Ep 770: What’s Coming Next: 5 AI Trends, Problems and Opportunities Around the Corner

Everyday AI

Ep 770: What’s Coming Next: 5 AI Trends, Problems and Opportunities Around the Corner

Everyday AIMay 5, 2026

Why It Matters

Understanding these trends is crucial for business leaders and professionals who must decide where to invest talent and resources as AI becomes embedded in everyday operations. The episode underscores that staying competitive now means navigating specialized AI roles, leveraging autonomous technologies, and avoiding the pitfalls of fragmented AI adoption.

Key Takeaways

  • Autonomous cars prove safer than human drivers, 92% fewer injuries.
  • True AI generalists vanish; specialists dominate emerging AI fields.
  • Workers forced to learn AI at home, not on‑job.
  • FOMAT (fear of missing agent time) drives rushed AI deployments.
  • AI acceleration creates universal opportunities while amplifying systemic challenges.

Pulse Analysis

The most tangible AI shift emerging from Silicon Valley is the rapid adoption of autonomous vehicles. Waymo and other fleets report up to 92% fewer serious crashes compared with human drivers, turning safety statistics into a compelling business case for logistics, ride‑hailing, and last‑mile delivery. Companies that integrate driverless fleets can cut insurance costs, improve route efficiency, and meet rising consumer expectations for reliable, on‑demand transport. This trend signals that embodied AI is moving from experimental pilots to mainstream operations, reshaping supply‑chain strategies and urban mobility planning.

At the same time, the era of the true AI generalist is fading. As AI models proliferate across text, image, audio, and agentic domains, organizations are creating narrowly focused specialist teams—trust and observability, agentic orchestration, and multimodal engineering. The scarcity of professionals who can fluently translate between these silos creates communication gaps, lowering return on AI investments. Business leaders now need adaptive generalists who act as linguistic bridges, ensuring that disparate AI components align with strategic goals and that cross‑functional initiatives maintain cohesion.

A third, less visible challenge is the rise of "AI homework"—employees spending personal time mastering new models because on‑the‑job training lags behind rapid innovation. Coupled with FOMAT—fear of missing agent time—companies rush deployments without robust governance, amplifying risk. While AI acceleration offers unprecedented productivity gains, it also strains talent pipelines and operational stability. Enterprises should institutionalize continuous learning programs, provide sandbox environments, and balance speed with oversight to turn acceleration into sustainable advantage.

Episode Description

What's coming next in AI? 🤔

While no one knows, spending time in Silicon Valley and San Francisco recently helped give me a better idea of what's around the corner. 

So what should you be paying attention to? 

Tune in LIVE as we discuss. 

What’s Coming Next: 5 AI Trends, Problems and Opportunities around the Corner -- An Everyday AI Chat with Jordan Wilson

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Topics Covered in This Episode:

Autonomous Cars vs Human Drivers Analysis

Decline of AI Generalists in Workforce

Rise of AI Specialists and Translators

AI Homework Trend Among Office Workers

Challenges of Enterprise AI Training Gaps

FOMAT: Fear of Missing Agent Time

AI Agent Acceleration Problem and Opportunity

Impact of Rapid AI Development on Enterprises

Timestamps:

00:00 Recent trip and AI insights

05:08 Podcast takeaways from the past week

09:44 Testing autonomous vehicles on roads

13:22 Introduction to Start Here series

16:12 Importance of AI Integration Skills

20:09 Experimenting with AI at Home

21:58 Discussing AI workloads at home

26:16 Navigating AI tools and FOMO

29:05 AI labs opening up about models

30:49 AI capabilities are rapidly advancing

34:48 Join the newsletter feedback loop

Keywords: 

AI trends, AI problems, AI opportunities, autonomous cars, autonomous vehicles, Waymo, driverless cars, human drivers, AI generalists, AI specialists, agentic AI, acceleration of AI, AI learning curve, AI homework, enterprise AI, AI skills gap, workplace AI adoption, knowledge gap in AI, AI education, AI training, digital transformation, AI modalities, text to text AI, agentic orchestration, trust and observability teams, AI job roles, job description changes, local AI models, open source AI, PDF parsing AI, MVP demos, FOMAT,  

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Start Here ▶️

Not sure where to start when it comes to AI? Start with our Start Here Series. You can listen to the first drop -- Episode 691 -- or get free access to our Inner Cricle community and all episodes: StartHereSeries.com 

Also, here's a link to the entire series on a Spotify playlist.

Show Notes

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