From expert systems to AI-wise

First time I got excited about AI, I was in high school. That was 1985! The craze was “expert systems”: programs that mimicked human expertise with a knowledge base and if-then rules. Being a bit more delusional than today, I tried to build one on genetics for my senior-year biology class.

Fast forward to 2023 and the rabbit hole of LLMs. Since then I’ve been on a non-stop curve of learning, implementing and sharing the benefits (and perils) of using AI to free us from energy-draining work, amplify our creative output and grow the bottom line.

As AI-enabled and AI-first businesses become the goal for many founders and business leaders, I believe it’s even more critical to become what I’ve come to call AI-wise.

How can you use AI to move toward the business and life you truly want, in ways that make strategic and practical sense, while amplifying what sets you apart and makes you feel alive?

This is a question that drives my work: helping owners and their teams apply judgment, taste, true creativity, and human connection around AI.

A few of the chapters that shaped my AI-wise approach to consulting on AI strategy and adoption:

1. Age 19

   Flying to Cupertino with my business partner to present software we had built to Apple’s VP of Technology.

2. Age 22

   From code to graphic design, founding Digital Designs, my first agency of my own.

3. 1994

   Starting a career as a corporate facilitator, training enterprise clients in creative thinking, accelerated learning and team building.

4. 1999

   Co-founding an internet portal, raising a seed round, and closing it in the dot-com crash.

5. 2003

   Launching a decade-long career as an international keynote speaker on mindset and productivity, and writing two books.

6. 2010

   Behind the curtain of the online businesses my wife and I run, automating and optimizing the heck out of every process.

7. 2015

   CPO of a B2B SaaS startup building branded community apps.

8. Most recently

   VP at a mid-sized consumer company in more than 30 countries, leading the teams behind AI-driven engagement and retention platforms.

Through these chapters runs a common thread: a calling to evolve in how consciously and from which perspective I engage with my experiences, challenges and opportunities.

AI, growing as fast as it is today, calls on us to choose, wisely or at least not too foolishly, how we engage with it. That choice will decide what AI amplifies, and whether we thrive with it or collapse.

It’s quite a challenge. With AI, it’s easy to let convenience win over judgment. I know. What you’re reading is my attempt to correct what I fell into: letting AI write my About. My wife called me on it. Ouch. So this is me, rerouting and walking my talk in real time.

Now, as I lead DynAmIc, I help owners get clear on where AI makes sense, strategically and operationally, and above all, how to grow AI-wise.

Leo AlcaláFounder, DynAmIc