When intelligence is accessible over the air

Inefficiency is the largest employer of the world. Every time we remove inefficiencies at scale, we call it a revolution. The steam engine reduced inefficiency in transportation and started the Industrial Revolution; fertilisers reduced inefficiencies in agriculture and we called it the Green Revolution. The internet reduced the inefficiency in information transmission and we called it the Digital Revolution.

The largest remaining inefficiency is availability of intelligence and judgement of the highest quality for every individual. AI solves this.

The internet made information accessible over the air. AI is making intelligence accessible over the air. When intelligence is widely available, many things will happen.

The Evolution Of Gatekeepers | We often rely on scores and resumes to determine creditworthiness, college admissions, or job qualifications because it’s impractical for decisionmakers to evaluate everyone individually. Instead, we use proxies like degrees, past employers, and alma maters. For example, as a philosophy graduate, I might struggle to secure interviews at companies like Google, TCS, or Cred based solely on my CV.

However, AI could revolutionise this by replicating the judgement of top experts in any field, allowing for fair, individual assessments of each candidate. Imagine an AI performing in-depth interviews, emulating the decision-making of a bank’s CRO, a company’s CEO, or a college’s chief admission officer, without relying on standard processes.

Scaling Analysis | For a short time I ran a teleradiology project where well-qualified radiologists from India assisted US radiologists in reading MRIs and X-rays, making them 3x more productive. It was quite successful but hard to scale because of constraints on expertise. AI can potentially do this within seconds. India produces a few hundred radiologists a year for our vast population; AI-assisted or AI radiologists can benefit both doctors and patients, and accelerate the accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare. Imagine walking into an X-ray room and getting a high-quality radiologist’s report in 10 seconds for 50 rupees! With AI, this is a real possibility and the principle can be applied beyond healthcare, wherever strategic analysis is accessible only to a few experts currently.

AI Skills For Everyone | One of the jobs I did early in my career was teaching students how to use the internet at firms like Wintech and NIIT. Back then, it was a hot-selling course as internet proficiency was required for a good job. Some Bay Area companies are already testing for AI/GPT skills in prospective employees. They give assignments to candidates that need to be completed in 24 hours and would be humanly impossible to do unless GPT was used to assist them. GPT skills training will be a new opportu nity that will grow along with the popularity of AI.

Expressive AI | It’s hard to express visual ideas – whether it’s for app designs, interiors/ architecture, or new products – when reliant on just words. But a picture is worth a thousand words, and AI can mock up or draw designs the way we are thinking of them. I already express ideas in the form of AI-mocked user flows or UI design with GPT, making me 10x more efficient in sharing ideas with the team. This could unleash a new dimension of speed and effectiveness in imagining and developing new ideas.

In essence, gaps between talent and opportunity, experts and clients, seekers and sources will evaporate. When AI is available to augment everyone’s thinking, asymmetric outcomes will go to those who execute well – doers and creators who bend reality to make the world a better place. ChatGPT is a constant companion for me. I’m excited about the revolutions that 1.5 billion people assisted by AI can spark.

Kunal Shah is a financial services entrepreneur. He is the founder of Cred, and previously founded Freecharge