Over a quiet morning coffee, it’s time to think it over and ask some questions about:

• The real value of AI 
• Where it makes sense to use it
• Who can benefit of it (and who can’t)
• Future of learning 
• … and more

So join me for some morning reflections .. 

I. Everyone Has AI – So Nobody Has Competitive Edge 

AI promised to speed up and automate my work – with the idea that I would either have more free time or handle more work. In other words, I would either earn the same (spending less time) or earn significantly more (in the same amount of time).

That sounds nice. And it could be true. But only under the assumption that I am the only one using AI and no one else is. Meaning I have a monopoly on it. And thanks to that, I have an advantage in speed and intensity. But I don’t have a monopoly. Everyone has AI today – or at least everyone who needs it can use it as necessary. At that point, we are all in the same boat. And nobody has an advantage. The only change – we all work overall more intensely. But for the exact same money, because compared to others, we bring no extra advantage (meaning extra value). Isn’t that great?

Basically, AI has joined the ranks of other tools we use for work. Just as necessary and useful as Excel or a calculator used to be. And no, it won’t do the work for us – on its own, without control, guidance, and supervision. Or rather, what it can do on its own, everyone can do, so it brings no value – and nobody will pay us for it.

So what about it? The answer is pretty simple. Nothing. It’s just a tool. Yes, it’s stupid to ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s equally stupid to think it will do my job for me. So use it, but without overblown expectations. And push it only where it actually brings clear, measurable results, profit, or improvement. Where it brings nothing provable, it has no place – it would only add unnecessary complexity and higher costs. So – use it with common sense.

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If AI doesn’t offer a global competitive edge on its own, where does its actual value lie? In small-scale, local control.

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II. Hey SaaS – We (probably) Don’t Need Your Tools Anymore

On a smaller local scale, AI can actually help. If I have good, sorted data, if I can precisely formulate what I want, and if I can check and verify the outputs, I don’t need to use (and pay for) external tools. Most of the work AI can help with like this is nothing new under the sun – generating reports from data, creating dashboards, various visualizations, database management, building single-purpose apps… So at this point, instead of adapting to paid third-party tools, I hand it to the IT section (or even handle it myself) with a clear request and get a tailor-made tool directly for a specific company and its environment. Which again won’t give me any significant advantage over other companies (because they will do the same thing), but at least it frees me from dependency on external tools and vendors.

On the other hand, this behavior may well contribute to a SaaSpocalypse, because who would pay for something they can have for free, faster, and customized to their needs. Well .. I will not cry.

Local (in-house, home) use of AI has clear advantages – I can easily describe what needs to be solved – and sometimes even how, I usually understand the issue fairly well, and I can evaluate the result. Plus, processing data locally eliminates the risks of data transport and storing it on someone else’s rented infrastructure, alongside giving me independence.

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Building focused internal tools makes practical sense. But there is a fine line between solving real workflow problems and shoving AI into things that never needed fixing.

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III. I Don’t Need AI Micromanaging My Life

When I think about the integration and “use” of AI in our world and daily life, I see one common denominator – useless waste. Just because AI exists doesn’t mean I have to push it into everything without thinking whether it makes sense at all or if it actually brings real value (and potential profit). Just like during the rise of digital watches, when it was good practice to stick them onto everything including pens and umbrellas. Today, if a company wants to show it’s ready for the future, it takes its (any) product, forces AI into it, pats itself on the back, makes a viral video, and hopes for success. Then we get masterpieces like an AI toothbrush with cameras or an AI-enhanced bird feeder. Mind you – these are not prototypes or PoC (Proof of Concept), these are real comercial products.

Some things I just want to work simply and “like always,” and there really is nothing to improve. I have no interest in an AI-powered-enhanced-extended flowerpot nagging me to water my plant. I don’t want a talking fridge that demands food scanning just to proudly announce that my yogurt is expired and I should go grocery shopping for the weekend. I’m not an idiot, I don’t need micromanagement – especially from a machine that is only expected to keep cold temperature. Do we really not have more important problems to solve than constantly creating these useless gadgets we proudly call IT/AI/Smart whatever gadgets?

Stone me if you want, but I just don’t think that to find out the expiration date on butter I need an internet connection, smartwatch notifications, a backup reminder in my email, messages on an OLED fridge screen, and an AI-generated task in my online calendar. And if I really need all this, why the hell am I even here and what good am I for?

Just imagine the technology used and the material and energy resources consumed to make this work for such a trivial situation. Shipping across half the planet (multiple times), energy-intensive manufacturing, a device that must be connected to data infrastructure running and updating 24/7. All for something that fundamentally doesn’t need to be solved because it was never a big or important problem.

There is no need to shove AI everywhere.

Even if I can.

Less is more.