Someone asked me if AI, if it was around in the 1990's, could have advised Sears to take on Amazon.
I replied that Sears should not have had to "take on" Amazon. They should have been Amazon.
They were Amazon in the late 19th / early centuries. They took advantage of the high tech at the time (railroads) to deliver their catalogs and products all over America. They let people in small towns shop remotely and have a much greater choice.
But, in the 80s/80s, they got distracted by trying to play in finance and insurance, and they lacked a visionary/critical thinker who could see the analogy between the internet and the railroad.
An AI would not have caught this. That is why humans need to be the leaders. Human's strengths (critical thinking, imagination, and communication/story telling) will be ever more important.
© 2025 Praveen Puri
