I spent a long drive heading to the Outer Banks of North Carolina listening to The Coming Wave. The book lays out a huge vision and warnings of powerful new technologies—especially AI—reshaping everything we know. But as I passed quiet fields and small towns, I couldn’t help noticing how life there felt steady and slow.
I was on my way to a beach town to meet with a client about new revenue ideas. Ironically, the ideas we planned to discuss weren’t about the next big piece of technology at all; they were based on a simple, proven concept that’s been around for a while. It was a stark reminder that this “coming wave” of technology isn’t going to arrive everywhere at the same time, and it won’t look the same in every place.
Big Shifts Rarely Start the Way We Think
In the book, the author talks about “general-purpose technologies”—the kind of inventions that end up changing everything, even though they start with a very narrow purpose.
Think about the printing press. It was designed to print more Bibles, but it kicked off the scientific revolution. Or the car: people once saw it as a cleaner alternative to the piles of horse manure in city streets. Nobody predicted how it would become the climate change Trojan Horse.
The question isn’t whether AI will reshape our world—it’s already happening. The question is whether we’ll have the wisdom to guide this transformation, or whether we’ll once again find ourselves surprised by forces we set in motion but failed to fully comprehend.
History shows that when societies stop progressing, they stagnate. But chasing growth without thinking ahead has its own risks.
Rome grew so fast that it couldn’t manage its empire. The Tower of Babel is basically a story about big ambitions without a good process. Legends like Atlantis warn of civilizations collapsing under their own success.
Technology can grow exponentially, but that doesn’t mean it’s always stable or safe.
Hype Travels Faster Than Reality
If you spend time on LinkedIn or at conferences, you’ll hear the warning: adopt AI now or be left behind. But the reality is uneven. Big-city companies with deep pockets may move quickly, while rural businesses, family-owned shops, or heavily regulated industries take much longer.
Geography, regulation, and skills all matter. A downtown Atlanta agency with fiber internet can experiment freely. A rural Montana accounting firm may still struggle with cloud basics. Hospitals and banks can’t “move fast and break things” without risking lives or lawsuits. And the talent pool for AI specialists is thin, expensive, and already dominated by tech giants.
Most importantly, not every problem needs an AI solution. Sometimes the issue isn’t a lack of sophistication—it’s a broken process, poor communication, or simply not enough staff. Throwing AI at the wrong problem doesn’t fix it.
The companies that succeed aren’t the ones that rush in. They’re the ones that start where they are, run small pilots, and build capacity step by step. The tortoise still beats the hare.
Culture Often Lags Behind Technology
The telephone was once seen as an intrusion. Television was accused of rotting brains. Social media was dismissed as a fad for teenagers. Culture doesn’t update as quickly as technology does, and that gap matters. New tools don’t succeed unless people are ready to use them.
AI is no different. Employees worry about being replaced. Creatives fear their craft being devalued. Parents wonder if machine tutors can match human teachers. These aren’t just emotional reactions—they’re shaped by history and real disruption.
That’s why technical capability is only half the equation. The other half is cultural readiness—and that moves at the speed of people, not silicon.
Questions to Ask Before Jumping In
Before you chase the next big thing, pause and ask yourself: What real problem am I solving? It’s easy to get swept up in technological possibilities, but the most successful implementations start with genuine pain points. Are you automating a process that’s actually broken, or just automating for automation’s sake?
Consider what needs to be in place for this technology to add value. Do you have the data infrastructure? The right team skills? The organizational processes that will support the change? A brilliant AI tool is worthless if your data is messy, your staff is untrained, or your workflows can’t accommodate the new system.
Think about how it will affect trust, culture, and relationships. Technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it reshapes how people work together, how customers interact with your business, and how decisions get made. Will this change strengthen or weaken the human connections that your organization depends on?
These questions keep you from acting out of fear of missing out and help you make clear-headed decisions based on your actual situation rather than industry pressure.
Progress Isn’t a Single Race
The coming wave of technology is real, but it won’t hit everywhere at once like a tsunami. Progress will happen in waves, with different regions, industries, and organizations moving at their own pace based on their unique constraints and opportunities.
Some sectors will leapfrog ahead quickly—think software companies or digital-native businesses that can iterate rapidly. Others will move more deliberately, bound by regulations, legacy systems, or the simple reality that their customers aren’t ready for dramatic change. A rural hospital implementing AI diagnostics faces different challenges than a Silicon Valley startup building the latest app.
This uneven adoption isn’t a bug—it’s a feature. It means there’s time to learn from early adopters’ mistakes, to build better training programs, and to develop implementation strategies that actually work in the real world. The companies that succeed often aren’t the first movers, but the thoughtful followers who understand both the technology’s potential and their own readiness to harness it.