Collective anxiety around artificial intelligence has manifested as stunted imagination for what the future could be. Stigma and misunderstanding blinds us to possibilities that are already within reach. As Einstein said, "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."

This affliction does not strike everyone equally, and I believe the builders of the future will be optimistic, imaginative individuals. As someone who is paid, in part, to predict the future, I’ve also found Peter Drucker’s words to stand the test of time: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Here, I would like to advocate for imagining a future worth building.

To start, I want to be perfectly candid—this piece is admittedly a bit reactionary. Here are a few posts I came across on X which invoked it.

I find two common themes here which reveal both the aforementioned collective anxiety as well as a path toward a better future. Designing a future that we all want to live in requires equal parts imagination (what could be) and honesty about the current state of things (what is). I think these posts reveal misalignment on both.

For example, when was the last time you called a corporate support line and weren’t met with extended hold time and awful, staticky music only to find out your issue could not be resolved by the human operator on the other end? I will be the first to concede: yes, people calling support lines want to speak to a human immediately. But it would be dishonest to say that is a reflection of the current state of things. This is simply not how things are.

So, we must imagine a better future and ask ourselves what could be. To dismiss AI-powered phone systems as “automated routing systems and menus and bots” is inaccurate at best and intellectually lazy at worst. New approaches go far beyond that. Meet Bland, an AI company solely focused on building ultra realistic phone calls. No more “press 1 to…,” no more hold music – no more holding, period.

Bland offers infinitely scalable support agents that you can speak to in plain English (or whatever language you natively speak). What’s more is they are not just there to speak with you—they can resolve customer inquiries by utilizing the same real-world tools humans use.

I understand why some folks are conflating old, antiquated phone tree systems with “AI.” Even before the advent of ChatGPT, “AI” was used interchangeably with “technology I don’t understand.” I don’t say this to be dismissive or rude – it’s just true from my experience. Not everyone has had the luxury of exploring the latest natural language processors, voice generation software, tool-using agents, and the intersecting points where these technologies are put to use in end products. Nonetheless, these systems will soon make their way to the masses by builders with the imagination and audacity to confront the two questions: what is, and what could be?

Imagine your next call to customer service is answered immediately, with a warm, welcoming voice, and the ability to quickly resolve your inquiry. How would this experience contrast with prior customer support calls, appointment bookings, etc.? This is the experience Bland and others are enabling today. The builders are building and first adopters are forward-thinking CEOs and CTOs looking for ways to optimize customer experience while simultaneously cutting costs.

This isn’t just about customer service phone calls. Advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLMs) harbor tremendous unrealized potential for businesses. I consistently find tasks where AI not only increases speed, but the quality of both the subjective experience of doing the work and the results achieved.

Make no mistake, it will be years if not decades before today’s technological developments will be fully realized in knowledge work applications. Decision makers today must make the choice between being innovative adopters or cautious laggards. Imagination alone stands between technology and actualization.