Internet to AI
In late 1994, I was at the right place at the right time. My image processing venture was not making any headway; I realised I would need to shut it down and do something different. The Internet was beginning to weave its magic in the form of the World Wide Web. And I sensed there could be an opportunity there. And so it was that I came to launch IndiaWorld, India’s first Internet portals, in early 1995.
30 years later, a similar revolution is underway with the mainstreaming of AI. Like the Internet, it will impact every industry, every business, every individual, and everything we do. There will be winners and losers as Generative AI will make and break companies and business models. It is a “reset”. The process of creative destruction is underway. For those like me who are in their late 50s, this is fourth big technological revolution in our lives after the computer, Internet, and mobile. For incumbents and startups, this is a time of great opportunity – and peril.
In my essay Resetting ESP and Adtech Industries, I had quoted from a 2004 Harvard Business Review essay by Anita M. McGahan: “You can’t make intelligent investments within your organization unless you understand how your whole industry is changing. If the industry is in the midst of radical change, you’ll eventually have to dismantle old businesses. If the industry is experiencing incremental change, you’ll probably need to reinvest in your core. The need to understand change in your industry may seem obvious, but such knowledge is not always easy to come by. Companies misread clues and arrive at false conclusions all the time…To truly understand where your industry is headed, you have to shut out the noise from the popular business press and the pressure of immediate competitive threats to take a longer-term look at the context in which you do business.”
She adds: “Industries evolve along four distinct trajectories—radical, progressive, creative, and intermediating—that set boundaries on what will generate profits in a business… [These] trajectories…can help you anticipate how change will unfold in your industry—and how to take advantage of opportunities as they emerge. To get out from under industry threats, your company must cultivate a deep understanding of how changes to the industry will unfold over time. How will buyer and seller relationships be affected? And are intangible assets like brand capital and knowledge capital truly adaptable across industries? The work of systematically analyzing the business environment is not easy, but the payoff is great: better strategic decision-making for your company.”
What’s becoming clear is that Generative AI is a radical change. This big shift will bring along many small shifts – just like small tremors follow a big earthquake. In this series, I will discuss some history (with the help of the AIs) about industry transformations, and then discuss the present and future of the industry I know best – digital marketing.
