Three Years Was All It Took
Three years ago, a friend asked me if I had heard of something called ChatGPT. I had not. I clicked the link out of curiosity, typed a few prompts, and thought it was interesting. Really interesting!
But I had no sense that this small moment would end up reshaping my work, my industry, or the direction of my company.
It felt like a clever tool. That was it. Looking back, it was a vital moment.
For most of my career, insights work looked a certain way. You gathered data, analyzed it, built slides, told a story, and hoped it created enough clarity or emotion to drive action. You did your best with the tools we had, but the medium always put limits on the message. Insights often stayed trapped inside decks and dashboards.
Then AI arrived. Quietly at first.
But everything changed.
It opened possibilities I never imagined three years ago. We could suddenly bring insights to life in ways that felt real and immediate. Avatars, voices, simulations, stories that move people rather than just inform them. Customer experiences that teams can see and feel, not just read about. AI gave us a way to make insight emotional again. It gave us a new creative range and an updated purpose for PeopleMetrics: to bring insights to life.
That purpose was not obvious in the early days. It emerged because AI expanded the ceiling. It showed us what was possible. It helped us move beyond reports and into experiences that spark action. It made the work more human, not less.
And what is striking is that we are still at the beginning of this shift.
Claude is now solving engineering problems that once required senior talent. Tasks that used to take 90 minutes take 15. Productivity across entire industries is starting to lift. Models are entering cognitive ranges we once reserved for the most capable humans. Even Google’s Gemini, which many assumed was out of the race, is suddenly competing in usage and engagement.
None of this was visible when I clicked that link three years ago. There was no roadmap pointing to this moment. No clear signal that we were entering one of the most transformative periods in the history of work. But that quiet announcement unlocked an ecosystem. It opened the door for companies and creators who were ready to rethink how work gets done.
For PeopleMetrics, it opened the door to a new expression of the work we have always cared about. Insight that does not sit in slides but lives in moments. Insight that teams connect with.
Insight that creates urgency. Insight that brings the customer to life in a way that feels impossible to ignore.
If the first three years of this AI era could produce this much change, the next three will reshape entire industries. The companies that succeed will be the ones that lean into this reality with creativity and intention. The ones who understand that intelligence is now abundant. The ones who design workflows around speed and clarity. The ones who turn insights into experiences that people can feel.
Three years ago, I clicked a link without any sense of what it would spark.
Today, it is clear how much that moment changed.
And even more clear how much is still to come.
We are only at the beginning of what “bringing insights to life” will mean.
