From Digital Natives to AI Natives: Are You Ready for Esther?

In 2010, I began telling the story of Isaac – a boy born the same day as the iPhone – to illustrate how a new generation of Digital Natives would grow up in a rapidly changing tech landscape. For 15 years, the keynote “Are You Ready for Isaac?” helped business leaders reframe their view of technology, separating signal from noise and spotting new opportunities in an increasingly digital world. Fast forward to today: Isaac is 19, and the world he’s entering is on the cusp of another seismic shift. A new narrative is emerging around the rise of AI Natives, embodied by Esther, a child of the AI age. Just as Isaac’s always-on mobile world shaped his expectations and opportunities, Esther’s generation is being shaped by ubiquitous artificial intelligence. The changes we’re seeing now make the smartphone era look quaint by comparison.

The AI Tipping Point: ChatGPT’s Rapid Rise

The launch of ChatGPT

The November 2022 launch of ChatGPT marked an AI tipping point. Within days, millions were experimenting with this powerful AI assistant. Within two months, ChatGPT’s user base hit an unprecedented 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing consumer app in history (reuters.com). For context, it took TikTok about 9 months and Instagram over 2 years to reach that many users (reuters.com). By January 2023, ChatGPT was averaging 13 million visitors per day – more than double the usage just a month prior (reuters.com).

The growth didn’t stop there. As of 2025, ChatGPT is estimated to be handling 1 billion+ user queries per day, serving roughly 190 million daily users around the globe (demandsage.com). This staggering adoption shows how quickly AI has woven itself into our daily routines. We’ve begun turning to AI tools dozens of times a day – to write emails, brainstorm ideas, get answers, or generate code. These new behaviors barely existed just a couple of years ago. The meteoric rise of ChatGPT underscores that we have crossed into a new era: one in which AI-powered assistants are mainstream. In other words, Isaac’s peers might be Digital Natives, but Esther’s peers will be AI Natives.

Amplifying Intelligence: Objective Knowledge at Scale

Why has ChatGPT been embraced so rapidly? One reason is that tools like it dramatically amplify society’s access to intelligence – objectively, at a massive scale. In the past, deep knowledge on a topic meant hours of research or access to an expert. Now, anyone with an internet connection can ask a question and get a reasonably well-informed answer in seconds. ChatGPT serves as an always-available mentor, tutor, translator, and creative partner all in one. It’s like having a team of experts on demand, whether you’re a student solving math problems or a CEO brainstorming a strategy.

The technology isn’t perfect, but its knowledge base and reasoning capabilities are improving continuously. Just consider the scale of information exchange: with over a billion interactions daily on ChatGPT, humanity is effectively crowdsourcing and refining a global brain. Generative AI systems can absorb vast amounts of objective data and make it helpful to individuals. They can summarize reports, compare products, and suggest improvements – tasks that used to require specialized skills or significant effort. By putting these capabilities in a simple chat interface, AI tools are democratizing knowledge and leveling the playing field. A motivated teenager today has at their fingertips an analytical and creative tool that would have been science fiction when Isaac was born. In essence, society now has on-demand objective intelligence at scale. We’re only beginning to understand the implications for education, decision-making, and innovation.

A Revolution Greater Than the Internet?

As a technologist who lived through the rise of the web and mobile, I’m struck by how leaders everywhere are comparing AI’s impact to those earlier revolutions – and often saying this wave will dwarf them. Even tech luminary Bill Gates has noted that the advent of modern AI is “as significant as the invention of the internet,” poised to change our world (Reuters). Some experts go further, predicting that AI’s economic and social influence will be exponentially more significant than what the internet achieved in the past two decades (Boston Products).

Why such bold claims? Because, unlike previous technologies, AI doesn’t just connect or inform us – it can reason and create. The internet gave us access to information; AI can provide insight and solutions. We’re seeing AI write code, draft legal documents, design marketing campaigns, and even assist in medical diagnoses. Tasks once thought to be the exclusive domain of highly trained professionals are now being reimagined with AI collaboration. In short, AI isn’t just another platform or app – it’s a general-purpose capability that augments human cognition across virtually every field. This is why many observers say AI’s transformative power could rival that of the steam engine or electricity.

The coming years will test every organization’s agility. Just as companies that embraced the internet thrived (and those that didn’t were left behind), the AI revolution will create big winners and losers. The key question for leaders is no longer if AI will change your industry, but how fast and how far – and whether you’re prepared to leverage it.

New Expectations: Citizens, Consumers, and the Workforce

Crucially, this AI ubiquity is already shifting what people expect from businesses, governments, and employers. The next generation – our AI Natives – will have very different standards for “good service” or “great products.” Consider the following:

Citizens

In the public sector, individuals are coming to expect the same instant, personalized service from government agencies that they get from tech companies. AI is beginning to transform public services – streamlining bureaucracy and helping staff deliver on rising citizen expectations for speed and personalization (BCG). Whether it’s a smart city chatbot answering residents’ questions 24/7 or an AI system helping process permits or benefits faster, people will gravitate toward civic services that use AI to become more responsive. Governments that leverage AI can build trust by being as agile and data-driven as the best consumer brands.

Consumers

Customers are already demanding more innovative, more personalized experiences in every interaction. 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver customized interactions – and 76% report frustration when this doesn’t happen (McKinsey). In practice, this means products and services need to anticipate user needs, not just react. AI is the only way to meet this expectation at scale. From e-commerce sites that use generative AI to tailor product recommendations to banks using AI assistants to offer financial advice, brands that integrate AI to know and serve their customers truly will earn the loyalty of these AI-native consumers. Companies that stick to one-size-fits-all experiences risk seeming increasingly out of touch.

Workforce

Our employees and colleagues have not only embraced AI, but many are charging ahead faster than their organizations. This is the era of the augmented worker. For example, an estimated three-quarters of software developers now use AI coding assistants to boost their productivity (WeForum). Across roles, employees are finding that AI can automate mundane tasks and enable more creative or strategic work. McKinsey research shows employees are often more optimistic about AI than their bosses. Workers are already using AI regularly in their jobs and are three times more likely than leaders to believe that AI could replace 30% of their work within the next year (McKinsey). In other words, your talent is eager to offload grunt work to AI and upskill into new value-added roles – if you empower them to do so. The next generation workforce will judge employers by how well they provide AI tools and training. Companies that embrace AI for their people can unlock huge productivity gains; those that ban or ignore it may see top talent migrate elsewhere.

The Rise of “Shadow AI”

One fascinating (and challenging) trend accompanying these new expectations is the rise of Shadow AI – essentially the AI version of “shadow IT.” This refers to employees bringing AI tools into their work without official approval or oversight. It’s happening everywhere: staff find a free AI tool online to automate a report or use ChatGPT to draft code, often because the sanctioned tech at work isn’t meeting their needs. Recent data shows just how prevalent this is becoming. From 2023 to 2024, the share of enterprise employees using generative AI jumped from 74% to 96% as organizations, large and small, began embracing AI (IBM).

But alongside that rapid adoption, unsanctioned use has surged – 38% of employees admit to sharing sensitive work information with AI tools without their employer’s permission (IBM). That’s a startling figure. It means over a third of employees are so keen to leverage AI that they’ll risk company policy to do it. The upside of Shadow AI is that it reveals how much value people see in these tools – they’re essentially hacking their workflows to be more efficient and creative. The downside, of course, is the security and compliance risk: sensitive data might be exposed, and companies may not be monitoring how AI is being used or what decisions it’s influencing.

As leaders, it’s crucial to bring Shadow AI into the light. Rather than simply banning external AI (which likely won’t work and could stifle innovation), innovative organizations are developing clear AI usage policies and governance. By providing approved, secure AI tools and educating employees, you can turn Shadow AI into a competitive asset rather than a risk. The bottom line is that your people will use AI – with or without permission. Embracing that reality and guiding it is far better than playing whack-a-mole with unsanctioned apps.

Embracing the AI Native Future (Are You Ready for Esther?)

When I ask “Are you ready for Esther?”, I’m inviting you to consider whether you’re prepared for this new generation of AI Natives – as citizens, consumers, and employees. The world that shaped Isaac and the Digital Natives is evolving into something new. Esther’s world is one where AI is ubiquitous, expectations are higher, and change is faster than ever. I have spent the better part of 2025 developing this new narrative to help leaders make sense of the shift. I haven’t been this excited about a keynote in a long time. I gave a sneak peek of “Are You Ready for Esther?” last week in Perth, Western Australia, and the response was overwhelming. People are eager for a hopeful, strategic story about AI – one that goes beyond the hype and fear to focus on how we navigate the opportunities and challenges ahead.

In the coming months, I’ll be sharing the Esther story with organizations across the globe, helping teams to reframe their thinking around AI and to find their footing in this new landscape.

Sharing the AI Native Story as St John WA Congress, Aug 16th 2025

As an executive or business leader, now is the time to engage. The AI wave is here; it’s big, and it’s only getting bigger. The competitiveness of your organization in the next decade will, in large part, be determined by how you adapt to and leverage AI-driven norms. My goal with the AI Natives narrative is to spark the kind of conversations that lead to action – whether it’s identifying an AI opportunity that was previously overlooked, reimagining a customer experience with AI at the core, or putting guardrails in place to use AI responsibly at scale.

Are you ready? I encourage forward-thinking leaders to reach out, ask questions, and even challenge the ideas I’ve shared. Let’s talk about what AI Natives mean for your strategy, your culture, and your future. I’m genuinely excited to collaborate with organizations that want to embrace AI to accelerate their competitive advantage. Together, we can ensure that we’re not just keeping up with Esther’s generation, but empowering and delighting them. The tools are here; the momentum is here. Now it’s up to us to lead boldly and wisely in the era of AI Natives.

Ready or not, the future is knocking – and it sounds a lot like Esther. 🚀

Sources:

ChatGPT adoption and usage stats reuters.com, demandsage.com;

Bill Gates on AI vs. Internet reuters.com;

AI’s projected impact bostonproducts.org;

Public sector AI benefits bcg.com;

Consumer personalization expectations mckinsey.com;

Employee AI readiness mckinsey.com;

Developers using AI assistants weforum.org;

Shadow AI usage and risks ibm.com.