Over the past few years, I have written a weekly column as a way to chronicle the steady march of innovation. It was, in many ways, a discipline of observation—an attempt to make sense of technological change as it unfolded, one idea at a time, through the permanence of print. But history has a way of accelerating beyond the formats we use to describe it.
What once felt sufficient—measured reflection, captured in text—now feels incomplete. The pace of change, the layering of complexity, and the significance of this current technological moment demand a broader lens. Writing remains essential, but it can no longer carry the full weight of what is happening. This is a moment that calls for engagement.
Not just commentary, but conversation. Not just analysis, but documentation across multiple forms—print, certainly, but also audio, video, and, perhaps most importantly, direct dialogue. Small, deliberate gatherings where ideas are tested, refined, and understood in real time.
There is something distinct about this period. It is not merely louder than previous waves of innovation. It is deeper. It challenges not only what we build, but how we think about building itself. And it requires a more intentional approach to capturing its meaning.
We have, in some sense, encountered this kind of inflection point before.
In the early days of the internet, companies debated whether they needed a website. It was a legitimate question at the time. But within a decade, the debate vanished. The web had moved from being an optional feature to becoming the underlying foundation of modern business.
Artificial intelligence now occupies a similar position.
It is not arriving as an addition to existing systems. It is quietly redefining what those systems are. This shift was articulated with characteristic clarity by Jeff Bezos during a conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook Summit hosted by The New York Times. Bezos has long argued that certain technologies are horizontal—they cut across industries, reshaping each of them from within. Electricity did this. The internet did this. And now, artificial intelligence is beginning to do the same.
As he put it, “AI… is a horizontal enabling layer. It can be used to improve everything. It will be in everything.”
The significance of that statement is easy to underestimate.
If AI is truly horizontal, then it cannot be treated as a discrete tool or a set of isolated capabilities. It becomes infrastructure—something embedded so deeply into the fabric of an organization that it changes how decisions are made, how customers are served, and how value is created. It enters quietly, often at the margins, and then, almost suddenly, it is everywhere.
At Amazon, this was not an abstract idea. Artificial intelligence was woven into the company’s operations long before it became a public narrative—powering recommendation engines, optimizing logistics, and ultimately forming the backbone of Amazon Web Services. What emerged was not just operational efficiency, but a system of compounding advantage.
For today’s business leaders, this presents a challenge that is as uncomfortable as it is urgent.
Most organizations are still approaching AI as a vertical initiative. They are experimenting with tools, launching pilot projects, and measuring incremental gains. These are necessary steps. But they are not sufficient. Because they do not address the more fundamental question:
Where is AI absent from the system?
That question reframes AI from a technical deployment to a leadership imperative. It demands a shift from adding capabilities to redesigning the enterprise itself.
If AI has the potential to influence every layer of an organization, then every layer must be reconsidered—customer journeys, cost structures, decision-making processes, even the nature of work. The companies that recognize this are not asking how to use AI. They are asking how to rebuild around it.
This is not simply a matter of speed. It is a matter of coherence.
In many organizations, AI is being introduced in fragments—disconnected tools addressing disconnected problems. The result is a growing complexity that can easily be mistaken for progress. But horizontal technologies do not reward fragmentation. They reward integration. They require systems thinking.
And it is here that a new divide is beginning to emerge.
Not between companies that use AI and those that do not, but between those that integrate it deeply and those that layer it superficially. The former will generate compounding value. The latter will accumulate noise.
History suggests that when a horizontal technology takes hold, it does more than improve existing systems. It renders old models obsolete and gives rise to new ones that, in retrospect, appear inevitable. The organizations that succeed are not simply early adopters. They are those willing to re-architect themselves entirely.
Artificial intelligence is following that trajectory.
The question is no longer whether it will transform your business. That transformation is already underway.
The real question is whether you are treating AI as a feature—or recognizing it for what it has become:A new foundation. In the coming weeks, I will share more about this foundation and how I will be documenting its development within businesses.
