JULY 2025 INSIGHTS

Xenia Wickett - AI

After a demanding June, July gave me space to reflect, reset, and work on some of the longer-term institutional goals that support the business I want to build. I’m reminded of Bayo Akomolafe’s line: “The times are urgent. Let us slow down.”

In the quiet, I found clarity—on patterns in the world, in people, and in myself. Here’s what stood out this month:

What I've Learned About the Context

• The Global South is key: The future global order is likely to be shaped not by the ‘Global East’ or ‘Global West’—but by the Global South. Yet how often are they even in the room?

• AI and the business model gap: At the root of the search/AI challenge lies a structural issue—there is no business model for privacy. And that absence shapes everything.

• AI in elections: In 2024’s compressed election calendar, AI tools were used in over 80% of contests worldwide. (International Panel on the Information Environment)

• Making AI productivity real: The productivity gains from AI are potentially 2-3%. But for businesses to realise these gains they need to target specific areas of foci and rethink their organisational design from the ground up.

• AI Adoption: 30% of SMEs and 40% of large firms in Europe have now integrated AI into their operations. (Eurostat)

• The soft corruption of low expectations: Think about it…

• China vs the US: power by domain: China dominates global manufacturing via its dominance of key supply chain nodes including rare earth minerals). The US retains financial hegemony via the dollar. (Global Capital Allocation Project, FT link)

• Data centre energy consumption: The impact of AI infrastructure is rapidly escalating:

  • Indirect carbon emissions from Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet rose 150% from 2020–2023.

  • Global data centre electricity demand is forecast to exceed Japan’s entire consumption by 2030.

  • The US Department of Energy warns of 100x higher risk of power outages if fossil fuel capacity keeps being retired. (The Observer, 21 July)

• Industrial policy is back: In 2022, advanced economies introduced 1,000 industrial policy measures—up from just 100 in 2017. (The Economist, 19 July)

• Russia’s new dependency: Exports to China now make up almost 6% of Russia’s entire economy—on par with Iran. (NY Times)

• Growth, historically: Before 1700, the world economy grew by ~8% per century. Since then: ~350%. The inflection came with the Industrial Revolution. (The Economist, 24 July)

• From VUCA to PLUTO: Beyond VUCA and BANI, a new acronym emerges: PLUTO – Polarised, Liquid, Unilateral, Tense and Omni-relational. A mouthful, but possibly on point.

What I've Learned About People

• Slow down to notice: At The Oslo Center’s Words Matter! conference on disinformation, one idea kept surfacing: the need to slow down—before we click, post, react. A few days later this idea recurred in a slightly different form – we find the ‘flow state’ not in being busy but in listening.

• Why business cultures get stuck: The Attraction–Selection–Attrition (ASA) cycle means organisations reinforce their cultural status quo. New hires are selected for ‘fit’. Those who don’t fit leave. Over time, sameness solidifies. It’s a useful reminder of how hard cultural change can be. (Benjamin Schneider)

• Obedience and AI Agents: In the 1960s, Milgram coined the ‘agentic state’—when people obey authority so blindly they stop seeing themselves as responsible. The parallels with AI-as-agent are unsettling. If algorithms guide our decisions, at what point do we stop owning them?

• The pause that empowers: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

What I've Learned About Myself

• Flow comes from the body: My best thinking comes when I let my body lead. I’m spending way too much time in my head right now. I need to let go.

• Thinking in curves: I’ve been thinking about the business too narrowly—assuming it must look like more of what I already do. But what if it doesn’t? What if I worked for someone else, or brought others in to work for me? Time to open my mind to different alternatives.

• I’m neglecting the right metrics: I’ve said my success metrics a decade from now are more joy, time-richness, impact, and personal growth. But lately, I’ve not been investing enough in joy or growth. Those need attention.

A Quick Note on Transparency

In last month’s insights, I cited the statistic that “UK living standards are now lower than during the Global Financial Crisis.” A number of readers questioned the basis—and rightly so. I’m yet to find robust data to support it, so I’m withdrawing that statement unless and until I can. Thank you to those who challenged it.

If this sparked anything for you—an insight, a disagreement, or just a question—I’d love to hear it.

Best,

Xenia

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