AI is like 2007 all over again.

Everyone knows something big just happened, but most people have no idea what it actually means.

Back then, the iPhone launched.
And suddenly, every company was scrambling to “go mobile.”

- Mobile-friendly websites
- Mobile CRM dashboards
- Shrunk-down apps that did less, looked worse, and cost more to build

Most businesses missed the point.
They saw a new channel.
What they missed was a new platform.

- BlackBerry thought mobile was about better email.
- Nokia thought it was about hardware specs.
- Microsoft thought it was about squeezing Windows onto a smaller screen.

All technically correct. All strategically dead.

Meanwhile, the winners didn’t adapt, they reinvented.

- Uber was only possible because GPS, payments, and drivers lived in your pocket.
- Instagram didn’t shrink the desktop web, it built for mobile behaviour.
- Stripe and Square didn’t digitise the old model, they burned it down and built simpler ones.

They didn’t add mobile.
They were mobile.

Now we’re watching the same movie again, just with different characters.

AI is the new platform shift.
And already, companies are repeating the same mistakes:

– Adding AI-generated content to bad content strategies
– Automating broken workflows faster
– Launching “AI copilots” that no one actually uses

The question isn’t how you’re using AI.
It’s what you’re rebuilding because of it.

Because five years from now, the businesses that win won’t be the ones that “adopted” AI.
They’ll be the ones that look completely different, because they were only possible in an AI-native world.

If you’re an operator today, ask yourself:

– Are we just adding AI to check a box?
– Or are we designing a business that couldn’t exist without it?

The next Uber is already being built somewhere.
Somewhere else, the next BlackBerry is clinging to their feature set.

History doesn’t repeat, but it definitely rhymes.