Kedron Rhodes

I’ve spent most of my working hours these past several months essentially trying to replace myself with AI. It sounds dystopian when I put it that way, but the reality is more nuanced—and more human—than that headline suggests.

What I’m actually doing is creating AI tools that will serve real people. And that responsibility weighs on me. Every prompt I craft, every system I design, every decision tree I map out will eventually touch another human being. They won’t know my name or see my fingerprints on the experience, but I want those fingerprints there anyway—not for credit, but for their humanity.

This tension between efficiency and empathy sits at the heart of our current moment. We’re automating at breakneck speed, optimizing everything we can measure, and celebrating productivity gains that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. But in our rush to build the future, are we forgetting what made us human in the first place?

The articles that caught my attention this week all circle back to this same theme: the importance of honoring human experience in an increasingly algorithmic world. From the psychology of trust in AI systems to the resurrection of design thinking as a counterweight to pure technological determinism, these pieces suggest that our competitive advantage in the AI era won’t come from building the smartest machines—it’ll come from building the most human ones.

The Lost Art Of Thinking Historically 📚

In a world obsessed with predicting the future, we’ve forgotten how to learn from the past. This thoughtful piece argues that historical thinking—the ability to understand complexity, appreciate context, and recognize patterns across time—is exactly what we need to navigate an uncertain future. The author makes a compelling case that our current challenges aren’t unprecedented; they’re variations on themes we’ve seen before. The difference is that we’ve lost the discipline of looking backward to make sense of moving forward. For strategists building AI-powered organizations, this kind of temporal perspective isn’t just intellectually interesting—it’s competitively essential. Companies that understand how technological revolutions have unfolded in the past will be better positioned to make strategic choices in the present. (Explore the Historical Context →)

🧠 These got me thinking…

The Psychology Of Trust In AI: A Guide To Measuring And Designing For User Confidence — Trust has become the invisible user interface of AI systems. When it works, interactions feel seamless. When it fails, everything collapses. This guide offers practical frameworks for measuring and designing trustworthy AI experiences.

The Post-AI Org Chart — Tunguz explores how AI is reshaping organizational structures, potentially reducing traditional hierarchies by 85% while creating new “rocket ship” configurations for different business functions. The implications for how we think about teams and talent are profound.

How Design Principles Contribute to Product-Market Fit — Harvard Business School makes the case that user-focused design principles aren’t just about aesthetics—they’re about creating solutions that truly address human problems and achieve market success.

Design Thinking: Giving Technology Its Human Heart in the AI Era — Samsung’s perspective on why design thinking becomes more critical, not less, as we build AI-powered products. The human heart of technology isn’t optional—it’s the differentiator.

👋 Sign-Off

I hope this week finds you looking for ways to honor the human experience in your work, despite all the experts telling us that AI is the only path forward. The truth is, AI is a powerful path—but it’s not the destination. The destination is still fundamentally human: creating value, solving problems, and building experiences that make people’s lives better.

The companies that remember this will have a lasting advantage over those that optimize purely for computational efficiency.

⁓ Kedron

P.S. I’ve been revisiting some of the design thinking frameworks I used to teach, not because they’re trendy again, but because they force us to start with human needs rather than technological capabilities. Sometimes the old tools are exactly what we need for new challenges.