“I would say as a human civilization…everything is about to change. Everything we know, the paradigms that we’ve built are really post-industrial area,” - Tony Navarro, Red Ventures

Chat GPT. Gemini. Copilot. We are using generative AI more and more for answers—like what to eat and menu creation, exercise plans—you name it.

Certainly, a significant leap forward with AI has happened but, do you understand what it is? Why is it that now AI can do more than ever before?

If you’re like me, you want to understand what is driving AI’s evolution and how will it impact our businesses and lives moving forward?

According to Francisco (Tony) Navarro from Red Ventures, “We are riding a major exponential curve. We are seeing that in 2025 and 2026 there are arguably exponential inflection points as far as our acceleration [into AI].

“I would say as a human civilization…everything is about to change. Everything we know, the paradigms that we’ve built are really post-industrial area,” said Navarro.

He then provided examples stating, “The contacts that we have between labor and capital are going to change. The five-day work week and the way we operate that’s likely going to change—we’re about to see a massive disruption across every prism of our life.”

Few may be aware that AI has been around since the 1950s. However, in 2018, a significant shift in the technology was the impetus for the usage we see today. Switching from symbolic reasoning based on rule-based systems to prediction ones based on patterns allowed the technology to evolve from pushing out responses based on rules to be able to predict responses based on likelihoods and significant reasonings and language patterns. Large Language Models like (GPTs) used this reasoning capabilities and trained AI technology on massive datasets enabling them to perform tasks such as summarizing, translating and even problem-solving.

Where is AI headed? We are heading for Artificial General Intelligence or AGI. This is when artificial intelligence can run and operate autonomously. For example, it will run a business by itself, without any human involvement. After that, we will hit Artificial Super Intelligence, which is expected to surpass all levels of human intelligence.

This reality is not too far away. According to a test, called ARC-AGI, given to measure AI’s intelligence in comparison to that of a human’s high-performance, AGI was expected to happen later. Yet, in the past 5 years, AI learning has begun to compress and that anticipated state is getting closer, sooner.

According to experts, AI is now at a level equivalent to a person with a bachelor’s degree or a bit beyond. In six months, AI will be equivalent to a person with a doctoral degree and it will continue to escalate from there.

In fact, the CEO of a leading AGI lab, called Anthropic, warned that AGI that entry-leveled jobs in finance, consulting and other white-collared positions may first be augmented and then replaced by AI causing a financial crisis by 2030.

“AI is both magical and dangerous.” From what I can ascertain, it’s a lot like other resources that humans use. Take money for instance. AI has can be used to solve world-problems or to devastate—we as the co-creators in this intelligence have a choice on how we use this resource and how it can be respected while it services the betterment of humanity,” said Oscar Cullen, also from Red Ventures.

Your Business Takeaway: AI’s growth is accelerating and will certainly shift the way we do business. Be proactive and learn about AI then do a business assessment to see which tasks can be automated with an AI Agent and where you can better use your time and energy. Be strategic now.