Pop the kettle on, grab a slice of toast, and settle in. I’ve just finished recording a quick-fire podcast for my digital-strategy workshop, and it reminded me how much (and how little) has shifted since I last ran these sessions a year ago.
The Waves We’ve Ridden
Remember the early days of the web—the dot-com gold rush and that glorious dial-up screech? That was Wave One. Then mobiles took over and everything had to fit in a palm (Wave Two). Wave Three arrived when our fridges and thermostats started gossiping with each other under the banner of the Internet of Things.
And now we’re in Wave Four: AI on tap. OpenAI’s ChatGPT clocked six million users in its first week—what Facebook took a year to do back in the day. Suddenly every creative prompt, marketing brief, or half-baked idea can be spun up into something usable in seconds. That’s exciting, alarming, and utterly irresistible all at once.
Why My Slides Haven’t Changed (Much)
Here’s the odd bit. I dusted off my workshop deck expecting to rewrite half of it, but the core slides—the ones that ask Who are you?, What do you stand for?, Who needs to hear from you? They are still rock-solid. Technology sprints ahead, but the fundamentals of good communication don’t budge.
One slide in particular just says, “Technology moves. Your mission shouldn’t.” Every time it comes up, heads nod, pens pause, someone takes a picture. Because once you nail down values and audience, the shiny tools sort themselves out: email, TikTok, AI, sky-writing—pick whatever serves the mission.
The New Toys in the Box
Text-to-Image on steroids. Midjourney felt magic last year; now OpenAI’s Sora churns out sharper, more coherent visuals in the time it takes me to sip tea.
VR & AR headsets everywhere. Meta Ray-Bans, Apple Vision Pro, knock-offs galore. Fun playgrounds, sure, but not yet the centre of gravity for most brands.
NFTs? Blink and you missed them. Useful case studies in hype cycles, though.
The catch? AI inherits every bias we feed it. Ask for a “diverse team photo” and it goes overboard; forget diversity and it serves up the default stereotypes. Context is everything. A historical Battle of Hastings scene doesn’t need a UN-style crowd, but a modern marketing mock-up definitely should look like the real world.
Balancing Human & Machine
Here’s where I have to remind myself—and you—that tools don’t think. They amplify. They save time, spark ideas, chew through data, but they can’t decide why your organisation exists or who you want to serve. That’s still on us.
So before you automate yet another workflow, pause for a human moment:
Re-read your values. Are they still true?
Talk to an actual customer. When was the last time?
Audit the gear. Which platforms still earn their keep, and which are just eating budget?
Pick one AI experiment. Small, low-risk, high-learning. Then review together over real coffee.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Brewing
I’m pouring most of my energy into this Substack because it’s the one space where I can riff, teach, and hear back from you without algorithmic chaos in the way. If this post raised a question—or sparked an aha!—hit reply or drop a comment. And if you haven’t joined yet, pop over to substack.com/@teaandtoast and hit subscribe.
More stories, tools, and the occasional six-fingered AI blooper are on the way. Thanks for sharing your tea break with me, and here’s to steering our missions through whatever Wave Five throws at us.
Pritesh 🫖🥖
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