Should I Buy It?
Most people use AI to do the same things faster. That’s useful. But it’s not the disruption. The disruption is when you start asking different questions — not “how can I do this faster?” but “do I even need to do this anymore?”
Origin
Oussama Ammar, entrepreneur and investor, articulates this concept in a 2026 podcast:
“Artificial intelligence isn’t changing the way we work — it’s changing the way we think about work.”
This isn’t an isolated observation. It fits into a long tradition of analyzing technological disruptions — from electricity to the internet, the real revolutions are never where expected.
The Theory
General-purpose technologies change paradigms, not processes
Brynjolfsson & McAfee (The Second Machine Age, 2014) show that general-purpose technologies (electricity, steam engine, computing, AI) don’t replace tasks — they transform the entire mental models of an economy. Electricity didn’t simplify candle lighting. It made the candle conceptually obsolete.
Kuhn: the paradigm shift
Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962) distinguishes normal science (progressive improvement within an existing paradigm) from scientific revolution (abandonment of the paradigm for a new one). Generative AI, for many professions, is a Kuhnian revolution — not an improvement of the existing paradigm.
Christensen: disruption vs. improvement
Clayton Christensen (The Innovator’s Dilemma, 1997): real disruptions initially appear inferior on established metrics. Existing companies ignore them because they first serve “non-consumed” use cases — until they gain power and replace the existing market.
In Practice
The paradigm shift test
Ask yourself these two questions for any recurring task:
- “How can AI help me do this faster?” → process improvement (useful, but limited)
- “Should this task still exist?” → paradigm shift (potentially transformative)
Concrete examples:
| Process thinking | Paradigm thinking |
|---|---|
| ”How can AI help me write emails faster?" | "Should I still be sending emails like this?" |
| "How can AI speed up my onboarding?" | "Which onboarding still needs to happen with a human?" |
| "How can AI help me score leads?" | "Is my current sales model even the right one?” |
The second column doesn’t always yield a different answer — sometimes the answer is “yes, this task still needs to exist.” But asking the question changes how you see it.
Nuances and Limits
Not every technological change is a paradigm pivot. Sometimes AI really is just an acceleration tool — and that’s enough. Over-interpreting every innovation as a paradigm revolution is also a mistake.
The practical test: if in 5 years you’re still doing exactly the same things, just faster, the disruption may have passed you by. If in 5 years you no longer do certain things at all because the underlying question has changed, that was a paradigm pivot.
Sources: Ammar, O. (2026). Podcast · Brynjolfsson, E. & McAfee, A. (2014). The Second Machine Age. Norton · Kuhn, T. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago UP · Christensen, C. (1997). The Innovator’s Dilemma. HBS Press