We Are the Product

There were two interesting topics I wanted to talk about but one will wait for Monday. I settled for us being the product in a new AI world. This concept has been a sci-fi thriller for decades but always seen as "in the distant future with flying cars and alien travel." That reality is now here, or scratching the surface of it. And it has been here for a decade, if you realized it or not.

The mid to late 2000's saw two products change the way we interacted with the world: social media and the touchscreen smartphone. Both of these concepts used us, the user, as the product. Social media had no product except the user posting information to other users. The touchscreen allowed us to use our fingers to control the product with apps tailored for us with information about us (photos, contacts, texts). At the time, these two remained separate from each other due to limited capabilities of the mobile phone (first iPhone had no app store, limited web functions, no 3G, etc.) Social media was seen as a website to post status updates and play Farmville. Life was simple.

Then the products combined. Apple partnered with Twitter and Facebook to launch exclusive features through your settings app to fully immerse yourself in both the phone and social media. Around this time, Google Glasses came out to allow you to be constantly check your information. We have never looked back.

Most people expect robot AI to completely take us over with the snap of the finger and that will.... not happen. It is a gradual change to a world that shares both with us as the product. This business model is very effective for both the consumer and the business. Humans will exist for another 5 billion years pending a world ending event, and human interests have remained the same since life began. Exploiting those psychological fears, insecurities, and shortfalls by creating dependence is being done and will continue to be done through AI. We rely on a world that allows technology to operate alongside us rather than us controlling it. As more jobs continue to shift to technology-based and virtual only (especially in the financial industry), this gap will continue to expand until we are fully immersed. The day is closer than we think.

The takeaway remains to be simple: we are the best products. We offer instant feedback along with so much data that algorithms know me better than I know myself. Scary? Sure, but that's business 101. The product exists because it has sales and a following. Welcome to the new metaverse.

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