Beyond the AI hype, the reality is a new way of thinking, working and being
By Conor McNicholas, Impact Director
“AI is going to change everything.” It’s easy to say, we hear it everywhere, but very few people can tell you what it means. At Magnetic we’re passionate about the new. We love emerging consumer trends and the latest technology. We’re avid (and careful) users of generative AI. But we’re also well practised in cutting through hype bullshit and identifying what’s actually going on.
AI is going to change everything, but not in the way that most commentators are saying. A lot of the talk around gen AI and humans is about replacement or immersion. We think they’re calling it wrong.
It’s not AI or human. It’s not just AI plus human.
It’s NewHuman.
NewHuman means embracing the tools of AI to be more of ourselves. NewHuman is about recognising that AI will change what’s expected of us at work but it won’t replace us. NewHuman means realising we’ll have to think about business operations in a new way but the fundamentals of empathy, insight, efficiency and innovation won’t change.
NewHuman means we need to think about how our businesses connect and how our supply chains function but remember that success always runs at the speed of internal culture.
Gen AI will change a lot of things but the human element won’t disappear from our organisations. In fact, it’ll take on a bigger role as a differentiator. Three facts to consider right now:
First, the technical moat in AI keeps evaporating. Every new capability spreads rapidly to every AI platform and so to everyone. This is democratised and commoditised utility. It’s the new normal, not a competitive advantage.
Second, outside of the hype and the doom-mongering, research doesn’t show that AI is causing mass lay-offs. Jobs are rapidly adapting around the new technology and they’re changing in nature. But no one has shown concrete business success from dropping people and replacing them with generative AI.
Finally, the adoption of AI in business should not be seen as effortless or inevitable. There is emerging evidence that AI integration is starting to slow after its initial surge. Everyone seems to have stories of how hard it’s been, not how easy or beneficial.
This is not to say that everything will stay the same. Far from it. The change is real and it’s fundamental, but humans will remain at the heart of this change.
Consultancies have rushed to sell “AI transformation” but they’re not transforming at all. They’re building AI tech-stacks and slashing jobs. That’s not transformation, it’s replacement. Wherever workforces have been hollowed out, trust and adaptability has collapsed.
We believe that we’ll see a new era of work where creativity, connection and care will be enhanced with new expectations and tools for capability. Used properly, the technology of AI will drift into the background, just as HTML and the internet did before it. (It’s not online shopping, it’s just shopping.)
It holds the promise of taking away some of the more tedious aspects of digital life, meaning we can make software more like us rather than making us more like software. But insurance requires responsibility and will always have to sit with someone, a real person.
We will need to redesign work, and where that happens we will need to rebuild culture, and from that creativity will reignite.
At Magnetic we don’t build algorithms and we’re platform agnostic. Where we are experts and focused is in identifying where technology adds transformative value, building the conditions for AI to work, and then seeing through its adoption with the real humans who are creating value.
We’ve always designed for the space between people and systems. AI adoption just makes that space more critical than ever.
AI doesn’t transform businesses, people do. The NewHuman future is being defined now.
To talk about AI adoption and redesigning work, email Conor or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
