Yesterday’s Saywise conversation with David Rhew, M.D., Global Chief Medical Officer and VP of Healthcare at Microsoft, was a great reminder of techno-optimism for me. With AI, the opportunities for new products and companies are just unbelievably vast.
Take healthcare, for example. If we imagine an AI-assisted “doctor’s office 2.0”, what would need to happen? A million things:
- A smart alert system that flags the most critical health information the moment a patient walks in
- At-home smart devices that continuously monitor and send health signals to doctors
- A smarter back-office system, including radically improved hospital call centers
The list goes on; Each of these is a massive startup opportunity. And that’s just one industry.
Also, big companies and their powerful general AI models won’t do everything. Companies are run by people, and people run companies with strategy. If you were Satya Nadella, would you spread Microsoft thin by trying to enter every industry vertical, or would you create a smart platform strategy where Microsoft wins when the ecosystem players using their platform (eg startups) win?
An abundance mindset and techno-optimism aren’t just feel-good philosophie; they’re facts.