Summary

Joe Reis argues that AI should be compared to electrification rather than the dot-com bubble, drawing on Paul David's research showing that electric motors took 40 years to boost productivity because factories kept the old steam-era layouts. He contends that enterprises today are making the same mistake—bolting AI onto existing architectures and org structures instead of fundamentally redesigning how work gets done.

Key Insight

AI's productivity gains won't come from adopting the technology itself but from fundamentally redesigning organizational structures and workflows around it—a transformation that history suggests will take decades, not years.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 7

  A CoPilot subscription doesn't magically transform you into an AI company.

• 8

  You've paved the cow path with better asphalt. But it's still a cow path.

• 6

  We're in 1905. The electric motor works, and everyone's bought one. Almost nobody has redesigned the factory to fully optimize the motor's potential.

• 7

  At some point, you've got to look in the mirror and ask: Is it the tech, or is it us? I think it's us. It's always been us.

• 7

  That's the 2026 equivalent of bolting an electric motor onto your steam engine and declaring you've electrified the factory.

Tone

analytical, provocative, historically-grounded