- By Charles Miller
We all hold our breath when the Reserve Bank announces changes to the OCR (Official Cash Rate).
Our mortgage goes up or down, and our spending adjusts accordingly.
Lending, borrowing, and interest rates are part of life, but did you know they have been so since before the start of recorded history?
Over 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, the first writing, cuneiform, appeared as simple chisel marks on clay tablets.
One early use was managing interest. A loan of sheep earned “interest” in lambs born the next season and was recorded in clay.
Cuneiform gave us the infrastructure for nationhood, and the trade networks essential for economic growth and modern life.
Fast-forward 4000 years to Gutenberg, serial entrepreneur of the 1400s.
After setbacks, he converted wine presses into printing presses, triggering a knowledge explosion.
In 1450 there were no printed books in Europe; by 1500 there were six million, and by 1600 close to 200 million.
Early adopters saw their economies grow nearly twice as fast as laggards.
Printing spread science, engineering, and the ideas and knowledge that fuelled the Industrial Revolution, which doubled real GDP per capita in Britain between 1780 and 1870.
Other technology inflection points followed: the telegraph collapsed communication time from weeks to minutes; electricity powered factories and homes; oil transformed transport and industry; computers and the internet connected and automated the world.
Each revolutionised work and lifted growth, incomes and lifestyles.
AI (Artificial Intelligence), the term, was first coined in 1956. What we call “AI” today is the current ‘giant leap’, powered by exponentially faster chips, oceans of data, and algorithms that have been developing over the last 70 years.
McKinsey estimates this ‘AI’, could add $2.6 to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy, equivalent to the total GDP of the UK, the sixth largest economy worldwide.
We’re on the cusp of a surge in global development and living standards.
Today’s AI is not about ChatGPT drafting an email. It’s intuitive systems delivering dramatic increases in productivity.
Lincoln Agritech uses AI vision to automate orchard thinning, Orbica helps councils manage infrastructure with geo‑AI and Script Sense supports pharmacists with AI-led prescription triage.
For business owners starting up this ladder is simpler than it looks. First experiment with generative tools like ChatGPT or Claude for writing, summarising, brainstorming, trend spotting and admin tasks.
Last week OpenAI launched ChatGPT 5 – get to know it. Then audit your current systems, for instance Xero, Office 365, and job management systems.
These already include AI features, find out about, and play with these enhancements.
In architecture for instance Revit is leading the way with AI features.
Choose a problem area inventory say, or quoting, rostering, or forecasting and search out a specialised AI tool that focusses on this issue.
Most importantly stay curious, watch, listen, test, learn, and adapt. Every past inflection point favoured the early adopters.
Every wave has lifted the income and lifestyle of those that learnt to ride it. This one will be no different. The question isn’t whether it will change your work or take your job, it’s whether you will equip yourself to use it to your advantage.
The first mover opportunity is real, grab it with both hands.
