
The Politics, Economics, Technology, and Market of AI: Lessons from 1873
Today I summarize my keynote from Unleash Paris this week, where I draw a line between generative AI’s birth in November of 2022 and the Railroad Era of 1873. Not only are the parallels uncannily similar, it points out that AI’s takeover of our economy has impacted employment, politics, and our teetering stock and bond market. I recommend you read two books after you listen to this. The first is 1873: The First Great Recession , which describes the global financial disaster brought on by the railroad boom. The second is our new book Superpowered: How AI Unlocks The Power of People, Leadership, and Teams . These two books will teach you what is likely to happen in our confusing new AI era, and how you should proceed. I also describe why the economics of AI are about to change, how NVIDIA has become a monopolist, and why there is no such thing as an “AI transformation,” rather a “Business transformation.” And I explain HR 2030 and how to think about your AI architecture before you rush out and buy dozens of new agents. Finally I also explain the four big use-cases for AI in HR, so you can stay focused in your investments. PS: Galileo is now available integrated with Workday, HiBob, Ema, Microsoft Copilot, Gloat, and ServiceNow. New executive compensation benchmarking data from Equilar is now added! Additional Reading Material Time to re-frame HR as an integrated OS? Josh Bersin makes his case Workday and Josh Bersin Company Partner on HR 2030 Education and Research Despite Massive AI Investments, HR Jobs Are Booming. Why? Introducing The Leader’s Guide To Multi-Agent AI Architecture Galileo Jupiter Release goes Enterprise Chapters (00:00:00) - Back from Europe: Unleashed Conference Recap (00:00:49) - The AI Buildout Boom and the Railroad Parallel (00:03:19) - AI Costs, Nvidia's Dominance, and Market Growth (00:04:44) - Inflation, Energy Crisis, and Worker Unrest (00:05:57) - Wage Stagnation, Labor Share, and Employee Engagement (00:07:55) - HR's Confusion and Vendor Landscape (Workday, SAP, Oracle, etc.) (00:09:24) - Wall Street Pressure and Buying AI the Right Way (00:10:05) - AI as Growth Driver, Not Cost Cutter (00:10:24) - Productivity Needs and GDP Growth Math (00:11:49) - Building AI as an Enterprise Architecture (00:12:42) - Build vs Buy and Managing AI Agents (00:14:08) - Big Vendors' Advantage and Data Ownership (00:15:09) - Framing AI as Business Projects, Not Tech Projects (00:15:51) - The J Curve and Vendor Market Shakeout (00:17:00) - HR 2030 Resources and European Riots Context (00:17:54) - Frontier Vendor Hype vs Market Reality (00:19:02) - Four High-ROI HR AI Project Areas (00:20:06) - Learning, L&D, and Galileo Learn (00:21:06) - Redesigning HR Business Partner Roles (00:22:12) - Other Opportunities: Onboarding, Payroll, Compensation (00:23:22) - Skepticism Toward AI Hype Figures (00:24:31) - Data Center Overbuild and Economic Outlook (00:24:58) - Superpowered Vision: Wages, Growth, and HR 2030 (00:25:51) - Europe's Pragmatic AI Approach and Closing Thoughts













