There’s a moment in every wave of innovation where you either pause and overthink… or you lean in, say “fuck it,” and start building.
I’ve been in the digital space since the early 2000s — and I’ve lived through the big shifts. Not as a passive observer, but as someone trying, testing, building, breaking, and learning. With and without success. But I can tell you this: every breakthrough follows the same rhythm — first chaos, then gold.
The patterns that always return
In 1995, the internet hit mainstream awareness in Europe. Businesses scrambled to buy domains, hire someone’s nephew to build their first website, and figure out what “email” actually did. I remember taking a handful of floppy disks to school of... 1.4 MB to copy some football manager game. Looking back, those were great times and the computer was still 'optional'.
By 2007, the iPhone had arrived. Suddenly, the internet wasn’t just something we accessed from a desk — it was in our pockets. Still a lot of wapping, but the apps were about to break through.
Back in 2010, I launched my first mobile-first agency — full of ideas, maybe a bit ahead of the curve. I pitched to a major Belgian bank, and the IT Director literally laughed in my face: "Why in God’s name would our clients need a mobile app? We already have a perfectly good computer system." It felt like talking to a brick wall.
Now fast forward to 2024: that same bank made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Tech failure. Customers locked out of their accounts. A mess that could’ve been avoided if they hadn’t spent over a decade running behind. Karma, baby.
And "Mobile" wasn’t just a trend. It became the way we shop, read, date, work — even how we get lost (and found) in cities. The lesson? Dismissing change doesn’t stop it. It just means you’ll be the last one to catch up — if you’re lucky.
By 2010–2012: social media matured. MySpace was over and Facebook became a core marketing channel. Instagram launched. LinkedIn stopped being a digital CV and became a publishing platform. Brands and creators learned that attention had shifted — and whoever learned to speak in scrolls, stories, and feeds started winning.
Each of these moments felt disruptive at the time. And they were.
But AI since 2023 is different. The speed. The scale. The accessibility. This is not the next shift. This is the shift.
AI is the New Interface — and it’s just getting started
We're not just talking about writing assistants or fun image generators anymore. We’re seeing the start of something that will redefine how we interact with computers, how we generate ideas, and how we make decisions.
From OpenAI’s GPT-4 to the rise of Claude, Copilot, Perplexity, and open-source alternatives like Mistral and LLaMa — the pace of innovation has exploded. What once took 10 hours now takes 10 minutes. What needed a full team can now start with one person and a good prompt.
We're entering a phase where you can prototype, validate, and launch faster than ever before — and that’s going to change everything about who gets to build what.
Here's the catch, if you’re standing still, someone else isn’t.
Competitors are already testing AI to increase their team’s output, reduce costs, and develop smarter products. Your competitors are not waiting for regulation or best practices. They're building. Experimenting. Hiring fewer people but getting more done.
This shift doesn’t ask for permission. It doesn’t come with a 2-year grace period.
You’re either leaning in or falling behind.
So what’s my take?
I’m not telling you to go all-in on AI. But I am telling you that sitting on the fence is a decision — and it’s one that often ends with regret. As someone who’s been in this game for 20+ years, I’ve seen it over and over:
The companies that said “this internet thing won’t last”? Gone.
The teams that said “we’ll wait to see how mobile shakes out”? Disrupted.
The marketers that ignored social media? Now chasing (and paying) audiences they could’ve grown a decade ago.
Every wave feels too early — until it's too late.
Here’s what I believe
If you’ve got an idea, a gut feeling, a sense that this is something… Don't sit on it. Explore it. Test it. Talk about it. Build a version 0.1. Even if it flops, you’ll learn more than anyone still watching from the sidelines. Because while others overthink, you could already be making moves. And in a few years, when AI is no longer "new," and everyone is doing it… you’ll be glad you got in early, when it still felt a bit crazy.
So yeah. F🦆ck it. Let’s rock it. 🤘
