If you’ve never heard the screech of a modem handshake (listen to this:), ask someone my age. We were getting online through 9600 and 14.4 baud modems. The ideas were way ahead of the “pipes” (and I’m hoping some of you get that reference as well!). You could picture what the web was going to become, but the technology carrying information from the source to someone else’s hands just couldn’t keep up.
That’s not the problem anymore. Bandwidth is close to a non-issue, and when an idea gets deployed today, people can interact with it right away, in a way nothing in history comes close to. It still blows my mind.
Over the years, you learn to balance the technologies you could use against the ones you should use. Plenty of technology shows up without solid principles underneath it. It looks great for a while and then fades. I’ve never been one to chase shiny objects, especially when we’re building something our clients and our team have to trust, something that has to weather storms and last.
For a long time, AI was something we watched and dabbled in. Mostly, I watched clients put machine learning to work in their automation, robotics, and decision-making, which I found fascinating. Over the past several years, that changed. We started using AI the way a lot of people do, for a specific task or to work through large sets of data faster. I also started pouring a lot of my own time into actually learning it, while trusting the incredible people I work with to take on the challenges and run with them, building the solutions we think make sense for our clients.
Table Of Contents
Why I’m writing about September
We launched some of the best work we’ve done this year, and on top of that, something I got to work on with AWS finally went public.
I served on an international subject matter expert panel with some really intelligent, dedicated people to help develop the new AWS Certified AI Business Strategist exam (AIB-C01). AWS announced it on September 1 and the beta opened September 29. What I like most is who it’s for. AWS describes it as validating business judgment about AI: which investments to pursue, how to build the business case, how to govern the risk, and how to take adoption from a pilot to production. It doesn’t test knowledge of AWS services. There’s no coding and no configuration.
That matters to me because there has to be a bridge between the technical world and the business world, and this exam is a big step in that direction. Getting to help build it alongside people who care about getting it right is something I’ll remember for a long time.
Excited, with my eyes open
The guardrails and protections matter, and so does training. You can’t set these things and forget them just because they seem to produce the right results early on. You need a human in the loop.
This technology isn’t going away, and it doesn’t simply replace people. It’s a tool that can produce incredible results with the right guidance and ongoing development, especially on problems that have plagued businesses for years. People who dedicate themselves to really learning it, jumping in with both feet, and embracing the pros and cons will be in a great spot.
Starting over at the right time
Here’s the part I didn’t see coming.
Not long ago, I started thinking about what retirement would look like. Most of my colleagues and friends, including some of my best clients and mentors, have retired or sold their businesses. It’s strange watching that happen while I feel like I’m starting over, more reinvigorated than I’ve ever been… I’m jazzed, honestly.
I’m a pretty big fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson. In Letters from an Astrophysicist he writes about the odds against any of us being born at all, and that idea has stuck with me. Every generation can say it lived through big change, and that’s fair. Still, with everything I’ve read about history, I can’t complain about this stretch. Things I watched as a little kid are becoming commonplace.
Last week Elon Musk showed off the new Tesla Roadster at a SpaceX facility in Texas. The car drove up a curved ramp, hung upside down, came off it, and set itself down with thrusters in a cloud of vapor. It looked a lot like the DeLorean in Back to the Future coming out of the smoke. It’s still a couple of years from production and the flying part isn’t headed for public roads anytime soon, but I watched it and was blown away.
The point I keep coming back to is that people in my age range have a real shot at taking the next decade, making big leaps forward and leaving some good things behind as we finish our careers. We’re old enough to know what works and what doesn’t, with people and in business. Some of us have also been lucky enough to work with technology closely enough to find the balance.
A lot of people figure the younger folks coming in get the technology but don’t yet have the history and the human experience that come with age. A lot of older people feel left behind because they have the experience but haven’t been able to really embrace the technology.
Finding the hours
My wife will appreciate that I’m including this. Outside of running the business, I had pretty much been living in my home office at night and on weekends, behind a closed door, working out how to really use AI in our company and in my own work. She worried about that, and I don’t blame her.
October is the first month I can say the automations I’ve built have easily given me 15 to 20 hours a week back. Those hours used to go to business chores and tasks I couldn’t fully hand off, but that still drained my time. Now they go to proactive work, the things I should be focusing on. I also recently stepped away from teaching after close to 15 years. It was gratifying work, but between that and the automation, I’m focused like a laser on putting my time where it makes the most sense, personally and professionally, when I’m not with my family.
To be honest, it’s just exciting, and it’s awesome to enjoy what you do every day. With some thought, paying your dues, and putting in the time required to succeed, you can build great things in a shorter period than ever before – things that make other people’s lives and businesses better. We’re on the edge of something incredible; it isn’t slowing down, and I’m glad to be part of it.
If you’re in this community and seeing great applications, especially in industrial or B2B where I spend most of my time, connect with me on LinkedIn. I’d love to keep the conversation going. I’m looking forward to the next year.
Sources & Further Reading
The following resources informed this article. All claims have been verified against multiple sources where possible.
- AWS Certified AI Business Strategist exam (AIB-C01) – https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-ai-business-strategist/
- showed off the new Tesla Roadster – https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/business/tesla-unveils-what-it-says-is-a-flying-car
- Connect with me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/joedemicco
