What Should We Let AI Do?

There are many concepts in AI — and most people simply don't have the time to learn them all.

Some feel overwhelmed by it. Some are confused by the terminology. And some are already being asked to make important business decisions about AI with only a limited understanding of how it works.

I wondered whether there was a different way to explain AI: non-technically, through conversations set in situations that businesspeople would recognise.

Not another text-heavy AI book. Not a collection of definitions. And not a series of short explanations that leave you knowing the terminology without really understanding the ideas.

So I tried comic strips.

Why comics? Because I wanted something easier to engage with than another text-heavy AI book, but with enough room to explore an idea properly rather than reduce it to a quick soundbite. Conversations and pictures seemed a natural way to make difficult ideas more approachable without making them simplistic.

I began having long conversations with AI — putting myself in the position of a learner, asking questions, probing the answers, and following one question with another. But I brought something else to those conversations: some forty years of working with businesses, people, technology and the decisions organisations have to make.

The questions soon moved beyond “How does AI work?” to “What does this mean in the real world?” Those conversations became the basis for this book.

AI can write. Analyse. Search. Code. Advise. Even take actions and make decisions.

But perhaps the most important question isn't “What can AI do?”

It is: “What should we let AI do?”