Mike Bechtel, former Chief Futurist at Deloitte and holder of 12 U.S. patents, reveals why most companies are catastrophically misunderstanding AI by treating it as corporate cost-cutting rather than rocket fuel for innovation. He introduces the game-changing concept of the "automation waterline" and explains why the real existential risk of AI isn't sentience—it's scaled externalities from uninspired leadership with an imagination deficit. Learn why this could be the greatest moment in history for entrepreneurs while being the trickiest time ever to be an employee at a large organization.
Managing Director & Chief Futurist | Deloitte Consulting LLP
Mike Bechtel leads Deloitte's research into novel and exponential technologies most likely to impact the future of business, helping clients develop strategies to thrive in the face of discontinuity and disruption. His team scouts technologies 3+ years from widespread business impact and builds relationships with startups, incumbents, and academic institutions creating tomorrow's innovations.
Adjunct Professor of Corporate Innovation | University of Notre Dame
Bechtel teaches corporate innovation and intrapreneurship at Notre Dame's ESTEEM program (Master of Entrepreneurship), where he helps students learn how to drive change in companies full of skeptical experts. He has delivered over 2,500 keynotes to company all-hands, C-Suites, Boards of Directors, government, academic, and conference audiences on six continents.
Co-Founder & Former Managing Director | Ringleader Ventures
Founded in 2013, Bechtel co-founded and led this early-stage venture capital firm that invested in startups building simple solutions to complex corporate challenges, creating profitable partnerships between established enterprises and emerging entrepreneurs. He brings an investor's perspective to identifying viable business models in emerging technology spaces.
Imagination Deficit | Companies are underinvesting in what they would ask if they had a genie lamp, focusing on cost savings instead of elevated ambitions.
Automation Waterline | The rising tide that frees humans from muck work so they can reallocate time to magic and higher-order pursuits.
Corporate Ozempic Problem | Leaders are treating generative AI as a cost-cutting tool rather than rocket fuel for tomorrow's work.
Tech Comes Last | No matter how shiny the hammer, you must start with the rusty nail and problems worth solving.
Statistics on Steroids | Generative AI is a guessing machine that makes parlor tricks mystifying through massive GPUs, electricity, and data.
Library of Alexandria | AI represents the closest thing we have to a conversational sum total of human knowledge.
Productive Discomfort | The speed of AI experimentation is faster than established organizations' cycle time to review and implement.
Entrepreneurial Restructuring | It's never been trickier to be an employee but never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.
Sorcerer's Apprentice Risk | The real danger isn't robots with grudges but scaled machines just following orders without conscience.
No Singularity Coming | Nothing in the math suggests statistics on steroids will suddenly develop initiative or take conscience.
00:00 - 05:02 | Where Companies Are Getting AI Wrong
05:03 - 10:15 | The Automation Waterline Concept Explained
10:16 - 15:28 | Corporate Ozempic vs Rocket Fuel Mindset
15:29 - 20:41 | How to Think About Generative AI
20:42 - 25:54 | The Imagination Deficit in Leadership
25:55 - 31:07 | Why Employees Face Their Trickiest Time
31:08 - 36:20 | The Golden Age for Entrepreneurs
36:21 - 41:33 | AI as Brainstorming Partner and Library
41:34 - 46:46 | The Real Existential Risk of AI
46:47 - 50:25 | Sentience vs Scaled Externalities Problem
"Take it from a geek, tech comes last."
"No matter how shiny the hammer, it's imperative that we start with the rusty little nail."
"They're underinvesting in their imagination."
"We shouldn't be thinking of generative AI as corporate Ozempic, as a corporate GLP-one. We should be thinking of it as rocket fuel for tomorrow's elevated ambitions."
"If this waterline comes not as a threat, not as a flood, but if it rises so that you spend less time on muck, you can reallocate that time to the magic."
"Two and a half million years of human history says every time we build tools, it frees precious human cycles for higher order pursuits."
"I use it as a brainstorming partner. What my friend Mike Maddock celebrated was its patience, that when you interact with a generative AI, you can be six years old again and just relentlessly say, why? Why? Why?"
"Maybe it's never been a trickier time to be an employee at a large organization because your stakeholders are looking, to my chagrin, primarily looking at cost takeout, speed ups, again, corporate Ozempic."
"On the flip side, the glass half full is maybe it's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur."
"Nothing I've seen in the math of any of this suggests that statistics on steroids suddenly develop a conscience, take initiative."
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