Do you know how to surf the AI wave? You better learn...

We don't know what the future may look like, but I bet it's going to look more like this than we might expect: (image of housekeeper sweeping an iRobot automated vacuum store)

There will be very practical applications, and there will be situations where the new application simply isn't plausible. The opening of an iRobot store creates new opportunities, and old ones are reinforced.

If you are familiar with the concept of backwardation - you will know that the cost of an asset can be affected by different levels of demand. A lot of trades involve two-way transactions, and this is where it gets interesting.

When the demand for a given asset is high, there could be periods when the prices are higher than what they would normally be - causing a "backward loop". One example of that now is in healthcare. The demand for workers that can take care of an aging parent is so high, that it is driving up labor costs.

Imagine you are a 'parent sitter' that was used to making $25 an hour to sit and keep an elderly person from burning the house down while they go about their normal activities. Due to demand, the rates for those people are pushing $50 an hour in some markets. That person realizes they can work half as much now - they work 10 hours to make $500, instead of 20 hours to make $250, so they decide to work less, they enjoy the 10 hours trading crypto or working to develop new skills. This puts more pressure on prices... and drives labor costs higher again, that is backwardation where actions today to solve a problem make the problem worse. Like giving people money during COVID leads to inflation that requires we take money away (through higher interest rates).

AI will have fuel many challenges, it will make some jobs cheaper, or non-existent - but other jobs more valuable. A person working at a mortgage call center for $10 an hour that was eliminated by AI, might take a new job paying $25 an hour managing a call center AI dashboard showing data triggers. One recent study of a company that went full AI found after six months they were 30% more productive and were able to hire 3 new staff to manage the AI initiatives, there were no eliminated jobs.

Mortgage lenders, real estate agents, financial advisors - all will see massive changes in the next 5-10 years. Some will simply retire under the sheer weight of the wave of 'overwhelm' they experience, and others will surf that same wave into a career that exceeds anything they could have imagined.

TIP: Learn to surf.