The Second Wave

The Second Wave: Why Speed of Adaptation Beats Speed of Change

On Monday I spoke at a business club, about something that's I keep seeing: the massive gap between how fast AI is moving and how slowly most leaders are responding.

Room full of smart business owners and executives. When I asked who felt ready for AI, maybe 10% of hands went up. When I asked who was "using AI," nearly everyone raised their hand.

That gap? That's the problem.

The Yellow Pages Moment

Remember Yellow Pages? For decades, they were untouchable. They had Google's power before Google existed, they were how you found anything. But they treated the internet as tomorrow's problem.

They didn't fail because the internet arrived. They failed because they acted like they had time to figure it out later.

Sound familiar?

The Real Shift Isn't Technical-It's Mental

Want a quick way to lose a few million? Go and spend a bomb on the newest AI stack.

Winners don't start by buying tools. They start by changing how they think. The first question becomes: "How might AI solve this?"

It's about learning how to learn again. Remember when we all had to learn PowerPoint and touch typing? AI's like that, but bigger. Before you default to your old ways, ask: how can AI help me go faster or improve what I'm doing?

I was paying $100+ weekly for a personal trainer who just sent WhatsApp messages and meal plans. I built a customGPT with 6 months of our conversations. After testing both for 9 months, the AI was outperforming my human trainer. Saved $7,000 annually.

My wife's struggling Etsy store hadn't made sales in weeks. Used an AI agentic browser for 10 minutes to audit her site-

found missing tags, no privacy policy, optimisation gaps. 82% traffic increase, 4x sales boost within days.

Or this: using NotebookLM to solve one of business's biggest headaches-knowledge walking out the door. Staff member leaving after 5 years? Their knowledge doesn't need to leave with them. Upload all their files. Question about what they did 3 years ago? Question about how to troubleshoot something only John knew? Sorted.

Here's my challenge: Give me one business problem AI can't help with. I can't think of one.

The Human Side

Yes, AI will impact jobs. But here's what's actually happening: power is decentralising.

OpenAI predicts the world's first one person billionaire this year, someone building a billion-dollar business with AI instead of hundreds of employees. This puts power back in the hands of people who didn't have it before.

AI moves people from generalists to specialists. It puts PhD-level knowledge in everyday hands. Before alarm clocks, people had jobs as "knockers"-they'd literally knock on your window to wake you up. Society evolved. New jobs were created. People adapted.

The opportunity isn't just for big corporations anymore.

The second wave is here. AI's adoption curve has outpaced the internet, social media, and mobile technology combined.

The real risk isn't moving too fast. It's waiting.

Every delay widens the gap. Pick one process this week. See if AI can make it faster or smarter.

The question isn't whether AI will change your industry. It's how fast you'll adapt when it does.

---