The magnificent seven ways in which AI can transform human life

These technologies are sometimes referred to as GPTs, which is not short for the ‘generative pre-trained transformer’ of ChatGPT, but for ‘general purpose technologies.’

Most GPTs not only impact businesses and the economy, they also reshape societies, politics and geopolitics, and often humanity itself. Arguably, artificial intelligence (AI) is also a GPT that could have a similar impact. 

Also read: This smallcap company is riding the AI wave to become the best IT stock of 2024

While the astonishing creative and conversational abilities of GenAI bots like ChatGPT and its ilk have made waves across the world, I believe that the impact of AI will be far more profound than we can imagine from its current uses. Here are seven significant ways in which AI will reshape our lives:

AI is the new UI: Microsoft founder Bill Gates, while talking about how we can harness the power of machines, spoke of how each successive change in the user interface (UI) of computers brought about a leap forward in human productivity. 

The graphical user interface (GUI), for example, completely changed how we could leverage computing, followed by the browser, the search bar, and, finally, apps. 

With AI, and Generative AI in particular, our natural voice will become the new UI, and we will work with machines in the same collaborative, natural and human way that we work with a human co-worker.

Agents are the new platform: Gates, again, described how ‘dumb’ apps will be replaced by agents who could perform tasks on our behalf. A travel itinerary today involves interacting with several apps and websites, coordinating schedules and preferences, and finally coming up with an itinerary. 

In the near future, agents would know our habits and preferences, construct itineraries and then book tickets and hotel rooms on our behalf. 

Agentic systems are among the most exciting fields in AI. Proto-agents, like the GPT Store of ChatGPT, have already started appearing. I believe that the demise of app stores is nigh as agents replace apps.

Also read: AI has had a free run. Now, India is weighing standards.

SaaS is the new SaaS: Software-as-a-service will get replaced by service-as-a-software. A seminal Foundation Capital paper (bit.ly/473ByVO) introduced this. 

To paraphrase: Today, a SaaS company like QuickBooks sells access to its tool for tax services, but customers are still responsible for using that tool to achieve the desired outcome. In the reverse SaaS business, the responsibility for achieving this outcome resides with the company selling the service. 

So, instead of QuickBooks, you offer an AI accountant that will do your tax work—in this case, conducted by an AI accountant. This service will become an AI software. According to Foundation Capital, this is a $4.6 trillion opportunity.

English is the new language for coding: Gartner says that AI is more than just a technology, it is a profound shift in how humans and machines interact. With GenAI, we can instruct computers to build something using our own natural language, whether it is English, Hindi or any other. 

The ‘prompts’ that we write are nothing short of proto-code. But instead of our having to learn the language of machines, the machine needs to understand ours. This could lead to a huge productivity revolution as coding becomes democratized. With AI, potentially everyone becomes a ‘software engineer.’

AI will shape the new phone: AI-infused communication devices are already available, with experiments like Rabbit R1 and AI Pin precursors to the future. However, I believe that the AI phone will be very different from the iPhone of today. 

The user interface will be voice rather than touch, today’s apps will be replaced by agents, and the iOS/Android operating system (OS) will be replaced by a large language model OS. 

A startup building this could turn out to be the new Apple Inc, or an incumbent like Apple could create such an OS to pre-empt the risk of its overthrow by a new AI challenger.

The CHRO is the new CIO: This is a rather controversial statement, one that will not endear me to my chief information officer friends. However, I believe that GenAI is a democratic technology and will aid businesses if every employee becomes an AI user. 

For that, leaders will need to set a new culture that fosters experimentation with GenAI and AI literacy among employees. The responsibility for this will rest squarely with the chief human resources officer.

The new human will incorporate AI: Yuval Noah Harari talks about how Homo sapiens would evolve to become super-humans, thanks to AI and biotechnology advances, a species he calls Homo Deus. ‘Deus’ literally means God, hinting at our divinity-like future. 

It is a provocative concept, although Elon Musk seems to be a fan of the idea, with his Neuralink project working to integrate AI and machines with human brains.

Also read: India’s generative AI startups look beyond ChatGPT-like models

Thus, AI and GenAI will offer much more than what today’s chatbots do and will soon become a general purpose technology that could shape the future of our species and our planet. 

Therefore, I believe that the concept of literacy will go beyond knowing language and arithmetic to getting as familiar and proficient with AI as possible. We will all need to become AI literate.