What Microwaves Can Teach Us About the Future of AI

April 2025 Strategy Update

This quick strategy update compares the rise of AI to past household technologies like microwaves and washing machines, showing how transformative tools gradually reshape society in four stages: initial adoption, unintended consequences, social restructuring, and eventual invisibility.

We’re still early in AI’s journey, mostly using it to automate existing tasks, but the real impact will come as society reorganizes around the time and capabilities AI unlocks. Like past innovations, AI will eventually fade into the background while leaving a profoundly transformed world behind.