Technology Doesn’t Change the World. People Do.
By Carole Lawson, Co-Founder & Chief Data Officer, MarketStorm
Every generation believes it is living through the technological revolution that will change everything. Today, that technology is artificial intelligence. Twenty years ago, it was social media. Before that, it was the internet, email, smartphones, spreadsheets, and personal computers.
Each new innovation arrives accompanied by bold predictions. Some claim it will eliminate jobs. Others argue it will transform society. Many believe it will permanently alter the way people live and work. Sometimes those predictions are right. More often, however, the most profound effects are the ones nobody saw coming.
After spending decades working in and studying the evolution of technology and its impact on business, I’ve come to believe that we consistently make the same mistake. We focus on what the technology does instead of asking how people will behave differently because it exists. That distinction matters because technology rarely changes the world directly. Human behavior does.
The Question We Keep Getting Wrong
When a new technology emerges, businesses immediately begin evaluating capabilities. What tasks can it automate? How much faster is it? How much money can it save?
Those are useful questions, but they are rarely the most important ones.
A better question is: How will people change because this technology exists?
Technology influences how people communicate, make decisions, gather information, and form expectations. Over time, those behavioral shifts reshape industries. The technology itself is often just the catalyst. The real disruption occurs when millions of people begin using that technology in ways nobody originally anticipated.
History shows us this repeatedly. The companies that redefine industries are often not the first to adopt a new technology. They are the first to recognize how customer behavior is changing and build their strategies around those emerging expectations.
The Spreadsheet Didn’t Replace Accountants
One of the clearest examples came from the rise of the electronic spreadsheet. When spreadsheets became widely adopted in the 1980s, many experts predicted they would dramatically reduce the need for accountants. The logic sounded reasonable. If software could perform calculations instantly and accurately, why would organizations continue employing large numbers of financial professionals? The prediction failed because it misunderstood the role of accountants. Arithmetic was never the profession. It was simply one task within the profession.
Once spreadsheets eliminated the burden of manual calculations, organizations suddenly had access to more financial information than ever before. Rather than reducing demand for expertise, businesses needed more people capable of interpreting data, identifying trends, evaluating risk, and advising leadership. Routine bookkeeping positions may have declined, but analysts, auditors, financial strategists, and advisors became increasingly valuable. The spreadsheet did not eliminate accountants. It elevated them.
Why Efficiency Often Creates More Demand
Economists have a name for this phenomenon: Jevons Paradox. The paradox suggests that when technology makes something dramatically more efficient, consumption often increases rather than decreases. At first glance, that seems counterintuitive.
If a resource becomes easier to use, we assume we will need less of it. In reality, lower cost and greater accessibility often encourage greater usage. Spreadsheets made analysis easier, which encouraged businesses to perform more analysis. More analysis produced more questions. More questions required more expertise. Efficiency did not reduce demand. It expanded it.
Email Didn’t Destroy Human Connection
The same misunderstanding appeared when email entered mainstream life. Critics argued that electronic communication would weaken relationships. They envisioned a future in which technology replaced meaningful human interaction with cold digital messages. The assumption behind those concerns was that communication itself was the purpose of relationships. It wasn’t. Connection was the purpose.
People did not stop wanting connection simply because a new communication channel appeared. Instead, they adapted the technology to support an existing human need. Families communicated more frequently across long distances. Friends remained connected through life transitions. Businesses collaborated across geographies in ways that had previously been impossible. Email changed the medium. It did not change our desire to connect. The behavior remained. The tool evolved.
The Insight That Helped Google Beat Yahoo
Perhaps my favorite example of behavioral change occurred during the rise of Google. The fascinating part for me is I was able to watch this play out in real time. I was working for Governor Schwarzenegger at the time and responsible for the State of California’s entire web presence. I chaired his innovation council which brought together leaders from the emerging technologies of the time, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and several others.
It was the early 2000s and Yahoo seemed nearly unbeatable. It had an enormous market share, a well-known brand, talented engineers, and millions of loyal users. Most observers believed the future of the internet involved building ever-better directories that helped people browse the growing web.
Google recognized something more fundamental. People didn’t actually want better directories. They wanted answers. That insight wasn’t primarily technological. It was behavioral.
The internet was evolving from a place where people explored into a place where people used to solve problems. Users were moving away from browsing and toward asking questions. Yahoo focused on improving the experience people already had. Google focused on the experience people were about to want. That difference changed everything.
AI Is Presenting the Same Opportunity
Today, artificial intelligence is creating another wave of bold predictions. Some believe AI will replace millions of workers. Others believe it will unleash unprecedented productivity and economic growth. Both perspectives may contain elements of truth, but history suggests neither is asking the most important question. Rather than focusing exclusively on what AI can do, we should be asking what people will do because AI exists.
Will consumers continue searching the way they do today?
Will they increasingly expect conversational answers instead of pages of links?
Will trust shift toward intelligent assistants that synthesize information from hundreds of sources?
Will expertise become more valuable because routine knowledge becomes universally accessible?
These are not technology questions. They are human behavior questions.
The Real Competitive Advantage
Most organizations will eventually have access to similar AI technologies. That means the technology itself is unlikely to be the source of sustained competitive advantage. The advantage will come from understanding how customer expectations are changing.
The organizations that thrive during the AI era will be the ones that recognize shifts in trust, decision-making, information consumption, and buying behavior before their competitors do. They won’t necessarily possess the most advanced artificial intelligence. They will possess the deepest understanding of human intelligence.
Technology Creates Possibility. People Create Change.
History offers countless examples. Text messaging began as a minor mobile phone feature before becoming one of the world’s dominant communication channels. Social media started as a way for friends to stay connected before evolving into one of the largest advertising ecosystems in history. Streaming services didn’t simply change television. They transformed when, where, and how people expected to consume entertainment.
None of those outcomes were inevitable. They emerged because millions of people collectively discovered new behaviors that nobody fully predicted. That is why I believe businesses should stop asking how AI will change their organization and start asking how AI is changing their customers. Because that’s where strategy lives.
The future will not be determined by what artificial intelligence can do. It will be determined by what people choose to do with it. It doesn’t matter what the developers think. The technology they develop may create all kinds of new possibilities. Human beings decide which possibilities matter.
That has been true for spreadsheets, email, search engines, smartphones, and social media. There is little reason to believe AI will be any different. The companies that thrive in the next decade may not be the ones with the most sophisticated technology. They may be the ones that understand the oldest truth in business:
Technology changes behavior. Behavior changes everything.
What behavioral shifts are you seeing in your customers today that didn’t exist two years ago? That’s probably where the future is hiding.
By Carole Lawson
Co-Founder & Chief Data Officer, MarketStorm