If you want to understand where AI is going, you don’t need a crystal ball.
You just need to remember what happened the last time technology reshaped the world — when cloud computing and smartphones arrived.
Those revolutions didn’t just give us new tools.
They changed how we worked, communicated, built products, ran businesses, and lived our daily lives.
And just like today’s AI moment, they were greeted with a mix of excitement and skepticism… until the world quietly crossed a point of no return.
This chapter explores what the cloud and smartphone waves taught us — and why AI is following the exact same S-curve.
When AWS launched in 2006, a segment of the tech world panicked.
The fear:
“If cloud replaces servers, won’t it eliminate IT jobs?”
Sound familiar?
Cloud didn’t eliminate IT jobs.
Cloud multiplied them.
Cloud created entirely new categories of work:
None of these roles existed pre-cloud.
Today they are some of the highest-paid jobs in tech.
Cloud didn’t kill jobs.
Cloud eliminated routine tasks and created higher-value roles.
Cloud changed the economics of building software:
Suddenly, a team of 10 could build what used to require 200.
This didn’t reduce opportunity —
it expanded it.
AI won’t eliminate jobs.
AI will eliminate:
And create new, higher-value roles in their place.
Cloud showed us the pattern.
Before 2007, “mobile computing” meant:
The idea that mobile would birth trillion-dollar empires sounded absurd.
Then it happened:
Almost overnight, entirely new ecosystems emerged.
Apps that became global giants:
These companies could not exist without smartphones.
One phone + one app = brand new job categories:
Millions of livelihoods created by a platform that didn’t exist 15 years earlier.
A teenager with a phone can now:
The smartphone became a global production tool, not just a communication device.
Smartphones transformed:
Once mobile became infrastructure, the world rewired itself around it.
This is the same leap happening with AI.
Infrastructure → Platforms → Applications → Industries
Every major tech wave follows an S-curve.
Cloud: AWS, Azure, GCP
Mobile: iPhone, Android
AI’s infrastructure layer is:
We are in this phase right now.
Cloud platforms: Kubernetes, Lambda, S3
Mobile platforms: App Store, Play Store
AI’s platform layer is forming:
Platforms remove friction and standardize complexity.
Cloud apps: Slack, Zoom, Salesforce, Shopify
Mobile apps: Instagram, Uber, WhatsApp
AI apps now emerging:
We are in the “1998 of AI apps.”
The boom hasn’t even started.
Cloud enabled:
Mobile enabled:
AI will enable entirely new industries:
We’re on the early slope of this phase.
Just as “mobile-first companies” sounded strange in 2009 but became the default by 2015…
AI-first companies will be the default by 2030.
From both revolutions, we learn three core truths:
Cloud killed:
Smartphones killed:
But both created millions of new jobs.
AI will do the same.
Cloud: real value 2014–2022
Mobile: real value 2012–2020
AI: real value 2028–2035
We are early.
Cloud → AWS, Azure, Snowflake
Mobile → Uber, TikTok, Instagram
AI → the next generation of giants is forming now
Understanding the S-curve helps us avoid:
Cloud succeeded because people asked:
“What happens if infrastructure becomes infinite?”
Smartphones succeeded because people wondered:
“What happens if a computer fits in every pocket?”
AI will create the next revolution because we’re asking:
“What happens when intelligence becomes abundant?”
Curiosity reshaped the last two decades.
It will reshape the next two.
Chapter 8 — The Industrial Revolution & Workforce Shifts
What the Industrial Revolution reveals about job disruption, new skill classes, wage polarization, and how AI is repeating the same historical patterns.
Chapter 10 — Why the AI Shakeout Is Inevitable
Why the AI startup explosion of 2023–2025 will lead to consolidation, platform dominance, and a classic technology shakeout—just like every major tech wave before it.