A couple of months ago, I was starting to explore hiring someone at Spilled Coffee. I had a job description and a list of names of who I wanted to pursue.
That all changed in the span of one week.
After having lunch with a VP of a major company and a conversation with an analyst at an investment bank. I had a new idea.
Through our conversations, I found myself convinced that I needed to explore and try using ChatGPT first.
In our discussions, they were filling me in on all the AI use cases and how they’re seeing ChatGPT and the other LLM models of AI companies being used across their and other companies. They both themselves have become giant users of ChatGPT.
My curiosity took over and I discovered that the job description and duties that I had created, could almost entirely all be done for me by ChatGPT.
Now my assistant isn’t an employee. It’s ChatGPT.
It’s not perfect but it has helped me tremendously in the past few months.
We’ve heard about how AI is improving productivity and how in time this will change or alter the landscape for jobs. I now can see why.
This is a great chart from Torsten Slok at Apollo on how the AI productivity gains are coming.
The Census conducts a biweekly survey of 1.2 million firms, and one question is whether a business has used AI tools such as machine learning, natural language processing, virtual agents, or voice recognition to help produce goods or services in the past two weeks, see chart below. Nine percent of firms reported using AI, and the rising trend in AI adoption increases the likelihood of a rise in productivity over the coming quarters.
We now are starting to see consistent headlines about the biggest companies using AI more and more.
(Reuters) -Goldman Sachs on Monday announced a firmwide launch of an artificial intelligence assistant, a tool driven by generative AI, to boost productivity, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
Around 10,000 employees at the bank are already using the GS AI Assistant, the memo sent to staff by Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti showed.
JPMorgan and BofA have also announced similar releases. You can search any company and add AI to the search and you will likely see a story about how that company is starting to use AI.
This raised my curiosity around AI and it push me to try and understand it more. So I’ve spent a considerable amount of time reading and researching more about it.
I now turn your attention to this 340 slide presentation by Mary Meeker, Trends – Artificial Intelligence. Keep in mind this is her first major trends report since 2019.
This took me some time get through. But after all the stories, research reports and presentations around AI, this was far and away the best thing I have come across. If you don’t quite understand AI or see what the hoopla around it is, this is something that you need to take the time to read.
First off. Why who is Mary Meeker and why does her opinion matter?
Before founding Bond Capital, she spent 19 years at Morgan Stanley where she became the head of technology research. She has a legendary track record of spotting early trends. She was the first to publish anything on the internet back in 1995. The first ever internet report.
1990s Internet Boom: At Morgan Stanley, Meeker authored the iconic 1995 Internet Trends Report, which correctly forecasted the explosion of web-based businesses. She predicted the rise of Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo before they were household names.
Mobile Revolution: In the late 2000s and early 2010s, she highlighted mobile internet usage growth long before Wall Street fully understood its implications. Her data-backed presentations were used by investors, operators, and founders alike.
China Tech Ascension: In the mid-2010s, she was among the first to emphasize how China’s internet giants (Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu) would reshape global markets and consumer behavior.
She was dubbed “Queen of the Internet” by Barron’s and Fortune for her predictive power and influence during the dot-com era. Her team at Morgan Stanley led the underwriting of the Netscape IPO. She saw mobile when most phones were used just for texting.
When she says AI isn’t just a feature, it’s a foundational shift in how we build, work, and interact. You listen and take note.
Now let’s review what I picked up from this report and other takeaways for the outlook of AI.