Chasing AI, Waiting for solutions

AI as a technology that will transform our lives. But I also believe that the fear and frustration, born from the uncertainty created by any transformational technology, makes us chase a foothold on the future while neglecting the problems we face today.

I started Seventh Mile Analytics because I believe the concrete problems in the present that the individual, the entrepreneur, and the executive face, are solvable. AI is capable of providing many of these solutions, but is not the only solution. My career as a data scientist has been solely focused on operational efficiencies. Be it the technical complexities of cybersecurity or the demands of R&D to solve the tangled world of language, the problems to solve have remained a constant. What has changed is the toolkit we have available to solve them.

Chasing AI, fueled by the dreams of Silicon Valley, is chasing a promise instead of a solution. The next model update, the next trend, and the next framework promises that the inadequacies of products today is merely temporary. The speed of these updates has made this promise plausible. But advancement is neither exponential nor linear. We are already seeing diminishing returns in updates. As debt based financing demands return on investment, the great promise is returning to the sober reality of sustainability.

Many, not all, will break those promises not out of malice or even inability to fulfill the promise. They will break them because, like all businesses, a dream cannot sustain itself indefinitely.

I believe that there is a world of opportunity, already available to us, that can be seized. My expertise in operational efficiencies is guided by metrics and strategy for meeting the problems of today, with iterations that exist within the current capabilities.

AI should not, and cannot, be a substitute for your goals, strategy, and mission. Chasing after it in order to survive will only dilute what already makes you unique and successful. Data, analytics, and AI need to be broken down based on your problems to create the unique solutions you need and want, to drive your vision and future through the transformation.

You already solve problems

You already solve problems. Often, you solve more problems that you are even aware of. As we progress in becoming experts, our power lies in cutting through the noise and finding the signal. We forget this capability so much that we even begin to lose the ability to explain it. “It just is”, is the mark of experience. Problems and distractions which we chased after when we started are no longer even options because we’ve seen and experienced where those paths lead us.

In short, you already have instincts that are hard won and accurate.

AI has been a brutal shock to that. It has made experts suddenly aware of their mental muscle memory like never before. What was intuitive, like riding a bike, now has to be explained to an AI model in text. It drives us out of our intuitive flow and into feeling like we have to relearn everything in order to use this new technology. It’s doing two things at the same time to us, and we can lose our bearings. Add to this that non-experts can suddenly appear to gain the cultivated edge that took years to develop, the fear begins to paralyze.

I, myself, have felt this as a data scientist. I have seen it take over brilliant people and thrown them into self doubt.

A musician cannot learn a new instrument if they believe they must first forget everything they know about music. A product owner cannot identify features and communicate requirements if they believe that they must forget everything they know first. A developer cannot use coding tools if they believe their skills have no value. A writer cannot leverage Gemini if they believe their voice will disappear.

Treating AI as a replacement fuels this problem by not only creating these concerns, but casting into doubt even what we will still need to know tomorrow.

We will always need problem solvers.

We will always need the curious and the pragmatic.

We will always need to know what to do. AI is just one of many tools that addresses how.

How I can help

I am not here to tell you what AI can do for you without knowing you. An engagement with me, whether one hour, one week, or one quarter, is about the problems that you uniquely face and questions that cannot be found in a blog article or a press release. Fundamental to data science is that it starts with the business problem and the success is not measured by what technology solved it, but the goodness of fit the solution provides.

Problems, to me, do not exist in a vacuum. They cannot be plucked from their context without resulting in a solution that has no context. They are problems precisely because they prevent something important to your goals and ambitions. I want to understand not only the problem, but why it is a problem in the first place. Often, in my experience, what seems insurmountable and therefore requires a big solution is a series of smaller problems that can be addressed iteratively and in a clear order that builds off of prior successes.

Once I have understood both the problem and the context, you will receive personalized education for data literacy as well as AI, a roadmap with detailed and achievable milestones, all tailored to meet you where you are now so that you can be successful in wherever you want to go next.