief (Forbes)
Ryan Gellert on Building a Future Where Sustainability Is Not Optional (Forbes)
Why Struggling (the Right Way) Helps You Learn (Psychology Today)
Want to Make Better Decisions? Copy the Slime Mold (Psychology Today)
Your Brain Was Built to Forget—Make It Work For You (Psychology Today)
The Case For Terminal Optimism In An Unpredictable World (Forbes)
The AI Coordination Revolution You Haven’t Heard About Yet (Forbes)
Where and how to get involved
A book is coming.
The Curiosity Code (yes, the book) is officially in motion. I’ll be drafting chapters this fall, weaving together insights from CEO interviews, classroom sessions, and conversations like the one we’re having here. If you have stories about range, curiosity, or unorthodox paths — I’d love to hear them in the chat or comments.
A podcast is brewing
We’ve started taping episodes for the first season of The Curiosity Code podcast. Early guests include the CEOs of Lovesac, Grindr, NOVOS, Front, and Aampe. Can’t wait to launch the season in late 2025.
I am currently conducting a study on range and how it impacts people’s career trajectories. Ten questions and a name will get you on the hall of fame as we pump up the n on the study. Link below - thanks for considering it!
You’ve reached the end - thanks for scrolling all the way down.
Curiosity is best when enjoyed in great company.
Refer this issue and grab a chance to get a tester package of Neuro blessed by the founders themselves (randomly selected from all referrals made). I’m connecting with the duo for a longer chat, recorded for the upcoming Curiosity Code podcast, and will be grilling them on their curious path to setting up the company. If you want your question included in the mix, hit me up via the Substack chat or email.
