TL;DR: The current AI boom feels exactly like the early internet in 1995—a ton of nauseating hype and bullshit hiding a genuine revolution. I’ve seen this movie before. Skepticism is healthy, but dismissal is a mistake. AI isn’t a replacement; it’s the most powerful creative tool we’ve had in 20 years. That’s why I started Aizle. To dive in, head first.
Remember that god-awful digital screeching of a 56k modem connecting and fighting its way onto the information superhighway? It was the sound of the future arriving at my house, in Lindenow, a town of a couple of hundred people on the other side of the world. I loved that sound. The first websites I made were hideous. Bad GIFs, worse code, stolen backgrounds, and unreadable text. Pundits wrote breathless newspaper columns about how the internet was a fad. Marketers tried to shove TV ads into banner formats, completely missing the point. The hype was nauseating. The signal-to-noise ratio was abysmal.
It was awful. And it was brilliant.
Because beneath the garbage heap of GeoCities pages and Ask Jeeves queries, a few of us saw what was happening. We weren’t just building websites but rewiring how humans connect, create, and do business. Most importantly, it introduced me to Photoshop, which introduced me to graphic design, which introduced me to Monash Uni. It changed my life like many teenage lives in the 90s.
Well, the modem is screaming again.
This AI boom has the exact same vibe of desperate hype, grifters promising utopia, and corporate giants moving with the grace of a coked-up elephant. Every day, a new “game-changing” tool does little more than churn out mediocre blog posts about the “top 5 ways to leverage synergy.”
It’s exhausting. And if you’re a smart, experienced creative, you’re right to be sceptical.
But you’re wrong if you’re dismissive.
For the past two years, I’ve been living in this new world every single day—not talking about it, not writing think pieces about it, but using it. I’ve been getting my hands dirty, using vibe coding apps, making videos, refining prompts, and getting started with MCPs. I’ve been teaching it and telling everyone who’ll listen to sit up and get moving with this shit. And I can tell you that beneath the bullshit hype, it still blows me away how interesting it all is. It feels bigger than the internet—much bigger.
Used properly, AI isn’t a replacement for talent. It’s an amplifier. It’s like wearing flippers in a swimming pool. It’s the most potent creative partner I’ve had in my 20-year career. It’s a cognitive co-pilot that helps me find patterns I’d miss, generate starting points I’d never consider, and execute ideas at a speed that was impossible three years ago. It fills me with total joy to just make stuff, ask stuff, play with stuff. I’ve basically quit TV because this stuff is way more fun. It’s like the first time I opened Photoshop 3.0.
That’s why I started Aizle.
Not to chase the hype. But to get back to the fundamentals. To use this ridiculously powerful new toolbox to solve old, stubborn business problems. To combine AI’s raw horsepower with behavioural science’s nuanced insights. To build small, sharp teams that can run circles around the big, slow-moving committees that are still trying to figure out what a prompt is, one painful LinkedIn post at a time.
The future isn’t about letting a machine do your job. It’s about working with one to do your job in a way you never thought possible.
It’s 1995 again. Do you know how I can tell? Oasis just played to a sold-out Wembley Stadium.
✨//A