AI is asking you to imagine something you've never seen. And it's hard to be what you can't see.

I was speaking to the CEO who said 'we lack the imagination to even know what's possible', and it really stuck with me.

Unless you're really into AI, it really is hard to see what to do beyond 'get ChatGPT licenses for everyone' because how are you supposed to know what's possible when very few people in this space are pushing the boundaries?

The way I'm trying to bridge this 'imagination gap' for consumer brands is by taking inspiration from the businesses and the individuals who are operating right at the edge.

Here are 3 sources of inspiration for me at the moment:

'Companies as Code'
If AI can do extraordinary things when given a set of 'skills' – essentially just well-structured text files – what happens when you codify your business in the same way? Your processes documented, your data accessible, your operating system written down in a form that AI can act on. So you don't just aim to be a consumer brand that uses AI, but a consumer brand whose operations are built to run like software.

AI driven software development
I spent time with a group of AI engineers who weren't just using AI to write code. They'd built entire systems where AI writes the code, tests it, catches its own mistakes, and iterates until it works. Their focus wasn't on building software. Instead, they'd built the machine that builds software. What's the equivalent for a non-technical business?

See also – compound engineering.

Claude Code for knowledge work
Claude Code for non-technical use cases has been having a moment (and OpenClaw is Claude Code in a trench coat). If you want to really geek out, explore the Claude Code+Obsidian combo. Claude Code has become the default way in which I work and am building my consultancy business.