The new AI revolution—and what you’re missing
(First of two parts)
First of all, ask yourself honestly how you are thinking about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) currently. As a search engine? As a chatbot? As a tool that still makes a lot of mistakes, so better we wait a little till these are gone? As a threat that can do more harm than good? As something that will be great “at some point,” but not now, not yet?
If you are a business leader, business owner or CEO and you answered “yes” to any of these, or if you hesitated just a little bit before you answered, you are already in what I call the “AI Trap.”
The AI trap
The AI trap is that you think you—and your business—is using AI, but you are actually not. You are left behind while others—your competitors—are racing in Formula 1 cars. What do I mean by that? Let’s take the replies above apart one by one.
First, if you are a business leader, CEO or business owner, you are in charge of the overall direction of the business and how it uses AI. Or you put someone in charge to do that.
But then, how do you know if that person isn’t doing his or her job if you are not at the forefront of what’s happening in AI yourself? How can you judge if you don’t know what to judge by?
You may say, “But I trust that person.” Well, there is a saying in Germany (I grew up there) that I have found to be very true in business: “It is good to trust, but it is better to control (Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser).”
This is true especially if you are dealing with a technology that is evolving so rapidly that it is hard for a lot of people to keep up with it.
The trap is: If you don’t understand where this is at, and how fast it is evolving, you may think you are doing everything right, but you are actually driving in an old VW beetle, while some of your competitors—or unforeseen enemies—are hitting the race track with a new Ferrari. And a Ferrari that gets constantly updated with a faster engine, on top of it!
If you are the boss, then you need to know—at least broadly—what’s happening so you can gauge if your business is moving in the right direction using AI in its full capacity.
The questions
Let’s go back to the questions. AI as a search engine: If you think that’s it’s main and primary function, you are light years behind. That was the primary use case years back.
As a chatbot? Yes, in the most basic of the AI consumer-facing versions, such as with ChatGPT, it is a chatbot. But this is a front to attract customers to the actual engine behind ChatGPT, the API engine.
What is that? That is the actual product of OpenAI. The OpenAI API allows developers to programmatically access OpenAI’s family of Large Language Models, to build customized chatbots, automation tools and applications.
In short, ChatGPT is a storefront to draw customers into the store and generate interest. The API is the actual product once you are in the store, and this is where OpenAI aims to make the actual big bucks.
So, if you thought of AI as a chatbot primarily, you are still having the mindset of the customers going by the store and looking at the storefront, but you don’t really know what’s inside it. Not good.
The hallucination trap
Even some of my best friends, among them esteemed entrepreneurs and business owners, still think of AI as a tool that still makes a lot of mistakes, so better to wait a little till these are gone.
Let me take you all the way back to when new technology hit mankind. Take cars, for example. Early automobiles suffered from serious “teething problems.” Rough, unpaved dirt roads damaged wheels and suspension systems, fuel was difficult to find reliably, engines often overheated and hand-crank starters could kick back violently enough to break a driver’s wrist.
Breakdowns were routine, leaving many early owners frequently dealing with sputtering engines, flat tires and other mechanical troubles.
Imagine you had to enter a marathon race at that time and you could have chosen between a horse and a car. And you would have said: “Let’s wait another 10 years to see if these new things called ‘cars’ are any good!”
In the same way that cars became ubiquitous, AI is going to stay. Some of the companies producing AI may go out of business, sure, that always happens in a time of tech revolution. But AI is here to stay, and the “hallucination” problems become less and less by the minute.
No need to wait till they are all gone, because your business might be all gone if you wait till then. Your competitors for sure are not going to wait till it’s all perfect!
You don’t need to understand it
AI is not only here to stay. It is also changing almost everything we touch, at an alarming rate of progress. Just like cars are everywhere now and you don’t see any horses on the streets.
Would it not be wise to know everything you can do with the car? You don’t need to understand how it works. Just what you—and your business—can do with it.
You also don’t need to understand how cars work to drive one, not will it make you a better driver if you do. You just need to know how to use it.
The same is true for AI. But if you don’t know how to use it, and what is possible, you are in BIG trouble. Because if you are the leader, your business will follow your direction.
And I mean BIG trouble. Because your competitors—and the unforeseen enemies you don’t even know about—are silently (or not so silently) putting their AI armies together.
What does that mean for you? You should know enough, or hire outside experts to tell you, what is possible and what is not. And then you tell your top tech people (or new ones, or outside AI experts) to get your business on the damn race track at hyper speed.
Here come the agents…
Let’s be practical. At the time of this writing, May 2026, there is only one main way you should be thinking of AI: As an army of hungry PhDs doing their best work for you 24/7. They never get tired, they never get hungry, they never ask for vacation or a raise. This is it. Armies and armies of tireless soldiers doing work for you, your business and almost everything that needs to be done. This is where we are at right now.
These are called “agents.” Think of an AI agent as a digital employee that can not only answer questions, but also take actions on its own. A normal AI chatbot is like a very smart librarian: You ask a question. It gives an answer. Conversation ends.
An AI agent is more like a capable PhD: It understands a goal; makes decisions; uses tools; takes multiple steps; adapts while working; sometimes works semiautonomously.
The key difference is this. Regular AI: “Here is information.” AI Agent: “I will handle the task.”
That’s the major shift. The simplest definition: An AI chatbot answers questions. An AI agent pursues goals and takes actions.
Next week we will explore everything these agents will be able to do for you—and your business. So you can be at the forefront of knowledge about what is possible—and then tell an expert to make that happen for your business.
(To be continued)
Tom Oliver, a “global management guru” (Bloomberg), is the chair of The Tom Oliver Group, the trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world’s most influential family businesses, medium-sized enterprises, market leaders and global conglomerates. For more information and inquiries: TomOliverGroup.com or email Tom.Oliver@inquirer.com.ph.
