InnerVentures

Adventures of the Mind

[innerventures]

The pressure to adopt AI at speed is producing a great deal of noise but not a huge amount of signal. Many are debating this. From economists resurrecting a 40-year-old productivity paradox; to philosophers challenging Silicon Valley's token-counting obsession; to Microsoft's diagnosis of organisations as the bottleneck; to a quiet case for deliberate slowness.

Moving fast and slow with AI

[innerventures]

AI is enabling amazing things — but we shouldn't be starry eyed. Innovation theatre is the performance of innovation without the substance of it. Let's do the hard work of discovering AI's true value.

Innovation theatre and the value of AI

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Choice musings. Never have we had so much and yet so little to show for it. We have a myriad of ways to spend our time and influences to shape our thinking. We often end up stuck or down rabbit holes but that doesn't have to be.

When everything is possible nothing is possible

[innerventures]

AI is racing ahead while companies are still tying their shoes. Logarithmic, slow, human change vs exponential, accelerating, technological change. The classic tension between the two explains why humans consistently underestimate tech’s impact.

Humans Change Slowly - AI Didn’t Get the Memo

[innerventures]

First the gold rush for the perfect AI prompt. Everyone wanting to crack the code — the magic that makes the model sing. Courses, cheat sheets, LinkedIn posts, etc. It mattered but less and less and the big decisions are still made by humans. For now. So get back to basics and focus on how to prompt for human outcomes.

Prompting for humans first

[innerventures]

AI and bureaucracy are not ordinary bedfellows but they now collide and company size and culture decides who adapts and who gets left behind.

Act small - think big - accelerate with AI

[innerventures]

You either believe these are urgent themes as humans are seemingly being squeezed out of work and we need to plan for relevance, innovation and change. Or it is all overblown and there is nothing to worry about - business can continue as usual. Some thoughts for the former.

The New Human Stack - Skills for an AI‑First Workplace

[innerventures]

AI’s rapid leaps are shaking markets, jobs and the wider tech world. With each new breakthrough, we’re pushed to choose our response — fear or innovation.

AI in Overdrive

[innerventures]

Technology adoption metrics get bandied about and poured over as if they were the ultimate truth. They are just a proxy for value. They are a precursor to it, no doubt, i.e. you need to have adoption before you can get to value outcomes. But they are not the end goal.

Technology adoption metrics can be a false economy

[innerventures]

Using the quiet time over the holidays I went back a little further than the last year to reflect on a lifetime of learning and summed it up for a talk I'm giving. What fun 🎉🎈

A time to reflect

[innerventures]

Some cautionary tales that remind me to remain grounded on what we are all here to do in business. For all the worry of AI taking over, at the heart of enterprise is still humans working together towards common goals that move us forward through innovation, with technology as an enabler.

AI adoption and innovation in the enterprise

[innerventures]

I’ve been pondering this recently based on the work I do making customers successful with their use of AI. Product knowledge has always been a key part of this type of work, i.e learning and keeping up to date with changing technology. Not so much anymore when AI keeps up better.

In the age of AI knowledge becomes a commodity

[innerventures]

Juggling a new innovation-focused AI role and thoughts on how to keep my writing meaningful amid the AI slop deluge has led to a long break. Here are some initial views on what will make a difference plus some well curated articles.

A month is a long time in technology

[innerventures]

Dive into this collection of articles covering the twists and turns of AI-driven transformation. From kaizen-fueled strategies at Microsoft to debunked innovation fairy tales, you’ll discover why some AI projects soar while others, well, don’t make it past the launchpad. Also, why creativity and imagination are still our last best bet at retaining sanity, being productive and beating AI.

SenseMaking from the Web

[innerventures]

Being a long time fan and #Canva user, I approached #MicrosoftDesigner with some suspicion. But I was pleasantly surprised. Long way still to go but some good starting features, not least DALL-E and some other cool baked in intelligence #review

Battle of the design tools - Canva vs Microsoft Designer

[innerventures]

31 months is a long time in technology and since I first reviewed Canva and Microsoft's tools side by side, everything has changed. Mostly AI happened. But Microsoft has also advanced the most from a tooling point of view. Check out how they stack up today.

Battle of the design tools – Canva vs Microsoft - round two

[innerventures]

This post of curated articles covers everything from AI (no surprise), innovation, attention, Agents and management. One in particular is sending shock waves in enterprise AI circles.

SenseMaking from the Web